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| Finnish Apostolic Lutheran church in Calumet in the beginning of 20th century. |
The oldest Lutheran congregation founded by Finnish immigrants in the USA is Finnish Apostolic Lutheran Congregation in Calumet, Michigan. It was organized in 1872 and
legalized next year with the name
Solomon Kortiniemi Lutheran Society. The peculiar name is due to its first pastor. In the end of 1870's name was changed to the Finnish Apostolic Lutheran. This congregation was the largest Finnish American Lutheran congregation in America
from the 1870's to the 1890's. Lots of Finnish American history is hidden in church books and minutes of this congregation. But sadly, their archives are not open for researchers. I've tried to find other paths to examine this community. I have found lots of congregational information in Calumet-based Amerikan Suomalainen Lehti. The majority of shareholders in this weekly Finnish newspaper were Apostolic Lutherans. The first fruits of this labor are now freely available for everyone interested. I've started with the year 1879.
HERE you will find statistics compiled by me. It includes births, deaths, marriages and membership statistics.
Ps.
Years 1880, 1881 and 1882 are now completed. Links to those statistics are below.
Year (1880) is now completed and will be found
HERE.
And the statistics for the year 1881 is now on
THIS PAGE.
And for the year 1882 on
THIS PAGE
And the year 1883 is now completed and is
HERE
Some of the earliest documents of the Solomon Kortiniemi Lutheran Socitey are now scanned:
Articles of Association and in Certificate of Incorporation
List of founding members
Name changed to the Finnish Apostolic Lutheran Congregation in 1879
wow...
VastaaPoistaThis is fantastic work. Are you still working on other years. My great grandparents and grandparents were married in this church. Their children were all baptized there. Frans Laakso and Eva Matto were married in 1902 and grandparents, Frans Laakso and Florence Sylvia Koski were married in 1929. Would love to be able to get any info I can. Diane
VastaaPoistaI was raised in that cult. More than a few molested kids the group keeps quiet in an effort to "never bring shame" to the group. They are already despised by the bulk of the county so they know if any reason ever got out they would be looked at real hard on the state welfare fraud they train many new couples on how to commit. I've had 3 cousins commit suicide over that covered up melesting garbage. Not really a steller group , handful of years back a member was sentenced to years in a Canadian prison for raping underage girls and a group of this fine folks went to Canada to shout at the girls and yell slurs. Real Jesus like of them. Most of the next generation has already left the church as I did and after the old folks finish dying many still hanging on to keep their parents happy will be gone as well. Soon enough it will be maybe 20 -30 families endlesssly interbreeding. That is how this group got the rampant death of newborn and still born. Can't keep mixing the same gene pools , nature get's at ya if you do that.
VastaaPoista