Lögberg-Heimskringla - 26.11.1964, Blaðsíða 4

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LÖGBERG-HEIMSKRINGLA, FIMMTUDAGINN 26. NÓVEMBER 1964
Lögberg-Heimskringla
Published every Thursday by
NORTH AMERICAN PUBLISHING CO. LTD.
Printed by
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303 Kennedy Street, Winnipeg 2, Man.
Editor: INGIBJÖRG JÓNSSON
EDITORIAL BOARD
Rev. Philip M. Pétursson. Vancouver: Dr. S. E. Björnsson.
Colorado: Áskell Löve. Minneapolis: Valdimar Bjömsson.
Grand Forks: Richard Beck. Reykjavík: Birgir Thorlacius.
Winnipeg: Dr. P. H. T. Thorlakson, chairman, Haraldur Bessa-
son, Rev. Valdimar J. Eylands, Caroline Gunnarsson, Jóhann
G. Jóhannson, Thorvaldur Johnsón, Jakob F. Kristjánsson,
Akureyri: Steindór Steindórsson. London: Dr. Karl Strand.
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Authorized os second class moil by the Post Office Deportment, Ottowo,
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Merk kona látin
íslendingar eru í mikilli þakkarskuld við það fólk, sem
hefir hæfileika og vilja til að þýða bókmenntaleg listaverk
þeirra á enska tungu og kynna þau þannig hinum stóra
enska heimi. Tvær konur hafa verið afkastamestar á því
sviði, þær Mrs. Jakobína Johnson og Mrs. Mekkin Sveinson
Perkins. Bókin Icelandic Poems and Stories sem dr. Richard
Beck var ritstjóri að, ber vitni um þetta. 1 henni er fjöldi
kvæðaþýðinga eftir Mrs. Johnson og ellefu sögur þýddar af
Mrs. Perkins, auk þess sem þýðingar þeirra hafa birst í
mörgum öðrum merkum ritum. Öllum, sem dómbærir eru
í þessum efnum, ber saman um að þýðingar þeirra séu
snildarlega gerðar.
Nú er Mekkin S. Perkins horfin yfir móðuna miklu. —
Okkur er það mikið ánægjuefni að vinkona hennar Jakobína
Johnson lét okkur í té hina látlausu og ljúfu minningargrein,
sem birtist á forsíðu þessa blaðs, og að Mr. Erik J. Friis, rit-
stjóri The American Scandinavian Review gaf okkur heim-
ild til að endurprenta ritgerðina Nýja ísland, sem mun hafa
verið með síðustu ritverkum þessarar merku íslenzku konu.
Við viljum þannig helga þetta eintak blaðsins minningu
hennar.
The Soga Of #New lceland1
By Mekkin S. Perkins
Touring Canada in Septem-
ber 1961 His Excellency Ás-
geir Ásgeirsson, President of
Iceland, visited Ottawa, the
capital city of the Dominion,
and the capitals of the Prov-
inces of Quebec, Manitoba,
Alberta, Saskatchewan, and
British Columbia. He also
visited smaller towns, among
them Gimli, Manitoba. Why
did he honor this village of
less than 2,000 inhabitants?
The reason is that the town
used to be the capital of the
first large permanent Ice-
landic settlement in America.
Known as “New Iceland,”
although not so designated on
the map, this colony was for
twelve years a self-governing
community within the frame-
work of the Canadian Do-
minion. Indeed it has been
called “the cradle” of Ice-
landic culture in all America.
Here, as well as elsewhere
in Canada, President Ásgeirs-
son was received by repre-
sentatives of the Icelandic
National League who helped
make arrangements for his
visit. This is an organization
of friends of Iceland and des-
cendants of the pioneers who
fled from the hopeless con-
ditions prevailing in Iceland
at the end of the nineteenth
century to establish a colony
of their own in America. But
the end of the saga of “New
Iceland” is not exactly what
the pioneers envisioned. They
had hoped for a separate in-
dependent colony of their own
where their language, cus-
toms, and heritage could be
preserved. The prosperous
people—farmers, professional
men, merchants, teachers, and
others—who met the Presi-
dent, many of them speaking
his native tongue, proved that
the dreams of the pioneers
had been fulfilled in a dif-
ferent way, although a perm-
anent “New Iceland” no
longer exists.
The Saga of “New Iceland”
began in the last three de-
cades of the nineteenth cen-
tury, at a time when the
Canadian Government was
trying to induce Europeans
to settle in Canada. Promises
of free homesteads and finan-
cial help in defraying the
costs of transportation were
the main attractions.
These specially appealed to
the people of northern and
eastern Iceland, where for
years conditions had been
grim. These people were eager
to escape from the “fire” and
“ice” that were destroying
their homeland. Repeated
earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions in the north, around
Lake Mývatn, covered large
areas with lava. Year after
year the arctic ice floes filled
the fjords, sometimes linger-
ing until June and July. The
snowfall was so heavy that it
at times buried alive sheep
caught out grazing. The
summers came late and were
cold, the hay crop was scanty
and of poor quality. Hungry
and threatened with starv-
ation, the people were willing
to leave the land that their
ancestors settled a thousand
years before and to face the
unknown.
The prospects of living in
America had a special appeal
for a young Icelander, Sig-
tryggur Jónasson, who was de-
stined to become the leader of
his people in Canada. Born in
the north of Iceland. Sigtrygg-
ur Jónasson had received the
usual education at home ac-
cording to the custom in Ice-
land at that time. Having
heard glowing accounts of life
in America in letters written
to relatives by a few of his
countrymen who had settled
in Wisconsin, he decided to
go to Canada on his own. He
had already learned enough
English to be able to con-
verse intelligently. And so, in
1872, at the age of 20, he set
sail for Canada. On the
steamer he was told that On-
tario was the best province
in the Dominion. He there-
fore went to Kinmount, about
100 miles northeast of Tor-
onto, and settled there. At
first he made a living by
working on the railroad, at a
sawmill, and at other jobs. In
1874, when 365 Icelandic im-
migrants were expected in
Ontario, he had so well ad-
justed to his environment that
the provincial government
entrusted him with the duty
Sigiryggur Jónasson
of directing and advising the
newcomers.
He conducted them to Kin-
mount, where the majority
settled in a few poorly con-
structed log cabins put up
especially for them. It was
hoped that they would later
homestead and form a colony
of their own.
But the quarters provided
for them at Kinmount were
cramped, work on the rail-
road proved to be uncertain
and poorly paid, and when it
came to homesteading, it was
discovered that all the good
land in Ontario had already
been taken. Changes of
climate, food, and water
brought on sickness. Some
reports claim that all children
under the age of two died.
Discouraged, the immigrants
were scattering, the men
hiring out to farmers, the
young women getting jobs in
the towns as domestics. It
seemed that the dream of a
colony of their own would
never come true.
But then one of their
neighbors came to their aid.
Living near Kinmount was an
Englishman, John Taylor,
who became interested in
them. He offered to go to the
Canadian officials with an
appeal for help in securing
land for a colony in the newly
opened West. But his pro-
posals were rebuffed. The
Ministers consulted thought
the Icelanders would not
make good settlers in the
wilderness. Until they came
to Canada, these people had
never wielded the woods-
man’s axe; most of them had
never even seen a tree! They
had never followed the plow
or constructed roads. The Min-
isters had good reason to
doubt their fitness for pio-
neering.
But when their cause was
brought to the attention of
the Governor General, Lord
Dufferin, it met with en-
couragement. It so happened
that on a cruise in the Arctic
in his youth, Lord Dufferin
had visited Iceland and had
been favorably impressed by
the hardihood, industry, and
intellgience of the people. In
his account of his travels
there, told in his Leiters from
High Latiiudes, Lord Duffer-
in emphasized the fact that
no matter how lowly the turf
and stone hovel he visited in
Iceland, he always found in
it a small shelf of well-
thumbed books.
And so he turned an at-
tentive ear to the plea of the
Icelandic immigrants of Kin-
mount. In fact, he practically
sponsored them, as proven by
later public utterances. At his
suggestion, a committee, in-
cluding Sigtryggur Jónasson,
was appointed to go west to
the new Province of Mani-
toba and select land suitable
for their purpose.
But when the committee
arrived in Winnipeg, the land
around the city, which later
became one of the most pro-
sperous wheat-growing reg-
ions in ther world, had that
summer been stripped bare by
a plague of grasshoppers and
did not look promising. The
committee therefore went
farther north. There it chose
a strip of land 42 miles long
and 12 miles wide on the
western shore of Lake Winni-
peg, in the District of Kee-
watin, north of the then
boundary of the Province of
Manitoba.
There was room here for
all the Icelanders who might
wish to come to Canada. There
was plenty of timber for fuel
and construction purposes.
And there was an abundance
of fish in the lake.
When the committee an-
nounced its selection, Orders
in Council, dated October 8,
1875, were issued at the rec-
ommendation of Lord Duffer-
in, granting the Icelanders the
sole right, or “reserve,” of
settling on this tract. Their
dream of a “New Iceland”
was temporarily fulfilled.
But unsuspected hardships
and sorrows lay ahead of the
285 settlers who again were
uprooted and started on their
westward journey from Kin-
mount in the fall of 1875. They
were practically penniless.
The Canadian Government
did pay a generous loan for
settlement purposes, an un-
usual favor. Subsidies were
often provided for travel to
homesteads in Canada, but
not to help settlers move from
one region to another within
the country. The clothing
they brought with them from
Iceland was getting thread-
bare. They were in poor
health due to insufficient food
and hard labor.
When they were ready to
make the move, John Taylor
decided to cast his lot with
Framhald á bls. 5.