Lögberg-Heimskringla - 14.07.2006, Page 12

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David Jón Fuller
When he was younger, Dr. Úlfar Bragason heard about a relative
who had left Iceland for North
America. He was intrigued, and
later it led him to research this
relative’s life, which has result-
ed in a new book published by
the University of Iceland.
In Atriði ævi minnar — Bréf
og greinar (“Events of My Life
— Letters and Articles”) the
story of Jón Halldórsson un-
folds.
Jón was born in 1838 at
Ytrineslönd in Mývatnssveit in
the north of Iceland. He grew
up at Grímsstaðir in that region,
and in 1872 he emigrated to the
United States.
He spent time in Milwaukee,
WI; was a farmer in Nebraska;
and also lived in Chicago, IL.
During his life, some of his let-
ters concerning life in America
were published in the Icelandic
publication Norðanfari, as well
as an account of the Icelandic
settlement in Nebraska which
appeared in the Almanak.
Though he alluded to inten-
tions of writing a proper au-
tobiography, he never did so,
although he did have the begin-
nings of one with a text he titled
“Atriði ævi minnar.”
Dr. Úlfar Bragason, Di-
rector at the Sigurður Nordal
Institute in Reykjavík, sifted
through many sources of Jón’s
writings as he edited this new
collection. He has also walked
in Jón’s footsteps himself, as it
were, over the course of a num-
ber of trips to North America.
On a recent visit he gave a lec-
ture at the University of Mani-
toba on the ethics of preserv-
ing, researching and editing
Ameríkubréf, or “letters from
America.”
Dr. Bragason says that his
interest grew in fi nding out
who this man was, after having
heard his mother talking about
him, as well as other relatives
in America.
There was also an odd epi-
sode that seemed straight out of
an Icelandic ghost story, which
led to more of Jón’s letters be-
ing recovered.
In 1970, Dr. Bragason
writes in his preface, a woman
from Mývatnssveit knocked on
the door of his family’s home in
Akureyri with some letters she
said were for his mother. When
his mother asked her where
they had turned up, the wom-
an said she had been at a se-
ance and her deceased mother
Arnfríður Sigurgeirsdóttir had
come to her saying she wanted
her to deliver that which was
in the compartment of a chest
of hers. They were letters that
had been written by Jón to his
sister Helga Halldórsdóttir, and
would have been buried with
Helga had they not been loaned
to Guðbjörg Stefansdóttir. The
woman’s mother Arnfríður had
evidently been keeping them
safe for Guðbjörg.
Dr. Bragason picked up
more of the story by track-
ing down Jón’s descendants in
America.
“I fi rst visited Chicago
where Jón lived last and where
three of his children ran a com-
pany,” he says. “I found where
these people had lived but they
were all dead. At that time I
knew nothing about the descen-
dants but in the year 2000 the
archivist at the City of Chicago
helped me to fi nd them.
“I have since been in contact
with two daughters of Jón’s son,
and what’s more visited one of
them, Audrey Newcomb, and
two children of his son’s son.
That son’s son, Elmer Halldor-
son, had, before he died, col-
lected much information about
the family and I received pho-
tocopies of it all.”
Later Elmer’s daughter,
Carolyn Hinds, sent him pho-
tocopies of Jón Halldórsson’s
diary from the time when he
left Iceland in spring 1872 up
until 1877. Dr. Bragason also
received from her the begin-
ning of Jón’s memoirs which
Carolyn had received out of the
keeping of Sofía, Jón’s daugh-
ter.
He has since visited the
places Jón lived in in Milwau-
kee and in Lancaster, Brown
and Rock Counties in Nebraska,
and this past April he went to
ranch which Jón built in Selden
in Rock County at the turn of
the century around 1900.
Visiting these places and
talking to Jón’s descendants
and in some cases neighbours
who remembered the family
was invaluable for Dr. Bragas-
on’s research. “And though not
one of the descendants, except
Elmer Halldorson, had been to
Iceland, they know much more
about his Icelandic upbringing
than I thought in the begin-
ning,” he says. “My journeys
have also clarifi ed my image
of Jón’s life, his wife and chil-
dren.”
Dr. Bragason is already
planning a second book on Jón
Halldórsson. “It is intended to
be an analysis of letters and
other writings by Jón, what
his writing says to the readers
about his life and attitude as to
Iceland, the western emigra-
tion, the settlement of Iceland-
ers in North America, and what
he considers himself to have
gotten out of life.”
For more information, visit
http://www.haskolautgafan.
hi.is.
12 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 14 July 2006
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Tracing Icelandic footprints in America
PHOTO: DAVID JÓN FULLER
Dr. Úlfar Bragason spoke on the ethics, preservation and edit-
ing of Ameríkubréf at the University of Manitoba.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DR. ÚLFAR BRAGASON
Jón Halldórsson