fifty years later, in 1930, when Hagel was 84 and pastor of the congregation, there was a huge service in New York Mills, with 8,000 worshippers, with representatives present from the Church of Finland, the Suomi Synod and the government of Finland.

When the congregation was legalized in 1898, there were 85 families as members; a half century later, the membership was 952. The first church, built in 1882, had to be replaced in 1902 by a larger one, big enough for 800 worshippers. And when that building was moved from the forest glade where it had been built, and relocated nearer the center of the village, to be more readily accessible, the building was enlarged once more.

Pastors of the Apostolic Lutheran church have been M a t t i Ronkainen, one of the earliest settlers in the region; John Mursu, who in his pastorate of almost 20 years baptized 536 children, married 78 couples, buried 236 dead; Israel Hagel, who had first preached in New York Mills in 1877 and who served as pastor from 1911 to 1932; A. Wirkkala; Walter Mursu and George Wilson. There were many visiting pastors, of course, and lay preachers as well, the latter including Peter Raattamaa, son of a famous Laestadian preacher of Northern Finland.

If the Apostolic Lutherans were the first to be in New York Mills, adherents of the Evangelical Lutheran church were not far behind. Their numbers grew rapidly, too, and a visiting pastor held the first service for them in 1883. From the organizational point of view, they did not establish their congregation, the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran church, until 1892, when a church was also built. A new church was built after World War II, with voluntary labor by the parishioners playing a major role in the construction. In 1954, the congregation had 375 members, including families and their children.

The Trinity congregation remained independent until 1924, when it joined the National Church. Almost thirty years before

New York Mills Apostolic Lutheran Church.

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