More articles on Fort Bragg Finns: Founding and building the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church

The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church in Fort Bragg has changes its name to the Trinity Lutheran Church

The first Finn permanently moved to the Fort Bragg region, Mendocino count, in California as early as 1869 and the other early settlers in 1877. In the beginning of 1880s the Finnish population in the area increased rapidly. The Finnish immigrants came to Fort Bragg area because of the employment available in the logging, lumbering and fishing operations, trades they knew from the “old country”. Many members of the Fort Bragg Finnish community felt a need for a church where they could worship in their native language. The Finnish religious heritage was primarily Lutheran and early group of Finns formed al Lutheran congregation on February 17, 1889. The fifteen charter members adopted the name Finland Evangelist Lutheran Church. “Evangelist” was a mistranslation of the Finnish word “evankelis”. Notes from the minutes of this initial meeting establish the identity of founders:

At this first meeting we established and named the church with 15 members. Council members were elected by voice vote
Chairman: John Barquist
Secretary: Johan Petter Westerberg
Treasurer: Johan Guest
Board members: Johan Jensen, Herman Barquist/Berkovitz, Jacob Nyy, Isak Markkula, Jacob Backman (Haiman in Amerikan Suomalainen Lehti and in the original minutes), Peter Johanson (missing in Amerikan Suomalainen Lehti).
We agreed that the name shall be Suomalainen Evankelis-Lutherilainen Seurakunta and it shall be changed unless the whole congregation agrees. Members shall be morally upright and they shall not be saloon keepers.

The Finland Lutheran Evangelist Church' churchbook.

At the same meeting a lot was secured at the southeast corner of Corry Street and Redwood Avenue.  In  the next meeting in March plans were underway for the construction of a church building and was decided to clear the Church lot. At the meeting on April 28, 1889, a list was prepared for sign-ups for building funds. On June 30, 1889, the architect’s drawings were approved and a loan for $300 was negotiated to purchase lumber. At this point, however, the Mill (Fort Bragg Redwood Company) donated the necessary lumber, first-cut redwood timber which was being harvested at that time.

Finnish Evangelical Lutheran church in Fort Bragg

Following articles were published in the local Advocate-News:

On July 19, 1889:
Lumber is being hauled this week for the building of a Finland Lutheran Church on Redwood Avenue. It will be 30x50 feet and the top of the steeple, 75 feet from the ground.

On July 17, 1889:
New Church
The new Finland Lutheran Church is well under way and everything points to a neat house of worship. Mr. Barqvist desires to return thanks to those who donated toward the project: Fort Bragg Redwood Co $50, C. L. Burbeck $5, H. Houston $2,50, T. L. Johnson $10, H. A. Weller $5, G. W. Perkins $2,50, Geo Berryhill $1,50, Eri Huggins $5, C. R. Johnson $10, Marks & Leiser gave a keg of nails, Julius Wintzer $5, F. Kammerer $1,50, G. A. Johnson $1, Bucholtz Bros. $5, A .A. Lord $2,50, A. F. Carmichael $2,50, H. R. Danders $2, R. Glanders $1,50, A. C. Kimball $1, O. R. Johnson $25, A. B. Cambell $1, J. Barqvist $10, H. Barqvist $5, A. Wilson $5, Matti Pelta (=Pelto?) $10, J. Martin $3, J. Soderman $10, J. P. Westerberg $5, Y. Hyman $5, Jacob Nyy $5, This does not complete the list.

On August 28, 1889:
Work on the Finn Church has stopped for want of funds. This little edifice will present a neat appearance when completed.

On September 18, 1889
The following people are new contributors to the building fund of the Finland Lutheran Church: Peter Peterson $5, F. A. Whipple $5, T. Murray $5, Kaarl J. Jakobson $5, Eza Terraien $6, Herman Berkamtje (=Barqvist?) $6, J. Soderman $4, J.A. Diel $1.

The Finnish Newspaper wrote in the beginning of June, 1890,
that the Finnish Church in Fort Bragg was nearly completed.
Tampereen Sanomat June 4, 1890.

Construction of the building started in September 1889 and in the end of the same year the structure was roofed and closed in enough to hold regular services. The building was finished in the Summer 1890. It was painted both inside and outside, the altar, pulpit and pews were completed, too. The church was built of redwood and fir with clapboard siding on the exterior. There were four Gothic windows on the north side as well as on the south side of the church.

The membership of the congregation grew rapidly. As early as in the end of the foundation year it was counted to rise over one hundred, including children. In the end of the second year the membership had risen to two hundred. Membership has not thereafter at any point increased to enlarge. The church members lived in addition to Fort Bragg in Noyo Hill, Noyo, Caspar, Mendocino, Albion and Comptche. Some live up to thirty miles from the Fort Bragg.

The price of an America ticket in 1884

Amerikan Suomalainen Lehti (American Finnish
Journal), September 26, 1884

Some months ago, I published a description of an immigrant's journey from Europe across the Atlantic Ocean to Copper Country in Michigan. Here's some additional info related to that topic. Shipping companies competed passionately for these passengers with their ads, which were a very important source of income for these small immigrant newspapers. It is likely that without these ads the usually very short life span of immigrant newspapers would have been but a bud. Some of the shipping companies announced their fares in advertising, from departing ports to the key destinations in the "New World". As examples, I picked two shipping company Ads from Amerikan Suomalainen Lehti (American Finnish Journal) in late September 1884 and transformed it to today's (2016) price level. The cost of travel from Finland to Stockholm, Gothenburg or Trondheim should be added to 1884 prices, of course.

The Steamboat Line Companies' ticket prices in 1884 are roughly on the same level as today's lowest air ticket prices. So, the price of crossing the Atlantic has been preserved relatively almost the same for over a hundred years. On the other hand, traveling from a Finnish port to the "Finnish regions" in the central parts of the United States took about two weeks while it takes up to half a day now.

The ticket price of American line from Gothenburg or from Trondheim was only $ 18. When we change it to the price of the day, the cost of a journey accumulates to $ 424. A trip from Stockholm to Philadelphia was priced at $ 21, that is in today's money $ 494. If you bought a ticket from Stockholm to Hancock, the price was already $ 37, which is the equivalent of $ 871 in 2016. If you wanted to travel from Stockholm to one of Finns' favorite places in Minnesota, New York Mills, the price already amounted $ 39.70. It makes $ 934, in the 2016 value.

Dominion Line's price level seems to have been more favorable. You could reach Quebec from all Scandinavian ports for 16 dollars or 376 2016 dollars. If you paid $ 27 ($ 635 in today's money), you could reach Chicago. If the lower prices were due to the Dominion line's modestly contents of the package, or only a stricter pricing, I can’t yet tell on the grounds of the source material.

“To taste the white bread.”

The first Finnish Church in Minneapolis  was erected by Apostolic Lutherans. Members standing in front of the new church in 1902. In this picture might be Mr. Peter Saarenpaa, too.

The story of Finnish immigrant in Minneapolis. This interview was made by Alfred Backman in February, 1939.
 

Peter Saarenpaa’s interview

At the age of 19 Peter Saarenpaa, 242 Humboldt Avenue N., came to Minneapolis August 11, 1871 (should be 1878), from Tornionjoki, Province of Oulu, Finland. Peter say that, when he stepped off the train at the old Milwaukee depot 61 years ago, the Mississippi River seemed to him to be the grandest sight he had ever beheld, particulary that part where the huge sheet of water leaped over the rocks at St. Anthony Falls.

The Minneapolis Journal, August 15, 1902

Peter’s father had preceded the family by for years, arriving in Minnesota in 1873. For two years he worked in the Pine City lumber camps, saving passage money for his family. Working in Finland he could never have hoped to accumulate the sum necessary to bring them to this country. Wages for agricultural common laborers like Peter’s father amounted to only 170 marks a year, approximately $ 34 in American money. Worse still, wages for women amounted to only half what was paid to men. Asked why he wished to come to America, Mr. Saarenpaa answered: “To taste the white bread.”

(Minneapolis) Star Tribune, January 15, !904

Anderson Store in Minneapolis Finntown

Finnish Apostolic Lutheran Church at Humboldt Avenue North in the 1920s

The former Apostolic Lutheran Church some years ago,
now a private building.

Salted fish, “piimää” (soured milk), and the hard, heavy, black bread, combined in famine times with pounded straw, provided the Finnish agricultural workers, or crofters, the Saarenpaa family lived in a state approximating serfdom, working out the rent for their small tract of land by laboring a specified number of days on the estate of the landlord. Naturally, when Peter’s father returned to this native land with stories of white bread every, and lumber camp food that far surpassed the best diet that the poor Finnish worker had ever dreamed of, and of wages that in one year amounted to more than the Finnish worker could earn in a dozen or more years, an exodus of agricultural workers took place.

Upon arriving in Minneapolis in 1878, both father and son found employment with the Milwaukee Railroad as car cleaners, receiving $40 per month for a ten-hour day and a seven-day week. Mr. Saarenpaa remarked that it had not been for the confining hours he would have been able to supplement the family diet considerably by hunting game in the timberland surrounding the city. Incidentally, hunting licenses were required of any persons wishing to game in adjoining forests. The father worked for the Milwaukee Railroad until his death in 1904. Peter eventually learned to be a carpenter, and has sice worked at that trade, making it his regular occupation. In connection with his railroad work Mr. Saarenpaa spoke of having lived at a Finnish boarding house, called Wicksteads and Hermansons, at Washington Avenue and Second Street N. paying fifty cents per day for room, board and washing.

Like his father Peter devoutly followed the teachings of the Apostolic Lutheran Church and took an active part in it organization in North Minneapolis. Prior to 1895 meetings were held in a store building at Fourth Avenue and Main Street N.E. In 1895 Isaac Putas (Pudas) and Gustav Bergstadt, trustees, incorporated the Apostolic Lutheran Church at the Hennepin County Court House. It was the first Finnish Church in Minneapolis. In 1902 a church was erected at 237 Humboldt Avenue N., where services have been held regularly for 36 years. It was the first Finnish organization in this city- Mr Estenson (Torsten Estensen?), a Norwegian-Finn, who arrived in Minneapolis in 1880, performed all religious functions for the Finns in their own tongue during the years 1887 – 1888. Occasional services were held from time-to-time by Reverend Antti Wittikko-Huhta, who came to Minneapolis from Hancock, Michigan, whre he preached as an ordained minister of the Apostolic Lutheran Church as early as 1869.

The Saarenpaa family were, for 54 years, subscribers to America’s first weekly newspaper (actually, it was fifth, but the first one in Minnesota), the Uusi Kotimaa (New Homeland), established in Minneapolis by I.W Lahde in 1880 at 521 Third Street N. The paper was moved to New York Mills in 1884, where it continued publication until 1934, being purchased in that year by the Finnish Federation and moved to Superior, Wisconsin.