his wife, as well as the Lahti and Bogema families were present." This group of Finns formed an Apostolic Lutheran congregation, which was occasionally visited by pastors who would come for a week's stay at some member's home; the collection basket money was given to him to defray his expenses, but the Finns were so poor and there were so few of them that most of the costs were defrayed by the Cokato church. John Takkinen also visited Franklin, and in addition to conducting services he also checked the literacy of the parish members. 12

Later, when the John P. Marttala mentioned above moved to Franklin, he became the first regular preacher of this small congregation. In the Apostolic Lutheran church, preachers were frequently lay members who did a busy week's work earning a living, as did Marttala on his farm, and on Sundays he held meetings. He was succeeded by Johan Oskar Isackson in 1878, at which time all the members helped build a church for their congregation.

In 1880 a woman named Angelica Charlotta Jokela arrived in the community. 13 She was, in fact, the daughter of Lars Levi Laestadius himself, born in Swedish Lapland in 1842. With her arrival she brought a resurgence of her father's credo at its purest, and she did not hesitate to remind the local community if they strayed from it. Her only child died young, and she herself died on 19 September 1900; a monument erected by friends marks the grave of this descendant of the `Apostle of the North' in the first permanent Finnish settlement in Minnesota.

From 1902 until his death in 1915, Isaac W. Rovainen served as elder of the Apostolic Lutheran church of Franklin. 14 Those few Finns in Franklin who did not belong to this church found themselves in a very isolated position as far as religion was concerned, although they were occasionally visited by pastors, among them the Reverend S. Ilmonen, who utilized his visits to gather material for his books on the history of the Finns in America.

On the Fourth of July in 1883, the Franklin Finns held their first big patriotic celebration, with some forty families, or more than 200 persons in all, taking part. The houses showed flying flags, and there were speeches, a big dinner for all, and a

11. Curtis-Wedge, op. cit., p. 336.

2. The religious groupings of the Minnesota Finns and their leading personalities

will be taken up as a whole subsequently. 13. Barberg, op. cit.

14. Barberg, op cit.

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