I said, 'Goodbye, Sunny, I guess I have to go home now.' To my horror she replied to me angrily, 'Don't you call me Sunny. You're a dirty Finn, you must call me Kathleen.'

"I was left speechless with humiliation after this unexpected retort. I went home, bitter and depressed, wondering what really was the matter with Finns and why I had been born one . . .

"I remember how a Finnish girl, whose name was Sirkka, used to be teased in school. Somehow or other the rest of the children had found out that sirkka derived from heinäsirkka, meaning grasshopper, and so that is what they sarcastically called her from that time on, Grasshopper. Impi became Imp, Tyyne became Tiny, Tellervo became Telephone. You may be smiling, as I am now, at these childish cruelties, but to those children whose names were twisted about and laughed at it was no joking matter. Some were so hurt by it that they anglicized their names whenever possible. It must be noted that these same Finnish children, growing up and becoming parents, gave their own children English names. Among their children you will not find any named Toivo, Impi or Lempi. And considering the situation, they can hardly be

blamed for it."

However, there were Finns in Brainerd, of course, and their communal activities began with their churches. The Evangelical Lutheran congregation of St. John was established in 1889, with 28 members. The highest membership was reached in 1915, with 136 members, and after a drop to 34 in 1945 there was a slight increase to 37 in 1953. For twenty years the services were held at the homes of members, in various halls, or at the Norwegian Lutheran church, until the congregation got a building of its own. Pastors have been J. K. Nikander, H. Sarvela, K. Varmavuori (Kustaa Sahlberg), D. Samanen, A. Karhu, O. Mäki, A. Karlin, T. Kantonen, V. Ranta, F. Koski, E. Tuori, J. F. Saarinen, Jalkanen, Hagelberg and A. Korhonen. The settlements of Finlayson and Kettle River, which formerly belonged to the Brainerd pastorate, established independent churches in 1940. Soon after the founding of the first congregation in Brainerd, a National Lutheran Church was established in 1891. In this church, which J. Huuskonen and E. V. Niemi have served as pastors, there were 50 members in 1935, and 21 in 1947. There has also been an Apostolic Lutheran Church in the city, closely allied with its opposite number in New York Mills. A temperance society was established in 1889, and a Finnish Socialist group in 1906, with 40 members at the end of its first year.

During the Finnish Winter War there was a Finnish relief committee active in Brainerd, with Otto Heikkinen as chairman.

Cuyuna Iron Range

At first it had seemed as if Crow Wing County had played its role to an end as far as the Finns were concerned when work on the railroads was finished and when the farming lands of

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