Lögberg-Heimskringla - 23.04.1999, Blaðsíða 5

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 23. apríl 1999 • 5
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Marriage Registry, lSVOs. Source: First Lutheran Church, Toronto
Don Gislason
Toronto, ON
On February 6, 1998 the Lögberg-
Heimskringla featured an article about the
“Kinmount Memorial Project, ” to honour a
large group of Icelanders who settled in
Ontario in 1874. Further adventures of
these immigrants will appear in subsequent
issues of the paper. Their passage was on
the S.S. St. Patrick.
What happened to those immigrants
reads like a series of unusual mishaps and
government blundering. They struggled
their way from hard times in Iceland to
sickness, unemployment, and other disas-
ters in Ontario. And then, after a bitterly
cold winter (1875) in Manitoba, they suf-
fered through a terrible smallpox epidemic.
These people were the bulk ofthe 1875
founders of New Iceland on the shores of
Lake Winnipeg: In spite of their personal
trials in Canada, they endured. Their
descendants can also be found scattered
across the United States and worldwide.
Therefore, the Icelandic National
League has decided to erect a memorial
caim in Kinmount to commemorate this ill-
fated attempt to settle in North America, an
event which became the springboard for
Nýja ísland. Dedication of the memorial
will be in the year 2000—one hundred and
twenty-five years after the fact. It will com-
prise one part ofthe INL’s millennium pro-
gram.
Contributions to this memorial fund
should be sent to: John Gilmore, Treasurer
(ICCT), 31 Wild Cherry Lane, Thornhill,
ON, Canada, L3T3T3. Ph. (905) 889-9937.
Cheques are payable to: The Icelandic
Canadian Club of Toronto and earmarked
as “Kinmount Memorial Project. ”
Their numbers in Toronto grew
as stragglers from various places
including the Muskoka District
joined up. It’s estimated that about 270
souls finally assembled. On the 24th,
two couples celebrated by marrying in
the First Lutheran Church on Bond
Street. The next day, September 25,
1875, one year to the date the St.
Patrick passengers first found them-
selves in the immigration sheds, they
set out on their journey West. The first
stop was the lake port of Sarnia.
Simonson wrote in his memoirs:
“There is nothing ofnote to report from
Toronto, except that the English people
thought tliat we had made progress dur-
ing our absence and that we had
improved in appearance. On the way to
Sarnia, a distance of about 250-260
miles, there were beautiful towns and
attractive settlements. At Sarnia we
stopped overnight. Everything was
extraordinarily expensive there, accom-
modation for one person cost a dollar,
even ifthere were three to share it. This
was more than I was accustomed to pay
at hotels. ”
On the moming of the 26th the
group boarded the wooden steamer
Ontario, bound for Duluth, Minnesota.
Luggage and cargo were
loaded first. Next, cattle,
sheep, horses, pigs and
poultry were squeezed
in. Finally, the immi-
grants were jam-packed
on top of the luggage
and not permitted to
move about. It was like a
floating barnyard. The
trip over Lake Huron,
through the locks at
Sault Ste. Marie and
across Lake Superior
took five days. At one
point, the ship struck
rough weather, and
being top heavy it rolled
about in the waves.
Many passengers
became seasick, and the
stench from the livestock
On a Saturday, the group left
Duluth by the Northern Pacific Railway
for the Red River. They stopped en
route at Glyndon, staying two nights in
a small warehouse, where Taylor decid-
ed to conduct a church service. He gath-
ered the people into a railway round-
house and the text was “Behold I send
an angel before thee to keep thee in the
way, and to bring thee into the place
which I have prepared,” with Friðjón
translating as best he could. He gen-
uinely believed he had a calling and a
responsibility for these Icelanders.
After the service one of them comment-
ed: “He must think that he is a chosen
leader like Moses. Who knows but he
except on top ofthe mass of goods and
luggage, and were without cover. Thus
we travelled for several days, for there
were many stops for the purpose of
unloading goods and taking on board
woocbfor the boilers. To make matters
worse, the steamer grounded frequently
and was often refloated with difficulty.
This meant much wading and our jour-
ney was slow and laborious." (Simon
Simonson)
With the District of ^eewatin on
the horizon, their thoughts tumed to a
better future. This move was solely
their decision after living through a
time of great hardship in Ontario. The
Toronto, 1874. Metropolitan (Methodist) Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, notfarfrom the
First Lutheran (German) Church where Icelanders were married during the I870s.
Source: Metro Toronto Reference Library Plioto Collection.
didn’t help.
The ship proved fairly unstable
against the waves. Two of the crew
were kept busy throughout rolling sand-
barrels against the list. Certainly, the
trip proved cut rate in value and service.
After all, the govemment had paid only
$14.00 each, with an additional $300
for their baggage. The usual ticket fee
to Winnipeg was $35.00 per adult. To
be sure, there was great relief when the
ship reached Duluth, a town described
by one of the immigrants as comparable
to a small trading village in Iceland.
Thirteen of their countrymen from
Wisconsin, who had been waiting for
about a week, joined the group here.
This was a joyful event.
may be.” At the end of the evening the
place was filled with lively dancing and
accordion music.
The following day the stemwheeler
International met the party at Fisher’s
Landing on the Red Lake River (a small
tributary of the Red River), southeast of
Grand Forks, Dakota Territory. Some
Mennonites joined them here for the
1 trip north to Winnipeg. But as the ves-
sel was too small for all the passengers,
two barges were attached to the steamer
to caiTy the majority of settlers and their
loads. Conditions en route to Winnipeg
were such that:
“Those on the flatboats had no place
record shows that by June, 1875 the St.
Patrick passengers had sufifered the
grievous loss of twenty-one children, a
girl of seventeen, and two elderly and
infirm women, mostly within two
months of arrival. In addition, out of
eight children bom there, five perished.
An estimate by Simonson gives
upwards to thirty children dying, plus
about ten adults.
The lcelanders of Kinmount
will be continued in the next issue.