Lögberg-Heimskringla - 20.07.1984, Side 5

WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 20. JÚLÍ 1984-5
Icelandic settlers in Victoria
and on the North Coast
Continued from page 4
party was met and escorted to Win-
nipeg. He held various jobs — on the
lake boats in Winnipeg, in the State
of Oregon, and took root in Victoria,
B.C. (in 1889). He worked for the
postal service and was involved in
the early labour movement. He
became President of the B.C. Federa-
tion of Labour in 1913."
The small group of Icelandic
families were described in The Vic-
toria Daily Colonist, Nov. 20, 1890,
as being "A Sober, Hardworking
People." The community's social
activities centered around their
church congregation organized in
1888. Fourteen families belonged and
meetings and Sunday School were
held each week at the various homes.
The following year a Reading Socie-
ty was formed and books were
ordered from Iceland.
During the early 1890's Victoria
suffered a depression. Due to lack of
employment and attracted by the ex-
cellent fishing grounds across the
straits, a number of Victoria's first
Icelandic famihes moved to Point
Roberts. This migration began in
1894 and continued for a few
years. The Editor of the Heimskr-
ingla (a weekly newspaper publish-
ed in Winnipeg) visited Victoria in
1898 and reported that even with the
migration to Point Roberts "there are
still said to be 20 Icelandic families
in Victoria, not.counting unmarried
men and those living in the rural
area.”
The North Coast — Smith Island
The only group movement into
British Columbia occurred in 1913.
Some ten families from Manitoba ar-
rived in Prince Rupert enroute to the
Queen Charlottes where they hoped
to establish an Icelandic Colony. The
Islands were a disappointment and
they gave up the idea. Thorsteinn
D^vidson had moved to Prince
Rupert from Markerville, Alberta, in
1908. He was the first Icelander
known to have settled in the nor-
thern part of the province. He
came to the group's "rescue" and
talked them into buying property on
Smith Island, at the mouth of the
Skeena River south of Prince Rupert.
"Land suitable for agriculture is
found in the various valleys and on
low-lying portions of the inlets and
offshore islands. The amount is com-
paratively limited in relation to the
whole . . . Smith Island is the largest
of a great number of islands which
fringe the main shore . . . There is a
small settlement at Osland, combin-
ing fishing and ranching, with post-
office, school, and Farmers' Institute.
As with all the settlements on this
part of the coast, there is a launch ser-
vice with Prince Rupert."
The movement to Smith Island oc-
curred during 1914 and 1915. The
small village established there was
named Osland. News of its existence
spread to the Icelandic settlements on
the prairies and by the mid-1920's
Osland had a population of about 70
persons. Salmon fishing was the
primary occupation. Efforts were
made to raise mink and to grow fruit
but both projects were unsuccessful.
The settlers lived a fairly comfor-
table life. They had small vegetable
gardens, kept a few domestic
animals, and there were deer and
other game on the Island. They
created a community life with a
store, school, branch of the Farmers'
Institute and a library. The communi-
ty became somewhat of a social cen-
tre for the fishermen of the lower
Skeena and the coastal cannery
workers.
The village survived the depression
years, partly due to the availability of
fish and game. But during the early
1940’s the people began to move out.
It was wartime prosperity and the
desire of parents to ensure better
schooling and more opportunity for
their children, that caused the set-
tiement to break up. They moved to
Prince Rupert and elsewhere. The
school closed in 1944, the Post Of-
fice, in 1952. Except for a few homes
used as summer cottages or used dur-
ing the fishing season, the village has
been abandoned.
The North Coast — Hunter Island
In the summer of 1913 Halldor
Fridleifson, then living at Foam Lake,
Saskatchewan, went to Vancouver to
see the coast of B.C. He fished in the
area of Fitzhugh Sound and that fall
took a pre-emption on Hunter Island.
He returned to Foam Lake and sold
his farm and brought his wife and
seven children out to North Van-
couver. The following year they
homesteaded on the Island.
"Hunter Island (is) mountainous to
the east and north and rolling, with
patches of undulating lands and
tracts of muskeg, to the west. Hunter
Island has a very large number of
islands and rocky islets on its south
and west sides . . . The only surveys
are at the northern end of the island
. . . Here there is a community of
Icelandic settlers, nearly all of whom
have substantial buildings with small
vegetable gardens under cultivation
near by. Fishing is their chief voca-
tion, trolling or gillnetting for the can-
neries on the mainland during the
season. Every household puts up its
quota of salt or smoked salmon, and
with the vegetables grown in their
gardens and an occasional deer the
larder is kept supplied. There is a
school on Hunter Island."
About eight families came to the
island in late 1914 or early 1915,
most of them from Vancouver. Life
on Hunter Island was somewhat
similar to that on Smith Island but
the Hunter Island settlers were not
so successful. Their need to travel far
afield for supplies was discouraging
and the land was not very produc-
tive. "Bella Bella was our Post Office.
We used to go there about once a
week for our mail and some supplies
at the store." They lived mostly on
fish and game. "Wild ducks of
various kinds and deer were also
plentiful, and in the spring there was
the blue-back salmon." Eventually
there were about seventy people, fif-
teen or twenty families, in the settle-
ment. A school was built in 1922 and
had nine pupils.
The community lasted only about
ten years. By the mid-1920's the
settlement on Hunter Island broke
up. The young people left first, to
work in the new mill at Ocean Falls.
And then the families moved away,
some to Ocean Falls and Bella Coola,
others to Osland and some returning
to the Lower Mainland. The school,
with only three pupils, closed in
1928. By 1930 the settlement had
been completely abandoned. Halldor
Fridleifson left the Island in 1922. He
moved to Vancouver where he died
in 1952. He is buried on Hunter
Island.
Although few in number, it was
not long before the Icelanders could
be found in almost every ''nook and
cranny" of the Province. They came
as individuals and settled as such.
They had a variety of occupations
which enabled them to disperse and
to assimilate quickly. From the begin-
ning they were aware of the impor-
tance of learning the language, which
they did with uncanny skill, and of
providing a good education for their
children. Their immediate concern,
upon settling in an area, was to
establish a school and, to keep their
literature alive, a library. These
libraries were the basis for the Ice-
landic Clubs established later. The
Icelandic Club served, and serves to-
day, as a cultural bond — among
themselves, and with their home-
land.
Þjóðræknisfélag íslendinga í Vesturheimi
FORSETI: JOHANN S. SIGURDSON
Lundar, Manitoba
ICELANDIC NATIONAL LEAGUE
Support the League and its Chapters by joining:
MEMBERSHIP: Individuals $3.00 Families $5.00
Mail your cheque to your local Chapter or
Lilja Arnason,
1057 Dominion St., Winnipeg, Man. R3E 2P3
íslendingadagurinn
Icelandic Festival of Manitoba
Something for Everyone
CELEBRITY CONCERT — Saturday at 8 P.M.
Pearl Palmason Violinist
Seattle Male Voice Choir
ECUMENICAL SERVICE — Sunday, 12 Noon in the Park.
FINE ARTS DISPLAY — Sunday and Monday
Current Work in a variety of mediums.
GIMLI FOLK CONCERT — Sunday - 7 p.m. in the Park
4 hours of the finest singing & strumming.
FIREWORKS — at the Harbour at 10 p.m. Sunday
PARADE — 10 a.m. Mon. Largest parade presented
outside of Winnipeg
Bands — Clowns — Floats
TRADITIONAL PROGRAM — Monday, 2 p.m. - Park Stage.
VARIETY SHOW '84 — 20 Acts of Gimli Area Talent.
NEW ICELAND MUSIC & POETRY - Sunday, 2 p.m.
in the Park.
Singing — Drama — Poetry
FILM FESTIVAL — Fri., Sat., Sun. showing recent
Icelandic feature films (English subtitles)
DANCES EVERY NIGHT
COMMUNITY SING SONG MONDAY NIGHT
Different Sports Events featured each day
Kiddies Midway Rides
AUGUST 4, 5, 6 GIMLI, MANITOBA
Come and enjoy the fun, warmth and fellowship.