was apt to be the place where the others stayed, sleeping on straw piled on the floor, with one's coat folded together for a pillow. The nearest neighbors then were Indians, though a few Germans had also settled down on land between Midway and Duluth; later, a few Swedes and Poles also came. The first white child to be born in Midway, on 5 January 1874, was Carl William Hendrickson, although the Kytömäki's were in time to have 10 children in all. Gradually the forests were pushed back, the cleared fields
made larger. Kytömäki began to keep cows, too, and by 1884 he had some 20 head of cattle. Then came sheep, goats and poultry; horses a few years later. Hay was harvested first along the river banks and from forest clearings, and along the cleared strips
along the farm border lines which had been cleared for "security reasons." In the spring, new fields were cleared, and stumps were burned. Life followed the familiar pattern of farm life in Finland.

The women baked sour bread, flat round loaves with a hole in the middle, and the loaves were strung on poles suspended below the ceiling. At slaughtering time blood sausage was made, enough for several days. Hides were tanned at home, with the help of alder bark and sap from the oak, and soap and tar were made at home, too. The tar was useful for treating shoes, and mixed with pine resin and pitch oil it made a fine medicine.

In 1893, there were 190 inhabitants in Fond du Lac.2 When the name was changed to Midway and a township organized, Kytömäki became one of the three selectmen. The first school in the area had been in John Berg's house, about 3 miles beyond Hendrickson's farm, but later there were four schools in all. The first preacher, of the Laestadian faith, was Juho Drufva, and the meetings were usually held at Kytömäki's farm. A cemetery was

2. Duluth and St. Louis County, Minnesota. Their Story and People. By American Historical Society. Chicago, Ill. and New York, 1921. Vol II, p. 706

Midway's Finnish Pioneer Memorial on the
lawn of the old Hendrickson homestead.
Standing by the memorial are Hilja and
Fred Hendrickson.

347