Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.10.1969, Page 7

LÖGBERG-HEIMSKRINGLA, MIÐVIKUDAGINN 1. OKTÓBER 1969
7
History of the lcelandic Settlements
at The Narrows, Manitoba
Framhald af bls. 5.
what explanation I offered.
I will repeat here what I
said on a platform in Ashem
in a farewell address to Mc-
Giffin when he retired from
the bank there. What I said
was that Ashem and the com-
mimity would never have been
the same if Mac hadn’t spent
over thirty years there as
banker through the darkest
days of the depression. As
As'hem was the only bank in
the westem part of the inter-
lake district, people came from
all over to do their banking
— from Gypsumville to Oak
Point, and e a s t to Arborg,
Teulon and across the lake
from Reykjavik, which con-
, stituted a lot of hardship for
the bank and staff as they had
neither space nor people to
handle the crowd who came
to do their business. This went
on for two to three years and
the management finally had
to curtail business coming to
the bank from so far away.
All in all this road scheme
proved a huge success.
Now I would like to refer
to the personalities of the
Siglunes Council who had so
successfully saved the munici-
pality from disafiter and I
think it is well to review the
history of the municipality to
some extent and bring out the
names of those men that had
been on the council so far.
Origina!lly when the muni-
cipality was formed with four
wards, only Sigurdur Sigfus-
son had been reeve for a short
time, Barney Matthews was on
the council, Ole Erikson and
B a r n e y Jonasson and the
fourth one is uriknown to me.
Peter Forseng was secretary.
A short time later the boun-
daries of the municipality
were extended and in the new
municipality f o r m e d there
were six wards consistinig of
the following: ward No. 1, Wil-
liam McFadden; ward No. 2,
not sure! ward No. 3, Ole
Erikson; ward No. 4, Fred
Arnold of Picnic Ridge; ward
No. 5, Bamey Jonasson of
Silver Bay; ward No. 6, Bum-
ford of Ashern. Redge Perry
became reeve, George Self was
assessor and Arnie Johnson of
Silver Bay was tax collector.
Most of these men were at the
controls when the organization
went through two stages of
difficulties, each of them in it-
self formidable enough to de-
stroy it. If it hadn’t been for
the admirable foresight of
these men who were all pos-
sessed of great human quali-
ties and very conscious of their
duty to serve the district hon-
estly. The first stage consisted
,of floating a long term loan
by the municipality which was
contemplated on the start in
the early stages of the organiz-
ation. The debentures were
printed on the authority
which was of the majority of
the council but by the time it
was decided to sell the deben-
tures, some of the councillors
had changed their minds in
view of the conditions which
existed in the financial world
at that time. So the majority
had turned into minority —
there were only two now in
favor of selling the debentures
and four against. The issue
was fought at quite a length
which ended up with the
buming of the debentures.
There were some hot tempers
over this but later on, all were
unanimous in admittirig that
it had been lucky that this
decision had been taken. Other
municipalities w e n t through
the process and before the de-
pression was over, had to
disorganize, still owing for the
debentures they had sold.
These added up-when no pay-
ments were made, the capital
debt had nearly doubled.
The second stage that I men-
tioned was when the munici-
pal council unariimously crea-
ted a great road programme
on a 50-50 basis by working
off taxes which has been de-
scribed and which had a suc-
cessful outcome. 2/3 of the out-
standing taxes were collected
which meant a reinstatement
of ownership of every home.
It seems ironic when you
compare Siglunes municipalitY
with some other municipalities
in the heart of Manitoba, such
as Portage la Prairie and Swan
River in the choicest grain
larid in the province whose
economies would be far ahead
of Siglunes but according to
the press and the radio were
both in financial difficulties.
Still we have been hearing for
2-3 yea-rs by reference to the
interlake district as an under-
developed area of the pro-
vince.
When it is mentioned in
papers or speeches especially
by provindal economists and
sdme of those who have
jumped on the bandwagon
with ARDA which after four
years of looking around the
interlake district with scores
of meetings, have come to the
conclusion that ARDA can do
exactly nothing to improve
conditions' in the interlake
area except to offer farmers
$2 per acre for clearing off
bushlarid whereas the cost of
cutting and piling property
would at least cost $15 so there
are no takers of the proposi-
tion as the intelligent people
of the interlake district know
very well that this proposition
does not constitute any assis-
tance but they, on the other
hand, could find out some pro-
gressive measures that could
be accomplished by ARDA for
the good of the community
and the economy of the pro-
vince of Manitoba as it was
originally intended by those
who conceived the idea of
ARDA in the first place.
People of some districts in
the interlake area have been
here for up to 90 years on
Lake Winnipeg but on the
east side of Lake Manitoba,
where the present Siglunes
municipality is for some 75
years, and all of them found
their own survival from the
start without any guidance or
assistance from any govem-
ment arid they have managed
to establish good homes and
raise good families. They built
a sound economy. and on a
wide range they have estab-
lished good cattle ranches,
grain farms, good homes and
have been pouring millions of
dollars that they alone had
made into the provincial econ-
omy with livestock, grain, fish,
fur, lumber, pulp, seneca root
and hay.
The interlake twice saved
the cattle population of the
western provinces to a large
extent. In 1919, they shipped
out 800,000 tons of hay to
Alberta and the western pro-
vinces where cattle were dyirig
of starvation by the thousands
from the eastern fringe of the
Rockies, as far south as Mon-
tana. Again, in 1936, a nearly
equal amount of hay went out
to Saskatchewan and other
westem areas when there was
almost no crop of any kind
growing in Saskatchewan on
account of drought. The inter-
lake district has often proved
itself the bread basket of the
west and sometimes the east.
Further, t h e Gypsumville
Company commenced to build
the steamship line from Davis
Point to Westbburne and com-
menced shipping to the West
with a brainch line from Davis
Point to Gypsumvilie, in order
to get out to markets their
products from the quarry or
mine at Gypsumville. This
secured the municipality. It
got back on sound financial
basis in a few years, and be-
came the fifth from the top
in financial standing in all the
comimunities of Manitoba.
I don’t know what the stand-
irig is now but I happen to
know that Siglunes built up a
reserve fund and has retained
that ever since, in spite of the
fact that all the roads border-
ing on Lake Manitoba (with a
shoreline of some 80 miles)
were washed out in the flood
of 1950 whieh cut off some
homes in the municipality
wiith monstrous losses to the
extent that some people had
to move away, sell or ship
their livestock to other areas
where hay was procurable.
Some of the people when they
had gone through that process
had lost most of their hold-
ings.
The municipality had to re-
build all these roads accord- •
ingly but received some grants
through the govermment but
outside of that, there never
was a dollar paid in flood' Ioss-
es of Lake Manitoba through
the two rriajor floods of 1902
and 1950.
The effect of these floods
lasted in each case from two
to three years until the hay
larid came back into produc-
tion again. The municipality
rebuilt all the roads and re-
gravelled them and it is a
number of years now since
there were gravelled roads
built to every home in the
municipality.
Such communication proved
a godsend to settlers along the
lake as this company helped
out in any case of emergency
in regards to people that sud-
denly had to get out for medi-
cal or hospitalization. Another
company established at The
Narrows as there was a lime
quarry north of The Narrows,
built a steaimship, “Carberry”
and were iristrumental in giv-
ing first employment to the
séttlers around The Narrows
and for those times paid very
good wages.
Next in line we can mention
Steep Rock which had been
pouring millions into the eco-
nomy of the province ever
since the railroad came
t h r o u g h . Also Spearhill, 6
miles from Moosehorn, a lime
and sugar rock quarry. These
two generations that have been
here up to 65 years have not
only been able to build up
t h r i v i n g communities and
modem homes; good agricul-
ture exists and reasonable
good crops have been raised
and livestock industry is sec-
ond to none in Manitoba.
The dairy industry is on a
grand scale — 4 creameries
have been operative on the
Gypsumville line since the
early days of settlement, coun-
tirig from the North: Moose-
hom Creamery, Ashern Co-
operative Creamery, Eriksdale
Creamery, and Lundar Maple
Leaf creamery which com-
menced operating over 20
years before the railroad came
through. They were all rated
high ih the manufacture of
butter and often competed at
the Royal Exhibition in Tor-
onto and have diplomas to
show for it.
Having dealt at length with
the municipal affairs of Siglu-
nes and the men who piloted
it through the rough passage
of the depression into a safe
harbour sheltered from all
financial difficulties by those
that had the most to do with
drawing the guide lines for its
destiny which was a very suc-
cessful accomplishment. There
has never been a doubt in my
mind that if a list was drawn
of all the personell that has
worked so well and ably for
this organization, the said mu-
nicipality in every capacity
for the last half a century
and as a bystander I would
expect to see high on that hon-
our role the names of the three
captains that gave a 100 years
of their lives combined for the
people in that organization.
In the capacity as either
reeves or councillors and they
are to my way of thinking the
late Bamey Jonasson, and
Redge Perry and Ole Erikson
who, after leaving the district,
took on another job as a reeve
at Langmth, a municipality
that hadn’t been doing so well
but now is, after Ole yanking
it back on a soild foundation
financially.
There is alSo another person-
ality which I cannot refrain
from mentioning in this con-
nection — the secretary and
the guardian of the municipal
office for scores of years, the
late Sidney Ford, whose devo-
tion to the welfare of the mu-
nicipality went far beyond
duty and when retired asked
for permission to come down
and visit the office every day
for an hour or so to satisfy
himself thait everything was
in order without wanting to
accept any pay for the same.
Continued.
Öm Arnarson kveður:
Bros og hlátur eru í
ísamóti freðin.
Kuldahlátur hlæ ég því.
Hún er fátíð, gleðin.
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