Lögberg-Heimskringla - 02.10.1992, Blaðsíða 4

4 • LSgberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 2. október 1992
Looking for roots:
Thorarinson
Cemetery
By Dorothy Roao Shiploy
Faintly pencilled names of
Icelandic ancestors and an address,
Hallson, North Dakota, Akra P.O.
had long since drawn my interest.
Curiosity to leam more and the hope
of finding where great-grandparents
Thorarinn Arnason and Gróa Jóns-
dóttir were buried meant a visit to
North Dakota where, in my mind’s
eye, I would find the gravesite in
well-maintained Lutheran cemetery.
How wrong I was!
What began as a sentimental jour-
ney and soon became a search, start-
ed on a lovely June day in 1987 when
we four, my brother Gordon, his wife
Lois, my husband Harvey and I set
out from Winnipeg. Several interest-
ing and most rewarding steps brought
us to the roots of the first of the fami-
ly in North America and finding of
Icelandic-American cousins.
In 1883, Thorarinn Arnason of
Rauðamel, Hnappadalssýsla, arrived
with his son Magnus and homestead-
ed “Sandheiðabygð” near Hallson,
North Dakota. He had followed by
one year his son Arni who home-
steaded “Hlíðskógar” at Husavik,
New Iceland. Thorarinn’s wife Gróa
Jónsdóttir of Þórólfsstödum,
Dalasýslu, along with their son Kári
arrived in 1885. In 1889, the last of
this family to come was my grandfa-
ther Sigurdur also of Rauðamel, his
wife Katrín Kristín Brandsdóttir from
Ólafsvík and four young children.
They walked from Winnipeg to
Thorarinn’s farm, wintered two years
in a tarpaper shack, then walked to
Husavik, New Iceland, to farm with
Ami, and finally settled in Winnipeg
where they operated a dairy. This
branch of family stayed in Canada.
Over the years contact was gradu-
ally lost. Thorarinn who died in 1893
and Gróa in 1903 had come to the
end of their lives in poverty. Magnus
and family moved to Everett,
Washington, while Kári and Herdís
Torfadóttir, a niece of his mother
Gróa, lived on the farm. They had six
children though only two, Theodora
Thorarinson Young and Anna
Thorarinson Wilson survived along
with two older children of Herdís,
Margaret Sigurðardóttir Collan and
Elinora Sigurðardóttir Dalsted, chil-
dren of Sigurdur Thorleifson. Four
babies Emilia, Lara, Arora and
Alexander were buried in their farm-
yard cemetery and later, their father
Kári who had gone with Herdís to
farm in Wynyard, Saskatchewan
where Herdís is buried.
Only a part of this was known to
us when we arrived at Mountain,
North Dakota where the first infor-
mation was sought. We were sent
along to Kristine and Palmi Hannes-
son who welcomed us to their home,
searched cemetery records and kindly
translated an old letter from Hallson.
On their suggestion a visit was made
deflated as we headed back across
the land which still bore the faint
tracks of the old oxcart trail.
That evening we met socially while
questions flowed back and forth as a
common interest in finding the mark-
ers developed. The Dalsteds had
saved Herdís’ small notebook which
listed all the children and a sad
accounting of goods and money given
to a local family who took baby Anna
to raise because of the abject poverty
in which Herdís and Kári lived.
Back at the site the next day, metal
probes, a sensor and a light skimming
of the surface proved unproductive in
locating the markers. It was disap-
pointing and we had to rethink our
approach.
Though no progress was made
over the next year, an unusual event
in 1989 gave a new lead. Cattle
unearthed the footstone for Arora
who died in 1901, and we were
renewed with energy to find the rest.
Searching through old Lögberg news-
papers revealed that Kári too was
buried there in 1911. With good luck,
his footstone was also uncovered by
the cattle, so we now had a line on
how the graves would lie. Raymond
Eastman was beginning to think the
cattle were a lot smarter than we
were. One more, for Emilia who died
in 1898, was found by John Dalsted
during the summer. Then on a bitter-
ly cold autumn day, while brothers
First search at the gravesite.
Right: Alexander's stone,
the last uncovered.
to Hallson cemetery where a rose
granite headstone with the name
Thorarinson was found. We thought
we had located the gravesite. It was
later learned the stone had been
moved there in 1982 from Amity and
Raymond Eastman’s farmyard for fear
that pasturing cattle would topple it.
Records found at Pembina County
Court House, Cavalier, listed Thor-
arinn Arnason’s farm in the 1893
atlas. While there, Kaye Dalsted sug-
gested an older resident, Josie East-
man Vatnsdal might remember some
of the early families, and rightly so.
She recalled Kári had lived on the
farm the Eastmans later bought. She
contacted Rosa Dalsted Johnson and
Dorothy Dalsted Crowston, grand-
daughters of Herdís Torfadóttir and
daughters of Elinora. They knew the
exact location of the cemetery, re-
membered four footstones and would
meet with us next morning.
Settled in at lovely Icelandic State
Park we reviewed our fruitful day and
later enjoyed the evening program.
Surprisingly, the Dalsted families
arrived all as curious as we were
about the connection. With them was
Merlyn Dalsted’s wife Kaye who had
assisted us earlier in the day. Coffee
and cookies and trading information
passed a pleasant evening as we com-
mented on strong resemblances. At
the time we didn’t know we were
third cousins; they through Herdís,
and we through both Herdís and
Kári.
In the moming we followed a trail
to the cemetery location on the
homesteaded Amason and Thorarin-
son farm. The sandy loam had drifted
and completely buried the four
known footstones on the quarter acre
site which during Andrew Eastman’s
lifetime had been well-maintained.
Over the years cattle pastured there
and wind erosion left only a grassy
mound, four rough marker posts, and
a rusty gate tangled in downed wire
fence as sign that there had been a
burial ground there at all. We felt
Merlyn and John Dalsted probed
with metal rods, John struck and
found the stones for Lara who died in
1899 and Alexander who died in
1904. These two markers were cov-
ered by two feet of loam.
The five stones now stood in a
jagged line just above the surface.
The wind rippled the grass and sage
presenting a very forlorn sight.
Brought to mind was the struggle and
determination of this family that had
fought to establish itself in a new
land yet retain strong Icelandic roots.
A grant from the Pembina County
Historical Society in June 1990 was
the beginning of a plan to restore the
Thorarinson cemetery. A serious start
was made when Marvin Nupdal