served as business manager and Sigrid Ekroos as assistant. This office became the focal point for the Finnish labor movement in Virginia and remained its center until the split in 1914. At that time Heiskanen was dismissed and replaced by Tyyni Emil Seger, but this now solitary socialist stronghold in a Virginia which had begun to lean toward the IWW was not able to withstand the pressure and had to close down altogether within a few months. The circulation of the Työmies went down appreciably, and where there had once been 321 subscribers in Virginia (and an additional 5 in Franklin) three decades later the local figure had gone down to 37.

Finally, a newspaper named the Minnesotan Uutiset was published in Virginia in 1910-11. However, with the exception of its name, this newspaper had no connection with the similarly titled newspaper published later in New York Mills.

The Kaleva Movement in Virginia: The next organization to appear on the local scene was the Kaleva Order. A men's chapter did not exist there, though, until the Soudan chapter (founded in 1908) was transferred to Virginia in 1948. The Kaleva Ladies, however, were on the scene earlier, having been established in 1911 and then being reactivated in 1937. At first founding this chapter had no local quarters but held its meetings either at the Kaleva building in Eveleth or Gilbert, until this phase came to an end in 1922, when some of the members transferred their membership to these chapters and others left the society altogether. When it was re-established in 1937, it was with 11 women as members and with assistance furnished by the Eveleth chapter. The first public activity this new chapter engaged in was the collection of funds for the 1938 Delaware Tercentenary. At the same time three mountain ash trees were also planted in the municipal park to remind future generations of the Finns who had once lived here. During the war years the chapter participated in Finnish relief work and supported an orphan it had adopted in Finland. Subsequent relief activity was for the Red Cross, for which many members estimated they had devoted as many as 1,000 hours of their time during the war years. Among other things, they translated into English many hundreds of letters from Finnish children who had received aid through the Red Cross. In 1954, the chapter had 54 members.

As for the men, the transfer of the Soudan chapter to Virginia in 1948 meant the infusion of new blood: by 1953, membership had climbed to over 100. In part, at least, this was due to the fact

436