The Onnen Toivo ('Hope for Happiness') Temperance Society was founded in 1896 by a group of 21 persons, and it followed the pattern of other such societies in the state, with individual societies being members of a central Temperance League. John Ojanperä was elected the first chairman of Onnen Toivo, which in its early phases had an average of 30 to 40 persons attending its meetings. And like the churches, the temperance society was also soon involved in plans for a building of its own, for meetings and socials.

The Finnish temperance halls in Minnesota have generally been quite modest buildings, usually two-story frame structures. The `auditorium' itself was the important room, of course, and was usually built with a full-width stage at one end, with the permanent backdrop of the stage usually painted with a Finnish landscape scene. The level floor generally had rows of folding chairs, and after an evening's program was over, the audience would drink coffee in an adjoining room while the chairs in the hall were being cleared away for the dancing to follow.

Within the framework of the temperance societies there were frequently auxiliary groups to which the members could belong a dramatic group, a band, sports groups. The Cokato society, for instance, gave birth to an athletic club in 1910, for both men and women, for which additional dues were collected, for "practising gymnastics, wrestling and other sports," with the club building and facilities at their disposal when not required for other use, "as often as was seen advisable, except on Sundays."

With church and social activities conducted in Finnish, the Finns were still not satisfied that their children were learning enough of the Finnish language. When they reached school age they went to public schools - there were two one-room grammar school in early Cokato, the Molstersteigen and the Cochrane schools - where the instruction was, of course, in English. On their own (this was in the 1880s) the Finns set out to find a Finnish teacher, too, because "it has been determined proper that the children should also speak their mother tongue." A school actually was started, with a succession of teachers holding classes, on Saturdays and during summer vacations, and with the children eager enough to attend because it was a way to escape chores at home or on the farm. This still did not halt their gradual Americanization, of course, and even back in the 1880s new immigrants coming from Finland were bewildered to hear nothing but English being spoken on the streets of Cokato.

It was a sign of the role the Finns were beginning to play in public life. Isak Buda already served as postmaster and notary

106