Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.12.2008, Page 14

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14 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • 15 December 2008
Photo
Mystery: Do you know these people?From the Pioneer Daughters
Lögberg-Heimskringla features this series of photographic mysteries
in conjunction with the Nel-
son Gerrard’s “Silent Flashes”
project, which explores early
photography among Icelandic
immigrants and their descen-
dants in North America during
the settlement period — from
1870 to 1910.
All unidentified photo-
graphs featured in this series
were taken in Icelandic settle-
ments in Canada and the Unit-
ed States during this era, and
your input is invited if you can
provide any clues as to who
these people are.
Any successful solutions
will be published, but more
importantly these old photo-
graphic treasures can then be
archived for future genera-
tions. Some may also be fea-
tured in the upcoming book
Silent Flashes.
To obtain further informa-
tion on the “Silent Flashes”
project or to provide input,
contact Nelson Gerrard at
(204) 378-2758 or eyrarbak-
ki@hotmail.com, or by mail
at Box 925, Arborg, Manitoba
R0C 0A0.
Check out the “Silent
Flashes” website and photo
archive at www.sagapublica-
tions.com.
Questions on your own
photographic mysteries are
also welcome.
[Note: genealogical data included in book edition.]
Thorun Peterson was born in Valthofstad, Iceland, August
29, 1853. In 1876 at the age of 23, she in company with her
parents, brothers and sisters and some 400 other emigrants,
left their homes to sail to America.
The first lap of the journey from their home to the little fish-
ing village on the bay where they boarded the ship, was made
on horseback. On the third day after the embarked they reached
Scotland. At Glasgow the emigrants boarded the steamship Phoe-
nician and sailed down the river Clyde on their way to Quebec.
Arriving at Quebec, they were put on trains to Collingwood, from
where they went on boats over Lake Huron and Superior to Du-
luth. A train took them across the state of Minnesota to a little
place on the Red River called Fisher’s Landing, near what is now
Grand Forks. Here they boarded a river steamer, the “Dacotah”
and proceeded on thier way to Winnipeg. There they were put on
huge barges which were towed by steamers to the mouth of the
Red River near the Gimli colony. From there, small boats con-
veyed the passengers along the shores of Lake Winnipeg where
they selected sites on which to build their home.
Thorun spent the following winter with her parents in the
rude log house built by her father, of logs hewn on the place.
Though her pioneering experiences were those shared by all
pioneer women, circumstances probably made that first winter
the most outsanding in her memory. A large number of Indians
still lived in the colony and their reputation for savagery was
known in Iceland. That, with the stories of the Custer Massacre
in Montana a short time before, was not altogether comforting
to the newcomers.
Also, grim tragedy overtook the new settlement when
smallpox broke out and swept the entire colony. The Peterson
family escaped, having been vaccinated, but over one hundred
fifty of their friends and countrymen died in the epedemic.
In the spring Thorun went to Winnipeg to look for employ-
ment. As a rule the only places open to untrained girls were
domestic positions and Thorun secured a place with a good
English family where she learned to speak English. In 1879
she came to Pembina, D.T. There she worked in the home of an
Army officers family in Fort Pembina.Her contact at this period
with educated intelligent people, was a valuable esperince. From
it she formulated ideals and standards on which she based her
own homemaking in this new land.
On December 8, 1881, Thorunn Peterson married Stigur
Thorwaldson, the young man to whom she was betrothed before
she left Iceland. They were married at Mountain, D.T. They set
up housekeeping on a quarter section of land west of Cavailer.
In a year or tow they started a small general store and a few
years later a Post Office called Akra was established there. For
forty years they lived and prospered there. Their home was tru-
ly a “House by the side of the Road”, where friend and stranger
alike received a warm welcome, food and shelter, which in the
early days they were often called upon to dispense.
Due to advancing age, Mr. & Mrs. Thorwaldson left Akra
in 1921 and went to Los Angeles to live. Stigur Thorwaldson
died there December 78, 1926 and is buried in Forest Lawn
Cemetary, Glendale, Calif. Thorun Thorwaldson died March 18,
1927 and is buried beside her husband.
The History of Thorun Thorwaldson 1853-1927
In 1940, The Pembina County Pioneer Daughters began collecting information on North Dakota’s homesteading period in the late 1800s in the
form of memoirs and genealogical data. George
Freeman of Grand Forks, ND has compiled all of
the accounts on the early settlements into three
volumes, now available in hardcover.
For more information on the Pembina County
Pioneer Daughters Biographies, contact George
Freeman at 2091 27 Ave. So., Grand Forks, ND,
58201, by phone at (701) 772-3397, or e-mail
gfreeman@gra.midco.net.
ACROSS: Jólahátíð - Christmas, tré - tree, hálsklútur - scarf, álfur - elf, önd - duck
DOWN: gjöf - gift, fjölskylda - family, engill - angel, veisla - party, snjokórn - snowflake,
jólaviður - holly, kvöldverður - dinner, sokkar - socks
This well dressed brother and sister photographed by Jón Blöndal
in 1898-99 had this picture inscribed ‘...To our cousin Jón Ólafsson’
(possibly Jón Ólafsson at Brú, or maybe Jón Ólafsson ‘ritstjóri’).
There is no obvious connection between either of these Jón Ólafs-
sons and the original owners of this photo, however, as the picture
is from among those once owned by Ásmundur Kristjánsson and
Kristín Thorsteinsdóttir, at one time of Winnipeg and Baldur, later
of Markerville. The photo is from Wayne and Marlene Linneberg
of the Markerville area of Alberta.
CROSSWORD ANSWERS