Lögberg-Heimskringla - 08.05.1987, Side 6

6-ALDARAFMÆLISÁR, FÖSTUDAGUR 8. MAÍ 1987
P
Tingvalla Pioneer's Story
by S.B. Olson
In the grey dawn of April 30th
1886, 14 people climbed into the
double-box of a wagon, to which a
sturdy team of horses was hitched.
There was a raw chill in the early
morning air, as we left the little
ghost-like village of Solsgirth,
Manitoba, and headed North-West.
Our destination was the town of
Shellmouth, Man., in the Shell-river
valley, close to the Saskatchewan
border. On the seat in front were the
driver, and the Government coloniza-
tion agent, Helgi Jónsson, publisher
and editor of the Icelandic weekly
"Leifur" published in Winnipeg. In
the back were Mrs. Einar Suðfjord
(Guðbjörg), her four daughters,
Sigridur, Monica, Kristin, and Maria;
an elderly couple, Narfi Halldorsson,
his wife Astríður, and their son Guð-
brandur; our family, my mother
(Guðrún) Mrs. Björn (Olafsson)
Olson, my two sisters, Guðny and
Jónína, and myself, Thorsteinn
(Steini). I had just passed my eighth
birthday and was most interested in
the novel experience this travel af-
forded. We had come from Winnipeg
by Canadian Pacific Railway to Por-
tage La Prairie, and from there by
Man. & N.W. Ry. (later bought by the
C.P.R.) to Solsgirth, which was the
end of steel at that time, April 29th,
1886.
That night we all slept on the floor
of the railroad station waiting room,
no one complaining of the discom-
fort, and all sleeping the sleep of ex-
haustion, to be aroused while it was
still dark for the long journey before
us to Shellmouth.
We were well on our way before
the sun rose. The chill morning air
and with only trunks and bedding for
seats as we bumped along the uneven
prairie trail, made the travelling most
uncomfortable.
As the sun climbed higher in a
cloudless sky, it grew warmer, and
the travellers grew interested in the
surrounding country. But there was
little to attract attention except
endless grey prairie with very little
green showing through last year's
growth of dead grass.
We crossed some gullies and
creeks with the water reaching almost
up to the box, but with good hard bot-
toms. Climbing up from these gullies
to the level prairie was sometimes a
stiff hard pull for the horses, so to
lighten the load the children were
allowed to get out and follow behind
up to the top and this was a welcome
change from the cramped positions
in the shaking wagon. The drab sur-
roundings and the monotonous, un-
eventful journey failed to dampen
our spirits as we romped and fro-
licked up the steep inclines. For us,
who had never been out of the city
limits, it was a new experience and
a glorious adventure.
We travelled all that day and all
that night in a north-westerly direc-
tion and reached Shellmouth at
sunrise next morning. It was a great
relief to get out of the wagon and
stretch our bruised, weary limbs after
a seemingly endless night of jolting
and vain efforts to get a little sleep.
But the beautiful sight that met our
eyes on that sunny morning of May
lst, lifted our spirits and made us
forget the misery of the night. The
bright sun revealed to us the village
nestling down in the valley and
beyond it the long range of hills ex-
tending far to the north. This cheery
scene has always remained in my
memory.
Our journey ended at the home of
Helgi Jonsson and his wife, Ingibjörg
Guðmundsdóttir. The house stood on
a rise near the east edge of the valley
overlooking the town and giving a
wide view to the west.
At that time the route had been
Friend of the Icelanders
Continued from Page 5
wildlife with them. The Indians
drifted away to better hunting
grounds and eventually so did Ram-
say and his daughter. Many years
after he died something strange oc-
curred. A man by the name of Trausti
who lived in Geysir had a dream in
which Ramsay appeared from the
forest and gestured to him and then
asked him to do a favor for which he
would be rewarded. He told Trausti
that his wife Betsey's grave had been
trampled by cattle and the fence
broken down, would Trausti please
go and fix it for him. Trausti agreed
but gave it no thought when he
awoke. But when the dream oc-
curred again and again he was forced
to adknowledge there was something
to it and forthwith set off from Geysir
to Sandy Bar. There he found the
grave exactly as described in the
dream and later he set to work and
rehuilt .the fence around it. It was
dusk by the time he was finished and
no one in sight until he was half way
home when a man appeared pulling a
sleigh with a bag of whitefish on it
and to Trausti's surprise he handed
him the bag. Could this have been
the reward Ramsay had promised in
the dream? The question is "Who
was this man who had the love and
affection of the Icelanders and who
had the power to appear in a dream?
Was he an Indian God?"
Now, these many years later
silence reigns over Betsey's grave ex-
cept for the rustle of the leaves in the
poplar trees and the sound of the
waves lapping on the shore. There is
nothing to show that John Ramsay
ever lived except for a small inden-
tation in the ground on a farm by the
Icelandic River and an inscription on
an ancient headstone at Sandy Bar:
"Betsey, beloved wife of John
Ramsay."
surveyed for a continuation of the
Man. & N.W. Ry. from Solsgirth, and
with this promise of a railroad to
come through the district, the village
of Shellmouth had come into being.
Here a number of prospective settlers
halted before moving into the wild-
erness fifteen miles to the north-west,
which was to become the
Thingvalla-district.
A sawmill and planer on the east
bank of the river was operating,
which gave employment to a con-
siderable number of men. There
were also 3 general stores, a hotel,
blacksmith shop, school, livery barn,
and other places of business, besides
a scattering of homes. One of the
stores was owned by the aforemen-
tioned Helgi Jonsson, and the
blacksmith was Vigfus Thorsteinson,
who with his wife and family had ar-
rived some months previously.
The sawmill was owned and man-
aged by two Englishmen in partner-
ship under the name of Mitchell and
Bucknell.
These mill-owners had a timber
lease 90 miles north of Shellmouth,
and employed a large number of men
in a lumber camp there during the
winter months. The logs were floated
down the Shell river during high
water in the spring, and sawed into
lumber to supply local demand. With
the prospect of a railway in the near
future, this little northern town was
alive with activity and progress.
The population was predominant-
ly Scottish and Irish, also a scatter-
ing of half-breeds (Métis), and a
number of Icelandic pioneer settlers
for the proposed colony of
Thingvalla.
* * *
My parents, with their family, had
come from Iceland (Akranes, Borgar-
fjarðarsýsla) in July 1878 to Nova
Scotia, with a group of Icelandic im-
migrants. At that time, a homestead,
160 acres, with one acre cleared was
available to anyone willing to settle
on the land, and was a free grant,
with no restrictions, except the pro-
viso of permanent occupancy.
A number of the group accepted
this offer, and a small settlement
came into being.
But it soon became obvious that
even the heroic efforts and optimism
of those valiant early Icelandic im-
migrants, could not successfully com-
bat the insurmountable difficulties,
in a country, covered with a forest of
gigantic hardwood trees, and so the
settlement was short lived, some
moving to North Dakota, and some
to Manitoba. In this group were the
Brynjolfsson family, some Skap-
tasons, J. Magnus Bjarnason with his
parents and others whose names I
cannot recall. We lived in Nova
Scotia for four years. My father got
employment on a large estate owned
by Colonel Laurie, a Scotsman. The
wages were 90 cents per day with
midday dinner included. That was
top wages for ordinary labor at that
time.
Continued next issue
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