Lögberg-Heimskringla - 07.05.1999, Blaðsíða 5

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 7 maí 1999 • 5
Don Gislason
Toronto, ON
On February 6, 1998 the Lögberg-
Heimskringla featured an article about the
“Kinmount Memorial Project, ” to honour a
large group of Icelanders who settled in
Ontario in 1874. Further adventures of
tliese immigrants will appear in subsequent
issues of the paper. Their passage was on
the S.S. St. Patrick.
What happened to those immigrants
reads like a series of unusual mishaps and
government blundering. They struggled
their way from hard times in Iceland to
sickness, unemployment, and other disds-
ters in Ontario. And then, after a bitterly
cold winter (1875) in Manitoba, they suf-
fered through a terrible smallpox epidemic■
These people were the bulk ofthe 187)5
founders of New Iceland on the shqres óf
Lake Winnipeg. In spite of their personal
trials in Canada, they endured. Their
descendants can also be found scattered
across the United States and worldwide.
Therefore, the Icelandic National
League has decided to erect a memorial
caim in Kinmount to commemorate this ill-
fated attempt to settle in North America, an
event which became the springboard for
Nýja ísland. Dedication of the memorial
will be in the year 2000—one hundred and
twenty-five years after the fact. It will com-
prise one part of the INL’s millennium pro-
gram.
Contributions to this memorial fund
should be sent to: John Gilmore, Treasurer
(ICCT), 31 Wild Cherry Lane, Thornhitl,
ON, Canada, L3T3T3. Ph. (905) 889-9937.
Cheques are payable to: The Icelandic
Canadian Club of Toronto and earmarked
as “Kinmount Memorial Project. ”
For those that had lost the
most, the immediate future in
Canada may have looked rather
bleak. Even so, if they had remained
and not joined the flood of migrants to
the West, they would have prospered in
Ontario. Indeed...
“...had they stayed, in afew short years
they would have seen the local economy
boom as the railway brought new eco-
nomic vitality. Maybe the Kinmount of
today would have been graced with
such surnames as Jonasson, Gislason.
Thorlaksson and Bjarnason." (Guy
Scott)
In hindsight, one wonders who the
founders of New Iceland would have
been, had the St. Patrick passengers
airived earlier in the year and settled on
suitable farms in Ontario. Certainly,
there might have been a continued
Icelandic immigrant presence in the
province from the start.
At no point did the Ontario govem-
ment or the Victoria Railway Company
admit to mismanagement of Icelandic
immigration and employment. It was
largely through Jonasson’s agitations
that ofíicials dealt with their plight, and
then only after irreversible harm had
taken place. After all, they were few in
number, hidden away on a river terrace
on the fringe of the Shield. It was
impossible for Canadian authorities to
remain ignorant of the human tragedy
being played out at Kinmount. Indeed,
it may have been a twinge of federal
conscience which encouraged Lord
DufFerin to lend his support for an
Icelandic colony in Keewatin.
Despite his youth and demanding
role as intermediary, Sigtryggur
Jonasson took up his challenge with
remarkable intelligence, organization,
insight and sophistication. He honed his
skills dealing with government, railway
authorities, and constmction bosses. He
kept a store in Hayford, wrote a mound
of letters to the Department of
Innnigration in Toronto and did his fair
share of joumalism in both English and
Icelandic. The skills the Icelanders
leamed working on the railway, clear-
ing the forests, blasting rock and hack-
ing out farm lots in the bush would be
invaluable for the future. In the end, the
ill-fated 1874-75 Kinmount experiment
in immigration and railway constmc-
tion became Ontario’s loss and
Manitoba’s gain.
Epilogue
During their stay in Kinmount,
friendships developed between the
immigrants and locals. After they were
settled in the West letters began to
arrive outlining their progress. In
January, 1876 The Canadian Post car-
ried an article about how they had fared
since leaving. Things were going fairly
well. However, unbeknownst to thera, a
vimlent smallpox epidemic was yet to
sweep through the new colony, once
again challenging their future in
Canada.
“Accounts have been received here
from the Icelanders in Manitoba who
left here last fall. They say they are
comfortable in their new hotne, and
well satisfied with their treatment by the
Government. They experienced some
dijficulty in obtaining provisions atfirst,
but that no doubt was due to the late-
ness ofthe season and the long distance
from settiement... ” (Jan. 28, 1876)
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Archival Material
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First Lutheran Church ofToronto, mar-
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Metro Archives & Records Centre,
Toronto City Directory, 1874-77.
Ontario Department of Immigration,
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Unpublished Sources
Einarson, John. Correspondence with
the author. Broad Run, VA 1998
Gislason, Donald. S.S. St. Patrick
Passenger List, September 1874,
Toronto 1998.
Hillman, Lyle. Correspondence with the
author. Brainerd, MN 1998.
Kristjanson, Hannes & Elsie.
Correspondence with the author.
Grand Forks, ND 1997.
Rögvaldsson, Jón. Æfisaga Rögnvaldar
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script. Property of June Hillman
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Scott, Guy. Family memoirs. Kinmount
1998.
Lögberg-Heimskringla will begin pub-
lishing the passenger list of the S.S. St.
Patrick in the following issue