Lögberg-Heimskringla - 26.08.2005, Page 9

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 26. ágúst 2005 • 9
ed mainly of digging through
hills, filling in ravines, dyna-
miting rock and felling large
trees where the track 'was to go
through — an interesting chal-
lenge for a fishing and farming
lot who had come from a sub-
arctic treeless island.
“Local labour was unreli-
able as lumber camps soaked
up available workers at higher
wages than the railway com-
pany would pay. Farmers in
the area worked as railway
navvies only part-time, leav-
ing their employment to tend to
harvesting. So, as it happened
in mid-October, well over 300
Icelanders — men, women and
children — ended up crowded
into four badly constructed log
shanties on a river terrace along
the Bumt River, about two miles
downstream from the village,
which itself was a straggly little
place of about 100 souls. The
death toll in the shanties, es-
pecially among small children,
was horrendous.
“At the age of twenty, in
.1872, Sigtryggur Jónasson ar-
rived in Ontario. At first, he
worked at various jobs in well
settled areas. In the winter of
1872-3 he went into a busi-
ness partnership selling railway
ties, earning $1,100. In turn,
he wrote glowing reports home
about opportunities in the prov-
ince. This may have siphoned
off over a hundred of his coun-
trymen arriving on the SS
Manitoban in 1873, who were
mainly heading for Wisconsin,
to accept Ontario government
inducement to seek their future
in Rosseau and Cardwell Twp.
(Hekkla), north of Toronto.
“Indeed, it was Alexander
Begg, an Ontario immigration
agent stationed in Scotland,
who directed the first signifi-
cant flow of immigrants from
Iceland to Ontario rather than
having them continue west-
ward. In the following year
[1874], Sigtryggur was em-
ployed by the Ontario Dept.
of Immigration as interpreter
and guide on behalf of the 351
Icelanders who arrived on the
SS St. Patrick September 23 at
Quebec City. The entire group
had signed up for Ontario, as
their passage had been partly
subsidized by the provincial
government.
“It’s unlikely that Sig-
tryggur had any direct influence
on channelling immigrants into
railway work at Kinmount.
As this was a relatively large
group, it was deemed economi-
cally feasible to keep them to-
gether. Rather, he was assigned
by the Ontario govemment
to meet them in Quebec City,
bring them to Toronto as guide
and interpreter, and to facilitate
their entry into the unskilled
work force on the fringes of the
Precambrian Shield. His own
railway experience may have
been of interest to the authori-
ties, and possibly beneficial.
“As winter was fast ap-
proaching, employment had to
be found which would hope-
fully sustain them throughout
the season. Railway roadbed
construction appeared to be the
immediate answer. According
to the record, Jónasson first met
with D. D. Hay, the Ontario im-
migration agent in Toronto.
Then, both of them met with
George Laidlaw, the President
of the Victoria Railway Co. It
was agreed that the Icelanders
were to be Laidlaw’s navvy-
colonists with a wage of $1.12
per day, and that families would
take up land in due time.
“As interpreter and guide
for his countrymen, Jónas-
son would have been asked to
be present at this point of dia-
logue between govemment and
business. According to a jour-
nal entry, the day after the St.
Patrick Icelanders arrived in
Toronto he went to the railway
company ‘to negotiate employ-
ment for families and those
who couldn’t find work in and
around the city...’ He likely
only submitted information,
somewhat like a spokesperson
on behalf of the immigrants,
who in tum were matched with
employment needs in the hin-
terland. There is no record óf
‘who said what’ in those meet-
ings, but undoubtedly he had
his countrymen’s best interest
at heart. This proved to be the
case as the future of the ill-fat-
ed experiment in settlement at
Kinmount unfolded.”
Different times
Kinmount is a beautiful
village and one wonders why
the Icelanders did not stay in
the area. “The Kinmount of to-
day hardly resembles the rough-
and-tumble logging town of the
past. Due to a severe down tum
in the economy, the railway
went belly-up in March 1875.
The people were thrown out of
work and were faced with star-
vation. Many scattered to other
communities for employment.
Others remained in the shan-
ties, while in the spring some
took land in the surrounding
area and began hacking farms
out of the bush. Indeed, by the
end of May, 1875 about 53 of
them had relocated on farms in
adjacent townships, with every
intention of putting down roots
in the district.
“The village of Kinmount
itself could hardly absorb
this excess population. There
seemed to be general hope for
a better future and many had
found suitable work and good
wages elsewhere in the prov-
ince. But then, ‘Northwest’
fever was sweeping across the
Kinmount is about 160 km
northeast of Toronto.
land, encouraging immigrants
and Canadians alike to seek
homesteads and greener pas-
tures in Westem Canada. Be-
sides, much of the land around
Kinmount proved marginal for
agriculture. Moreover, there
wasn’t a suitable tract of Free
Grant land large enough for a
colony. And then, the newly
designated ‘Icelandic Reserve’
about 50 miles north of Win-
nipeg, along the shores of Lake
Winnipeg strongly beckoned as
...the promised land.
“Of course, Icelanders
could have stayed in and around
Kinmount, but most of them
chose to relocate under federal
auspices to a place.with greater
potential — a ‘one of a kind’
event in Canadian settlement
history. Others were drawn to
Nova Scotia and the U.S., while
a handful remained in Ontario
for a few years.”
Don says that the Icelandic
settlement in Kinmount did not
have a chance. “From the be-
ginning, events worked against
its survival. Its importance in
Canadian settlement history lay
in its inability to economically
sustain an increased population,
which in tum led to the 1875
founding of Gimli in the Dis-
trict of Keewatin, NWT, north
of the ‘postage stamp’ province
of Manitoba. Undoubtedly, if
they would have arrived earlier
in the season in time for harvest
as was planned (the ship that
was to take them to Canada in
July didn’t tum up), and settled
on suitable farms, many would
have remained in Ontario,
forming an Icelandic immi-
grant presence there from the
start. The city of Toronto would
have been a prosperous magnet
for these people as well.
“On the other hand, the
general flow of intemal raral
and urban migration to the West
and the Dakota Territory would
have included them as well. The
question is, would Gimli have
been founded without the ill-
fated events at Kinmount? Prob-
ably not as it happened, or even
along the shores of Lake Win-
nipeg. It was disillusionment
with back-township econom-
ics and anticipation for a better
future, and likely the desire to
remain as a unit that motivated
the group to move on.”
A few stayed behind
Although they did not stay
in Kinmount, not all Iceland-
ers moved west. “There were
a few who did not follow the
initial path to Gimli, but chose
to remain in Ontario in order
to eam good wages before set-
tling elsewhere. Among them
were the young couple Jonas
and Sigridur Hallgrimsson
(Hall) and Thorsteinn (Foster)
and Fridbjorg Jonsson (John-
son) of Millbrook, a prosperous
community southwest of Lind-
say. Jonas and Sigridur moved
to the Interlake in 1877, after
the smalipox epidemic, where
they took land and had their
first child. They later moved to
North Dakota, where the fam-
ily became prosperous as po-
tato farmers. Thorsteinn and
Fridbjorg’s descendants live in
Oregon.
“As well, Larus & Sigridur
Bjomsson (Freeman) lingered
in the province before moving
on to Michigan. One family
remained for 16 years on the
land southwest of Kinmount.
Sigridur Tomasdottir married
a local Canadian farmer, Henry
Bradbum, and their three chil-
dren were bom there. It wasn’t
until 1890 when they pulled up
stakes and immigrated to Svold,
North Dakota.
“On the other hand, a clus-
ter of Icelanders remained in the
Muskoka District — centred on
the communities of Rosseau,
Hekkla, Bracebridge and Parry
Sound. Their descendants have
scattered throughout Ontario,
entering business, trades, pro-
fessions and politics. They have
their own unique eastem Cana-
dian Icelandic pioneer history.
From the very beginning in
1873, there was a trickle of im-
migration from Iceland to those
places.
“I rather think that as the
Muskoka Icelanders have en-
dured over time, so would those
who arrived in 1874, had they
come early enough in the sea-
son to be placed on suitable
farms.”
Visit us on the web at http://www.lh-inc.ca