Lögberg-Heimskringla - 16.07.1993, Blaðsíða 4

4 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 2. júlí 1993
A pioneer woman doctor,
Christianson
Houston
by C. Stuart Houaton, MD, DUtt, FRCPC
i ** H*
Sigga and Bill Christianson, ca 1897
Dr Sigridur (Sigga)
Christianson, MD
(Manitoba 1925),
Saskatchewan’s oldest living
medical doctor, at 100 years,
is a product of the ferment of
her time, for all sorts of revo-
lutionary ideas were abroad in
the land. Women thought they
should be allowed to vote, to
own property, to enter fields
previously restricted almost
entirely to men. They might
even qualify as “persons”! In
Canada, Manitoba was the
pre-eminent focus for these
ideas, considered extremist by
some. The Icelandic women
were more active in the cause
than any other immigrant
group.
Sigga’s father, Geir
Christianson (born 23 May
1860), a journeyman carpen-
ter from the fishing village of
Hafnarfjöröur, just south of
Reykjavík, Iceland, emigrated
to North America around
1890. (A Canadian immigra-
tion officer spelled the sur-
name phonetically and the
incorrect spelling stuck. It
should have been Kristjans-
son.) Times were tough in
Iceland, following volcanic
eruptions that covered the
grass in many formerly good
sheep-grazing areas. Before
emigrating, Geir had worked
in the Skagafjörði hayfields in
northern Iceland, part of a
labour-intensive crew tuming
over the freshly mowed hay,
so susceptible to rot in that
damp climate.
One summer he had
worked alongside Sesselja
Rakel Sveinsdóttir (born 12
August 1857), the sixth of
13 children of Svein
Asmundsson and Sigriður
Jónsdóttir whose farm,
Starrastaðir, was 15 km south
of Varmalhid. The next haying
season she wasn’t there, and
he leamed that she had emi-
grated to America. Geir
arrived in Winnipeg (the
“second largest Icelandic
city in the world”, after
Reykjavik); family tradition
says he had only 25 cents
left in his pocket when he
arrived.
Geir’s immigrant train was
welcomed by a large group of
Icelanders. Did anyone know
where Sesselja Rakel was, he
inquired. The question buzzed
up and down the line. “Já, já”
Someone knew. Sesselja
Rakel was a maid in the
hotel at Pembina, on the
Red River south of
Winnipeg, a mile or two
below the 49th parallel in
North Dakota. Geir went
at once to Pembina, sought
out Sesselja Rakel, and
soon they were married.
As a carpenter in the
booming town of Grand
Forks, Geir had steady
summer employment at 25
cents an hour, but only
odd jobs in winter. Before
long he built a modest
home and Sesselja took in
boarders to supplement
their income. A son, Bill,
born 25 March 1892, and
three daughters joined the
family. Sigga, the oldest
girl, born 28 June 1893,
was an outstanding stu-
dent. Halldora (Dora) fol-
lowed on 13 January 1896 and
Bjorg (Babs) on 28 January
1898.
In 1905, the lure of free
land at Vatnabygg was too
much for Geir. He joined
hundreds of Icelanders who
homesteaded in the Wynyard-
Mozart area of Saskatchewan.
Geir, a fisherman’s son, filed
on 160 acres and took a pre-
emption on another 160 acres,
adjacent to the saline “dead
sea” named Big Quill Lake.
The soil was poor, drinking
water had to be hauled from
five miles away, and it was a
12-mile trip to the aspen
woods where he went yearly
to cut wood for fuel. Geir
knew nothing about farming,
but his carpentry skills put
food on the table whenever he
got a contract to build a near-
by school. On the occasions
after good rains, when a
promising crop appeared,
Geir would go into hock
with the Massey Harris com-
pany for new machinery, only
to be hailed or frozen out
before the wheat was in the
bin. He was constantly in
debt.
Sigga’s younger siblings
were delighted with the free-
dom of the farm. They loved
living in a tent the first sum-
mer while Geir completed
thcir house, which measured
12 by 16 feet downstairs, and
rested on a stone cellar.
Compared with the neigh-
bour’s shacks, it was consid-
ered a castle. A family photo
from around 1909 showed the
family beside the possession
of which they were most
proud, a large woodpile. But
Sigga, aged 12, was devastat-
ed. There was no school for
her to go to the first year, after
which she was able to com-
plete grades 7 and 8 at the
new Mountain School. That’s
all there was. In Grand Forks,
her mind had been set on
going to university. Sigga was
undaunted.
Baldur Olson, a bachelor
who lived on the next farm in
the early years, was under the
watchful eye of Sesselja, who
invited him for Sunday dinner
and often did his washing and
darning. (Baldur went on to
graduate from the Manitoba
Medical College in 1915, then
worked at the Ninette Sana-
torium and later practised in
Winnipeg.) Baldur’s mother,
“Aunty Olson”, as Sigga
always called her, offered an
opportunity for further educa-
tion. Sigga could work in Mrs
Olson’s boarding house in
Winnipeg preparing meals for
the men working for the
Bardal Funeral Parlour, and
go to school. Sigga was exul-
tant, but there was a problem.
She could hardly go to grade 9
in Winnipeg if she didn’t have
a warm winter coat. Her
father didn’t have $10 to his
name. Sesselja Rakel’s closest
brother, Gisli Sveinsson, born
15 March 1859, at Loni Beach
south of Gimli, was informed
of the situation and gave Sigga
the $10 which made her edu-
cation possible.
In Winnipeg, Sigga got up
at 5 am each day, cooked
breakfast for the men, and
then went to high school.
Next she moved to Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan to attend nor-
mal school, where she gradu-
ated in the class of 1914.
During four years as a
teacher at rural schools near
Wynyard and at Bruno,
Saskatchewan, Sigga saved
enough money to finance her
education at the University of
Manitoba. She boarded with
Mrs. Jonas Thorvardson at
768 Victor Street, near the
Medical College (where
Sigga’s son later boarded with
the same lady). Sigga took a
year of pre-med and then was
one of 13 women accepted
into the College of Medicine
(there were 14 women in a
class picture taken later). Ten
of them graduated in 1925, an
unprecedented number of
women among a graduating
class of 55, a proportion not
to be equalled for about 40
years.
Fifty years later, when her
medical student granddaugh-
ter, Margaret Sigrithur
Houston, asked Sigga whether
it was difficult for a woman
medical student in the 1920s,
she said “Not at all, every one
of the professors was so nice
to me”. On one hand, Sigga
had a lifelong propensity for
remembering pleasant things
and completely repressing
anything unpleasant. On thc
other hand, she idolised and
had the full support, not only
of Dr Baldur Olson, but
also of several of Win-
nipeg’s leading teachers,
surgeon Brandur J. Brand-
son (MD Manitoba 1900),
obstetrician Olafur Bjorn-
son (MD Manitoba 1897),
and one of the city’s
promising young surgeons,
Paul HT Thorlakson (MD
Manitoba 1916).
Each spring, Sigga
took the ‘Great West
Express’ home from Win-
nipeg on a Friday evening
in late April, and taught at
Grandy School near
Wynyard until the last
Friday before medical
classes began the following
Monday morning usually
in late September. She put
her pupils in the eight or
10 grades through the
year’s curriculum in less
than five months; there
were no summer holidays
for her. In the summer of
1924, she worked for five
months at Fort Qu’
Appelle Sanatorium under
Dr RG Feiguson, conclud-
ing in late Septembcr with
the highly reputed
Weyburn Survey of the
health of children and the
prevalence of tuberculosis.
She received room, board and
a small stipend at the sanatori-
um, and got credit for all five
months of medicine intern-
ship from the Manitoba
Medical College.
At the time of Sigga’s grad-
uation in 1925, the University
of Manitobá Brown and Gold
contained a succinct and
accurate report concerning
her:
“A Saskatchewan product
and a credit to the province.
Her tenacity of purpose, and
diligence in studies has only
been exceeded by her Ioyalty
to her many friends. Hobby:
Red hair and fudge-making. A
tender heart, a will inflexible."
Research in the archives in
Reykjavík suggests that Sigga
was the first Canadian woman
and fourth woman doctor in
the world of Icelandic des-
cent. The first was Steinunn
Jóhannesdóttir (later Steinunn
Alice Hayes), who obtained
her MD from Los Angeles in
1902. In Iceland, Kristin.
Ólafsdóttir, born 21 Novem-
ber 1889, graduated from
Reykjavík in 1917, and Katrin
Thoroddsen, bom 7 July 1896
(and died in 1974) got her
degree in 1921.
After graduation, Sigga
worked for a year in a sanato-
rium at Fort Wayne, Indiana,
where her duties included
treatment of tuberculosis of
the larynx by reflecting sun-
light down the patient’s throat
with a mirror. She felt a year’s
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