Lögberg-Heimskringla - 16.01.1969, Blaðsíða 4

4
LÖGBERG-HEIMSKRINGLA, FIMMTUDAGINN 16. JANÚAR 1969
Lögberg-Heimskringla
Published •rerj Thursday by
NORTH AMERICAN PUBLISHING CO. LTD.
Printed by
WALLINGFORD PRESS LTD.
303 Kennedy Streei, Winnipeg 2, Man.
Editor: INGIBJÖRG JÓNSSON
Pr»*id«nt, S. Aleck Thororin*on; Vice-President, Jakob F. Kriitjansson; Secretory,
Dr. L SiQurdson; Treo*urer, K. Wiltielm Johonnson.
IDITORIAL BOARD
Winnipeg: Prof. Horoldur Bessoson, choirmon; Dr. P. H. T. Thorlokson Dr.
Voldimor J. Eylond*, Corollne Gunnoruon, Dr. Thorvaldur Johnson, Rev. Phillip
M. Peturseon. Voncouver: Gudloug Johanr>e**on, Boai Bjarnason. Minneopolis:
Hon. Voldimor Bjorneon. Victorta, B.C.: Dr. Richord Beck. Icelond: Birgir Thor-
locius, Steindor Steindorseon, Rev. Robort Jock.
Subscripiion $6.00 per year — payable in advance.
TELEPHONE 943-9931
Authorirod os second claes moil by the Post Office Deportment, Ottawo,
ond for payment of Postoge in cosh.
Thé Narrows SeH,lement‘
On t h e s e pages appears the first installment
of the reminiscences of Geirfinnur Peterson relat-
ing to his experiences in the settlement once known
as The Narrows and more recently as the Rural Mu-
nicipality of Siglunes. No comprehensive account con-
cerning this settlement based on Icelandic sources, has
so far appeared in print and Mr. Peterson’s work will
be in a very real sense the first available record of
the early days of this part of the Interlake country.
Ólafur Thorgeirsson's „Almanak“ of 1912 contains
excellent sketches of most of the early Icelandic pio-
neers of the district by Jón Jónsson, better known as
Jón frá Sleðbrjót, and Sigurdur Baldwinson, enlarged
on the subject in the 1922 edition of that publication.
The „Saga Islendinga í Vesturheimi“ does not deal
with this settlement e x c e p t to the extent that the
chapters on the Lundar Settlement (Vols. IV & V)
mention some of those who first settled in the Lundar
district and later moved to The Narrows.
The foregoing suggests that it is timely that Mr.
Peterson’s manuscript should now appear in Lögberg-
Heimskringla. The settlement, in common with many
others, is fast losing its inhabitants, the descendants
of the pioneers and many have indeed long since de-
parted for other and perhaps greener pastures. For
good reasons, the author uses the English language
rather than Icelandic, although he still s p e a k s and
writes his mother tongue with facility. The fact re-
mains that many, perhaps the majority, of his intended
readers would find Icelandic a strange tongue.
Mr. Peterson is in many ways well qualified to
write about The Narrows Settlement. He came when
he was eight years of age and lived there for over 65
years. He possesses a retentive memory and acute
powers of observation. What he may lack in academic
qualifications is made up by a fine mind and an un-
rivalled knowledge of the facts with which he deals.
D u r i n g his stay in the settlement Mr. Peterson
engaged in business, farming and fishing on a large
scale and became widely known throughout the
Interlake District. He now lives in retirement at
Keewatin, Ontario.
Heimir Thorgrimson
History of frhe lcelandic Settlements
At the Narrows, Manitoba
by
Geirfinnur Peterson
My s t o r y begins in June,
1893. My father, Sigurgeir
Peterson, was living on a huge
farm in the northern part of
Iceland in the county of Mý-
vatn, right on the shores of
that beautiful inland lake,
almost encircled round with
mountains. The lake was
about 8 miles in diameter and
studded with some 20 islands,
11 of these belonging to farm-
steads which had been for
centuries a church estate. My
family at this time consisted
of my father, my stepmother
María Jónsdóttir, myself, my
brother Arnthor, my sister
Kristjana and my two half
sisters, Holmfridur then two
years old, and Bergljót in her
first year. My mother died
when I was three years old.
She was the former Holmfríð-
ur Jónsdóttir from the farm-
stead of Gautlond in the same
county.
The place where we lived
was considered a beauty spot,
and its name was Reykjahlíð.
The lake was teeming with
hundreds of thousands of mi-
gratory ducks in the summer
and two varieties of ducks
that didn’t migrate but lived
on the ocean in the winter.
There was n e v e r any open
season for shooting ducks in
Iceland. Considerable gains
were made taking the eggs
which they laid mostly in the
islands in the lake. The re-
gulations, however, called for
leaving enough eggs ,in each
nest for the ducks to hatch to
keep up the duck population.
The climate was very lovely
in the summer along the lake,
and twenty-four hours of day-
light in early summer added
considerably to its charms. So
did the beautiful flowers that
were similar to those of the
Arctic tundra where botanists
have found up to 700 different
species. It was a different
story as fall approached in
Iceland and especially when
winter set in. There had been
a succession of harsh and blis-
tery winters through the last
half of the nineteenth century,
some so cold that the ocean
would freeze, which preven-
ted ships from passing to and
from the land. When that hap-
pens the summers are extre-
mely cold, h a r d 1 y warm
enough for growing hay to
feed the cows a n d sheep,
which are the chief livestock
in Iceland. A few years after
Dad got married and com-
menced farming on his own,
he encountered two summers
in succession when the lamb
crop had to be destroyed.
There was not enough grass
for the mothers to feed them.
There were other formid-
able difficulties. In those days
there were no bridges cross-
ing rivers in Iceland but the
mail and other traffic had to
get through so whoever
stayed on the farmstead of
Reykjahlíð, was subject to the
duty of ferrying individuals
and the mail across Jökul-
dalsá one of the greatest
rivers in Iceland up in the
mountains a b o u t 20 miles
away. Jökulsá means glacier
river. My dad had had the
ferry job for 20 years. He was
now forty. It was unpleasant
in winter to say the least. The
river was fast flowing, never
ice-locked but always a lot of
ice f 1 o a t i n g on top of the
water at great speed. The ice
came from the glaciers and
headed to sea. In Jökulsá is
the biggest waterfall in Ice-
land, Dettifoss, which may be
translated as Tumbling Falls.
It is a strong rival of Niagara
Falls and is supposed to be
fifty feet higher.
Ferrying across this river
usually involved riding pack
h o r s e s as all transportation
was by horseback. All the
gear was taken across in a
boat which was sometimes
hard to navigate on account
of the current and ice flows.
Then the ponies had to be
chased or more commonly
pushed off the bridge of ice
along the s h o r e s into the
river. They drifted with the
current as much as 400 to 600
yards before arriving at the
opposite shore and had to fend
for themselves to get up out
of the river which usually
meant scrambling up on the
ice bridge. They were all shod,
so their method of getting off
was to get their front feet up
on the edge of the ice and if
they got a toe hold they made
it. A f t e r this was accom-
plished, the ferryman had to
t r a v e 1 the 20 miles back
always in darkness in winter
and perhaps in a blizzard as
there was no ovemight ac-
commodation at t h e ferry.
Each trip in winter could have
ended in disaster in the dark-
ness or perhaps in straying off
the right course and having
to remain overnight on the
mountains which few men
could have survived.
Owing to these hardships
and disillusion regarding the
future, it had dawned on Dad
and a few others that the way
out might be to migrate to
Canada. As many Icelanders
had gone before them, some
as far back as 1875, these men
knew that there were grave
hardships to conquer in this
country for t h e y had heard
from those who had gone be-
fore.
In the w i n t e r of 1893 an
agent for the Canadian gov-
ernment came to our part of
Iceland to try to encourage
immigration of Icelanders to
Canada. This agent, Sigurdur
Christopherson, h a d b e e n
born in the same settlement
and had gone to Canada some
eighteen years earlier. He had
settled in the southern part of
Manitoba in t h e district of
Argyle near Baldur. He was
now in comfortable circums-
tances himself and made a
great impression on the peo-
ple by his glowing stories of
prosperity but like a good
many others he did not stress
sufficiently t h e difficulties
that the immigrants would
have to go through before
they reached his stage of
economic independence. He
forgot to tell about all the
hardships that destitute people
would have to go through be-
fore they reached the same
stage here. However he made
a great impression in that dis-
trict and over 200 people, chil-
dren and adults from that part
of Iceland booked passage
with him for Canada.
Among them were two of
his brothers, Peter and Sigur-
jón, and their families, one of
his sisters and her family and
many others unrelated to him.
These included my father and
stepmother and five of us chil-
dren all in the age group from
1-12 y e a r s and Thorlakur
Jónasson and his wife who
was my dad’s s i s t e r. They
were the parents of the late
Barney Jonasson of Silver ,
8ay, and 6 other children, 3 |
girls and 3 boys. The only liv-
ing member of that family
now is Jonas Jonasson at the
Betel home in Gimli.
The Jonasson family stayed
in the Argyle district until j
1906 when they all moved to
Dafoe in Saskatshewan, ex-
cept Barney and the oldest :
brother Benedict, who moved
to Silver Bay in Manitoba.
Others in the group were Sali í
Gudmundson and his wife, j
Jacobina, and Kjartan, their
only son. They stayed with us
for more or less fifteen years
in Canada. Petra, Sali’s sister,
married to Steingrímur Thor-
steinson and their three boys,
Jon, Thorstein, and Pjetur
were also in the group. They
moved to Wynyard and Pjet-
ur, especially, became well
known in the west as a cattle
shipper and a big operator in
Wynyard.
Two other agents operated
on behalf of the Canadian gov-
ernment to get immigrants in
other parts of Iceland, and
among the three of them they
booked 900 people for passage
to Canada.
With so many people going
from different parts of Ice-
land, arrangements were
made with the Cunard Steam-
ship Line to have their ships
come and pick up at various
harbours throughout the land.
We 1 i v e d about 20 miles
from the harbour, Husavik,
and there we had to board
ship. They had planned for the
ships to come in the last week
of June, but no exact date was
given. So preparations began
and father began getting rid
of what livestock and house-
hold effects he had. It was *
difficult to sell, and what he
sold only came to very little.
He was third owner of the
homestead and he got 8,000
Kronur for his share. The ex-
change was four Kronur to
the dollar. Of course he owed
some money on the land and
some other debts so by the
time he paid up everything he
had very little with which to
start life with a family of five
children in a new land. They
took very little with them of
household effects but all bed-
ding, eiderdown quilts and
some table finery, silver and
so ou, and fancy table cloths
that had been necessary for
Reykjahlíð was a tourist
centre. Travelling dignitaries
often came there and courts
were held occasionally as the
place was a crossroad for in-
terior travel in Iceland. A
considerable number of Engl'
ish tourists w e n t through
there in summer and Dad had
to ferry them across the river.
He had taken about 25 to 35
lessons in English, which only
helped in a small way to carry
on a simple conversation.
We were all at Husavik at
the time set for the ship’s ar-
J