Maliniemi as additional board members. John Mattson was to serve as a sort of intermediary, correspondent, and chaplain giving the opening prayer at meetings. At the time of the founding there were 20 members, but every month new members were added. The first woman to join was Hilda Juusola, who entered as a transfer member, having already belonged to the Ely

Valontuote Temperance Society Hall in Virginia.

temperance society, and she was soon followed by 5 other women and by large numbers of men. The maximum membership, 372, was not reached until a decade later.

Meetings were first held at Conrad Mattson's home, for which he was paid $8 per month rent, and then Gust Gustafson's hall was rented at a slightly lower figure. When the society lost all its property and its meetingplaces in the first Virginia fire, the society began again, while the ashes were still smouldering, to

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