husband, Matti Erkkilä, served as assistant in this Alango-Field church. Since the pastor received only $2 for each visit he made, and since there were no other expenses, money was gradually accumulated for a building fund. Realization of the project came closer when the Virginia Rainy Lake Company made the gift of two acres of land on the corner of the Itasca and Samuelson road and the American Unitarian Church made a loan of $600. The building was finished in the autumn of 1919 and in 1933 received an addition when a former schoolhouse was bought and moved to adjoin the original building. In 1949, membership was 92, including 11 of the original members. Chairman of the church have been Fred Leinonen, Mrs. A. Johnson, Mrs. O. Heikkinen, John Kajaanus, Peter Ongalo, Oscar Heikkinen, Walfred Pajari, Mrs. W. Johnson and Emil Rautiola.

The more social needs of the local Finns were met by the temperance society, Apilanlehti (Cloverleaf), established in September 1914, with Erick Anttila and John Porthan from Ely on the scene to assist in the ceremonies and to welcome the society into membership in the Temperance Brotherhood. The first officers of the new society were William Ongalo, chairman; John Rintala, vice-chairman; Carl Simonson, secretary; Gust Gustafson, treasurer; Henry Saari, recorder; Aino Saari, matron; Erick Keiski, sergeant-at-arms. In addition, various committees were also appointed and activities promptly begun, but when it proved too difficult to procure premises suitable for the club's purposes, enthusiasm just as swiftly subsided, and the society died altogether in 1918, dividing its cash on hand into gifts for the Minnesota Temperance League and the two local churches.

Prohibition, perversely, brought the society to life once more. The local boys who had gone off to war returned as less innocent men, and some of the older generation had also begun to visit the cities to buy an occasional bottle, so that when a group of members of the Valon Tuote society from Virginia paid a visit to Alango in 1930 they were able to get the local Apilanlehti to its feet again. Meetings were held at the Rice River hall, monthly coffee parties were held, temperance lectures sponsored, a dramatics program initiated, a summer festival put on, the hall purchased with a loan granted by Valon Tuote. Within two years the debts were paid off, but once that happened, interest immediately began to flag and very soon absolutely nothing was going on at the hall. Attempts to rent it out came to nothing, and finally the building was sold to Alma Matson for $175. The

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