Rock Maple Ridge Workers Association.

The Rock Maple Ridge Workers Association, a branch of the Socialist Party, may have originated in Princeton (Marquette County, Michigan), as indicated by the records, as early as 1908 and in Squaw Creek in 1911. These groups then probably formed the nucleus of the Maple Ridge Workers Association of Maple Ridge Township, which became active in 1912.For a time, there wasn't a Maple Ridge Finnish Socialist Association because the State Socialist Secretary, James Hoogerhyde dropped the local charter from the State Socialist Party in 1914. They were reinstated in May of 1915. At the end of 1916, the Delta County Socialist groups split into two, the more leftist thinking Maple Ridge Workers Association and, apparently, the Finnish Socialist Association.In 1918 the group built and managed a power station until 1929 when the machines were sold. In 1924 they purchased a movie projector and showed silent movies in the Finn Hall until the talkies came in 1933. The Association was also active in sports, orchestra, chorus, and drama with a special emphasis on producing and acting in plays. The group also established a local defense committee. In 1930 some of the Association's members formed a new group, the name of which is not given.Other groups that were associated with or sprang from the Maple Ridge Workers Association were the Rock Cooperative store, the Rock Cooperative Youth League, a farmers group, the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), and a recreation board.