this, however, some of its members resigned and established the St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran church, which joined the Suomi Synod. Holding its services first at the Trinity church, then in the hall of the farmers' association, and finally in the Congregational church, plans were made to build a church, and land had already been purchased for it, when it had the opportunity to purchase the local Catholic church, which had become private property though a mortgage foreclosure. This church was remodelled and dedicated in 1916. In 1953, St. Peter's had 253 members, in a large parish embracing New York Mills, Brainerd, Paddock, Crosby and Aitkin, although earlier even more territory had been included.

Temperance work: The earliest temperance society, given the name Kilpi (Shield) had August and Felix Nylund as its founding members. It joined the Scandinavian league of temperance societies, but a second local society, Miekka (Sword) joined the Finnish league in 1892. At a later period, New York Mills has not had private liquor stores or bars but has had a community controlled liquor store.

Finnish newspapers : If temperance societies in New York Mills remained rather sketchy in history, there was a further contribution to the cause, however, in the form of a temperance newspaper. The Raittiuslehti began its career in New York Mills in 1892, appearing initially once a month, with the Latin motto mens sana in corpore sano altered to "a sober mind in a sober body," followed by the admonition, "Keep your vow sacred!" Before the year was out, its owners (I. Sillberg and J. H. Jasberg) had given the paper as a gift to the Finnish Veljeys (Brotherhood) Temperance League, and the paper was transferred to West Superior, Wisconsin, where it proceeded to appear twice a month. In 1893 the paper was moved back to New York Mills, and then back to West Superior once more. There the Siirtolainen presses printed it, and a young editor, Adolf Riippa, just arrived from Finland, took charge of it. In 1894 the Siirtolainen moved to New York, New York, and with it went the Raittiuslehti, which settled down in Brooklyn the following year and was henceforth edited by Adolf and Antero Riippa.

With all this roving history in its youth, the Raittiuslehti was not the first Finnish paper to appear in New York Mills, for it had been preceeded by the Uusi Kotimaa, which came there from Minneapolis in 1884. The editor of this paper also began the publication that same year in New York Mills of a monthly literary magazine, Aamu Rusko, which continued to appear until

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