Methodist pastor. The first important Finnish Methodist in Duluth was Matti Lehtonen, of whom mention has been made previously. He rented a three-story building on Lake Avenue for the congregation: downstairs was a reading room; above that the church and Sunday School rooms; on the third floor, a dining room. (Mention will be made in subsequent pages of Lehtonen's newspaper and publishing activities.)

The Unitarians came into the picture briefly, in connection with Risto Lappala, who came to Duluth in 1908. They were preceded on the scene by the Finnish Baptists, for a FinnishSwedish group was active as early as 1904 and was known as the Finska Ebenezer Church, and one of its early pastors was H. M. Myhrman (from 1914.) In 1916 the congregation had 79 members, and there were two Sunday Schools, with 80 pupils and 12 teachers. Two years later Finnish-language services were introduced, with F. E. Berglund as pastor: he lived in Poplar, Wisconsin, but visited Duluth to carry on the work among the 95 members credited to it. In later years activity has gradually declined. Duluth was host, in 1910, to the last all-American Finnish Baptist annual meeting.

Although theosophy does not qualify as a religion, it should be mentioned that at one time that movement had some supporters among the Finns in Duluth. Their extensive publications will be cited in future pages.

The Swedish-Finns and their Religious Activity: The religious work of the Swedish-Finns in this area got its start in West Duluth at a meeting held in November 1897. Herman Johnson sat as chairman at the meeting and Andrew Anderson as secretary. Although documents of that first meeting are no longer available, one Matt Simonson who was present at the meeting has stated in an interview that he, together with John Erickson, Erik Johnson, Alfred Ledin and Matt Sven went to see a lawyer, John Jensvold, for help in drawing up a legal document to establish a church. This took place in 1898, much to the satisfaction of these SwedishFinns who had long wished a church of their own - and who discovered only some time later that Jensvold had drawn up the papers to make them an affiliate of the American Norwegian Lutheran synod!

The newly organized congregation held its services at first in a small wooden church purchased from the Norwegians, and the first pastor of their church was Erik Johnson-Ryes, and the membership totalled 61. However, it was not until after 1905 that activity began to increase, after the church had cleared up

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