Árdís - 01.01.1953, Side 63

Ársrit Bandalags lúterskra kvenna
61
Riverton
By VILBORG EYOLFSON
Delivered at the Twenty-Ninth Annual Convention
oj the Lutheran Women’s League,
Riverton, Man., June Yith, 1953.
Immigrants from Iceland began to arrive in America in the
early 1870’s. The íirst arrivals settled for the most part in the United
States and in Halifax County in Nova Scotia. A group of 150 people
went to the Muskoka district of Ontario in 1873, and another of 400
to Kinmount, about 60 miles north of Toronto. But in all these
places the best lands had already been taken, and in order to realize
their dream of an all-Icelandic colony, most of these people, aided
by four loans from the Dominion government, moved in 1875 to the
strip of land on the west shore of Lake Winnipeg that they named
New Iceland. This territory was about six miles wide, and extended
north for 40 miles from Boundary Creek. This creek was so named
because it was on the line which marked at that time the northern
boundary of Manitoba. The colony was in the District of Keewatin
and people used the expression “going south to Manitoba”.
Leader of the later groups was Sigtryggur Jónasson. He
returned to Iceland during the winter of 1875-76 as agent of the
Canadian government to recruit colonists, with the result that the
next summer around 1400 people emigrated. Of these, nearly 1200
came to New Iceland. Jóhann Briem, writing in “Framfari”, tells
of the departure from the old country in three groups, one of 752
people from the north of Iceland leaving Akureyri July 2, 1876,
another from the eastern part, leaving Seydisfjördur July 12, and
and a third numbering 19 from the south of Iceland leaving a little
later. All had reached Winnipeg shortly after the middle of August.
Travelling by flatboat and small boats, they had made their way
to Gimli by the end of the month. A few did not go that far, but
chose to settle in the southern part of the district. Some single
persons and a few families remained in Winnipeg.
Most lands had already been taken in the southern part of New
Iceland so the newcomers had to seek the lands farther north. On
arriving by boat at Icelandic River, their first task was to measure
out the land—160 acres to each family. This they did so accurately