Pulli resigned in February 1955, Wasastjerna took over the assignment of editing and writing this history. A drive was made to collect as much material as possible from all available sources, and libraries and newspaper files, and in the summer of 1955, when Wasastjerna returned to Finland, he continued his work from there, did more research in the extensive Finnish archives, and completed this assignment.

Before the history was completed, four members of the MFAHS whose dream it had been to see this work materialize, were dead: Yrjö Halonen, Amanda Wuopio, Carl Parta and Erland Rustari The special history committee, after 1955, was made up of Alex Kyyhkynen, chairman, and Lauri Lemberg, Arne Halonen, A. A. Parviainen, Toivo Merisalo, Gust Aakula and Edith Koivisto. The completion of the history, in the Finnish language, did not mean that the Society had fulfilled all the goals it had set for itself. New aims were formulated, among them, as first and most important, the translation of the work into English.

Short-lived Groups in Duluth: There have been many kinds of organizations among the Finnish-Americans, some of them more or less permanent, others much less so. The oldest of the organizations which remained short-lived was without doubt the Finnish Cultural Society, which arranged evening socials and then with the proceeds purchased books from Finland; it is possible that this Duluth society formed the earliest Finnish-American lending library, for it was established in 1881.17

During World War I, there was established in Duluth a Finnish Society (Suomi Seura) which can be regarded as a nationalistic group. In the spring of 1914, the society's chorus, some 20 voices, used to hold its rehearsals in the Odd Fellows' Hall. However, interest in the society was but temporary, for at the end of the same year the Päivälehti reported that "the Suomi Seura has been short of breath for some time now. Will it receive an honorable burial?" The burial soon followed.

Immediately following the war, there was in Duluth a women's chorus, "The Blue Maids," with Vera Tiura-Skyttä as musical director. The chorus had but the briefest of existence.

Then came the 1930s, a period of economic depression, which led directly to the founding of at least two Finnish groups. The first of these was the American-Finnish Civic Club of Duluth, started in 1930, but since the society was not really of Duluth but more specifically belonged to the mining area, it will be

17. Ilmonen, op. cit. I, p. 27

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