Brad Tennant explores ethnic community building in the late 1800s and early 1900s. New immigrants tended to settle together based on their ethnicities, and for many, the church became a central space to gather and create a new community. In Brown County, this connection led to the listing of four churches—Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Welsh—on the National Register of Historic Places. Tennant is a professor of history at Presentation College in Aberdeen.
Image to the left is of a picnic at the Savo Township Finnish Lutheran Church.