On a warm Saturday afternoon at Lakeside Cemetery, southwest of Wright, more than 90 offspring and partners of Isaak and Maria Haukkala Walli gathered to celebrate their Finnish ancestors who gave them life. A handsome, new engraved metal plaque bearing both the American and Finnish flags celebrates the cemetery's establishment in 1906 and acknowledges Isaak and Maria's donation of the cemetery land.

Isaak (1854-1918) and Maria (1845-1919) married and had seven children in Wassan Lanni, Finland. Unable to find land to farm in Finland, Isaak migrated alone to the U.S. in 1891 and homesteaded...