The Finn and the Church

A Story of the Finns and the Church in Spencer and Surrounding Areas

by Jeanne Pakkala Frandsen

During the years 1865 to 1920, many Finnish people came to the United States to make a better life for themselves. Conditions in Finland were not the best, with famine stalking the land in 1696, from 1862 – 1868, and again in 1892 – 1893, and as late as 1903. Even during “normal” times the situation was grave. Agricultural techniques were primitive, and the growing season was short. There was a constant lack of food. In many areas, ground pine-bark was added to the bread dough; otherwise there would not have been enough bread for all.

Another problem was large landowners keeping tenants at their mercy. This feudal-type of land holding system forced many male family members to take their meager inheritance and emigrate.

The political situation in Finland around the turn of the century also gave rise to dissatisfaction. When the Tzar of Russia attempted to Russify Finland, many Finns found the resulting situation so intolerable that they preferred to leave the country. Compulsory military training by Russia was another motivating factor in the emigration of the Finns.

It is interesting to note that the destinations reported by the immigrant Finns at the time of their arrival to the United States between 1899 and 1910 were destined to four states: Michigan, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New York. Those who settled in cities became laborers and domestic servants; those who migrated to the mid-west found work in the iron and copper mines and the timberlands. But to most Finns this was a temporary situation to be endured until they could earn enough money to own their own land, land ownership being dear to the Finn.

Two Finnish land agents in central New York were quick to take advantage of this situation. Farmland was abundant in central New York due to a declining rural population; mid-western immigrant Finns were looking for cheap land. This partly accounts for the settlement of Finns in the rural areas around Spencer, Van Etten and Newfield. My own grandparents, Frank and Helmi Ashlund, and their family of eventually 8 children, settled in Spencer on South Hill in 1915 and in Newfield, Matt and Ida Pakkala with their eventual family of 9 children settled in about 1918.

And so it came to pass that in December of 1913, about fifty Finnish-Americans held a meeting in the little country church at North Van Etten and laid the foundation for the congregation which was to become known as the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church of North Van Etten. Later in 1916 the words “St. John’s” were added to the name thereby making it St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of North Van Etten.

I tried to find out who owned the church at North Van Etten before the Finns came along, but according to Hemmo Huttunen, the minutes of the church meetings don’t say anything about who owned the building. Just “Yankee farmers” were mentioned. Later in the day after talking with Hemmo, I sent this article to Ruth Lampila Gourlay, daughter of Aili and Matt Lampila. She called me that evening and told me that in 1943, 30 years of the North Van Etten Church were celebrated and that Bertha and Rachel Maki had written an article which stated that the church was built by American settlers in the area and incorporated on February 2, 1878. A man named Seaman LaRou gave or sold, it is not clear which, a half acre of land on which to build the church and $1,200 was raised by subscription. Land was also allocated for the cemetery and in 1930, a lot behind the church consisting of one acre was purchased. It was called the Union Free Church of Van Etten and it was stated in their charter that anyone of Christian faith could use the building and it was to be used by the people of the community forever, not just any one group. Upstanding men of the Christian faith were allowed membership and in 1932, membership was extended to women. The first trustees were Wesley Vennel, Benjamin Downs, Orin Norris, Thomas Carpenter, Miles Decker, David Titus and Samuel Norris. Apparently a reporter named Barbara Bell wrote an article in the Elmira Star Gazette in 1963 about the founding of this church.

Affiliation with the Suomi Synod, a general Lutheran body having congregations in the United States and Canada came about in 1916. Itinerant Finnish-speaking pastors served the parish until 1924 when the services of a full-time pastor were obtained. Aili Lampila, in her article entitled “The Finnish Church in North Van Etten,” states that the following members were unanimously elected as members of the first board of trustees: Vice chairmen Jacob Lundy and John Lehtonen, treasurer Hjalmar Nurmi, secretary Otto Maki; secretary-treasurer Alex Knuutila, and to meet the requirements of the state, additional members Herman Kauppinen, Fred Johanson and Isak Peltoniemi. Maybe you are related to some of these dedicated Finns who served the church so long ago.

Aili Lampila writes that a Sunday School was organized in 1915, a Luther League in 1922. A Ladies Aid was active for many years and confirmation classes were conducted. In 1924 the services of a full-time pastor were obtained with the help of the Home Mission Board of the Synod. Rev. Herman Matero became the first resident pastor of the congregation. He served until the end of the following year, after which the Revs. Onni Koski, Waino Ylonen and Frans J. Koski pastored the congregation. The Rev. Frank A. Pelkonen began his pastorate in 1937 and served until 1944. In 1945 a young Sunday School was formed with Bertha Maki, Tillie Laine, Elsie and Mitchell Pakkala, and eventually Fran and Lydia Hargrave and others. I myself was Superintendent of this Sunday School at age 15 (not in 1945!). At one point we had 47 children enrolled in our Sunday School, some being non-Finns in the neighborhood. To this day, those days are remembered with great fondness and nostalgia by everyone who attended there.

According to A. William Hoglund, religion was very important to the church Finns. Because of the traveling distance to North Van Etten, the Spencer Finns readily accepted an offer of a building of their own in Spencer when the Methodist congregation of this village merged with the Baptist congregation to form the Spencer Federated Church. The former Methodist Church edifice in Spencer thus became St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of Spencer in 1934. The same pastor was shared between the North Van Etten and Spencer congregations. Services were alternately held in English and Finnish at the two churches so that on any one Sunday a Finnish service or an English service could be attended. This custom continued until 1956, when the last Finnish speaking pastor, Reuben Ahlskog, left for a Mass City, Michigan congregation. When Pastor Ahlskog began his sermon, he used to say “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever”. I still get a lot of comfort from these words.

Charter members of the Spencer church were Emil Nurmi, Jacob Ahola, Liisa Ahola, Marie Ahola, Harry Mattson, John E. Heikkila, Alma Heikkila, Martin Lehtio, Jacob Olson, Emil Hill, Hilja Hill, Susanna Huhtala and Niilo Koski. The Rev. Frank Pelkonen served the two congregations until 1944.

According to Lydia Mackie’s “A History of the Spencer Finns – Church”, the Rev. Leslie Lurvey next served the two congregations until the end of 1947, followed by the Rev. Reuben Ahlskog who was pastor from 1948 to 1956. After Rev. Ahlskog left it was very difficult to find a bilingual pastor. The Rev. Thomas A. Schultz became the first pastor to hold only English services in the two Lutheran churches. He served from 1958 to 1962 and in 1962, St. John’s merged with St. Paul’s and regular services were discontinued in North Van Etten. I believe today that Sam Savon holds services at this church. I’m not sure if he is a “reverend” but he spoke at my cousin Michael Pakkala’s funeral, and he knows his stuff.

After Rev. Schultz came the Rev. Ernest Lantz, who served until 1969, I believe and then came the then Rev. LaVerne Fillmore. Under Pastor Fillmore’s pastorate, the Finnish church at Spencer was all but destroyed. When the Rev. Jack Bunde took over in the mid-1970s, the attendance was maybe 8 or 10 die-hard Finns and others, my daughter Mary included. Pastor Bunde helped to heal some of the wounds after the Fillmore period, and his late wife Carol played the organ for many years. Rev. Bunde served from 1975 to 2000.

Over the years there have been some significant changes made to the church edifice – part of the steeple was removed in the late 1940s and rest of it was removed in 1955. In the late forties excavation was done underneath the church to make a nice basement, with kitchen and bathroom, for having dinners and Sunday School and other occasions, like wedding receptions even. I remember helping to scrape and stain the pews in the 1950s and I remember that new white birch paneling from Finland was installed over the dark walls and ceiling during that time period.

In the mid-seventies a pipe organ was given to the Lutheran Church by a church on Long Island, the former church home of the Bunces. It took quite a while to get this organ all together but it was finished in 1990. Many of you heard the wonderful concert played just this year by Kent Washburn, and there has been much beautiful music played on this instrument over the years.

With the aging of the congregation came the addition of a ramp, which was constructed by Kevin Ahart, whose mother was a Finn, one of the Tiikkalas. This made the church handicapped accessible for those who needed it. But I’ve seen some of these stubborn Finns climb the stairs rather than give in to the ramp. That’s called “sisu”. In late 2005-early 2006 a lift was installed for handicapped accessibility to the basement.

Again according to Mrs. Mackie, there were other branches of the Lutheran faith in the area. The Finnish National Church (Kansallis Seura) was established and served by the Rev. Pietari Wuori, who settled in Crumtown and held cottage services there. He taught confirmation classes in the Crumtown School during the summer, as well as performed the usual duties of a minister.

In Newfield, West Dryden and other areas there was a sect known as the Laestadians. Lars Levi Laestadius (1800 – 1861) was a clergyman, advocate of sobriety, naturalist, philosopher and founder of a revivalist movement. He was very well educated having completed his matriculation examination at Uppsala University in 1820. Laestadianism is an ecclesiastical revival movement. It has the traits of a protest movement. It has criticized the church and the clergy, and from time to time the church has also sometimes criticized and resisted the movement. Nevertheless, Laestadianism has faithfully stayed with the church. The reasons for this are rooted in doctrine and church history.

My grandparents, Matt and Ida Pakkala, were of this faith. They held church services in their homes. Some of the other people who attended were named Kannus, Ketola and Niemi. I remember going to these services at my grandparents’ home. The women sat in the kitchen with the preacher, the men in the dining room and us kids sat with our uncle Howard Schlick in the living room. Now Howard Schlick was a very imposing man who could, if you misbehaved, make you quake in your shoes. He got to sit in the living room because he was a non-Finn.

The Lutheran Church in Spencer is still holding services, due in my opinion to the “sisu” of people named Efthimiou, Tuomi, Mackie, Riker, Pantle, Neil Smith, House and others who have recently joined. Over the years the church has been served by several different individuals, some of whom were ordained pastors and some not. One person who deserves credit for helping the church get back on its feet is Mr. Maynard Koplin, a deacon from a Lutheran church in the Binghamton area. Today the church is served by a part-time ordained pastor named Rev. Laura Daly and attendance is slowly growing.

I enjoyed writing this report and want to say that I gleaned much information from articles and reports I found written by Aili Lampila, Lydia Mackie and A. William Hoglund. I also want to thank Sarah and Paul Efthimiou for their help with information about the steeple, basement, and other changes and I want to thank Hemmo Huttunen for looking up the minutes of the North Van Etten Church, and I thank Ruth Lampila Gourlay for all the information she gave me as to when the church was built, and by whom.

It was sad in a way, writing this report, because almost all of these people who framed our church heritage are gone, and I feel it’s also a shame that the church is not as well attended as it could be because there are hundreds of Finnish people in this area, descended from our forefathers, who could go and make the church viable again. I don’t belong there any more because I don’t live here but I’ll bet that those active members of the congregation would love to see an influx of new members!

Thank you very much.

From a presentation by the author, at the Finger Lakes Finns Annual Fall Finnish Festival, on September 17, 2006, for the year long Bi-Centennial Celebration of the of the Village of Spencer.

Editor’s note March 2022: The Lutheran congregation was dissolved in Dec. 2021.

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