Jón Bjarnason Academy - 01.05.1935, Blaðsíða 30

tion the success of the Norwegians, who received them as
brothers, and they express the hope that they, too, may succeed
as the Norwegians have done, and establish a new Iceland in
America with schools and churches and newspapers of their
own.
The year 1873 saw the beginning of the real migration.
In that year about 165 persons left Iceland for America and
arrived in Quebec August 25th. Arrangements had been made
by their compatriots in Milwaukee to place the new arrivals
with farmers in Wisconsin so that they might learn something
of agriculture, hut the Allan S.S. Company in Glasgow had
given them tickets to Northern Ontario, free passage from
Quebec being provided by the Ontario government. So that
only 50 of this party went on to Milwaukee. The remaining
110 were sent to Rosseau, a small village on Lake Muskoka in
Northern Ontario. This was the first settlement of Icelanders
in Canada. Free land was set aside for them, hut only a few
were able to take up homesteads. These began at once to
build log cabins on their lands. Most of the others were en-
gaged on road construction, but work was intermittent during
the winter and wages were low, $16 per month. Food was
dear and not too plentiful and the cold was severe. During
the winter many left the settlement for Milwaukee, hut there,
too, conditions had changed. The bank failures of 1873 had
caused a financial panic throughout the country and unem-
ployment was rife. That winter, however, passed without
serious mishap.
The next year, 1874, saw a greater influx. Some 360 people
came from Iceland direct to Quebec and all of these went to
Ontario hut not to the settlement of the previous year which
had rapidly dwindled. Most of them went to Kinmount, a
small village, about 100 miles north-east of Toronto, beyond
the end of the railway. At Kinmount the men were engaged on
railway construction at 90 cents a day. The government built
for them and their families six small log huts, the two largest
being 70 feet long and 20 feet wide and the remaining four,
each half that size. In this crowded accommodation these
people lived that winter. Work was not regular; food was
dear and in spite of some government aid hunger was felt.
Many children died that winter mainly from cold and lack
of proper housing and food.
It was apparent that this district in Northern Ontario
was not the promised land, the new Iceland of their dreams.
The prospects of building up a settlement there was not a
bright one. The land was all heavily wooded and difficult to
clear and cultivate for people who had no implements, and
no oxen or horses, and no money with which to buy them.
With the completion of the railway there was no prospect of
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