Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.04.2013, Qupperneq 12

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12 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • April 15 2013
Sigtryggur Jónasson
... from 9
Now, penniless and without re-
course, they turn to their trusted young
leader. Compassionate and resourceful,
Sigtryggur quickly makes arrangements
for a little casket, a wagon to transport
the family to the cemetery, and a priest to
officiate at the graveside – all discreetly
paid for out of his own pocket.
Four years later, October 20,1880,
and we are aboard the SS Victoria as it
steams out the mouth of the Icelandic
River and onto the choppy waters of
Lake Winnipeg.
At the helm, now wearing a beard
and a captain’s hat is Captain Sigtryggur
Jónasson, who together with business
partner Friðjón Friðriksson, is the proud
new owner of this $4000 steam ship.
A vital link with the outside world, the
Victoria transports not only supplies and
passengers to and from New Iceland, it
tows a new barge – built at Icelandic
River – loaded with locally produced
lumber destined for Selkirk and
Winnipeg. The Jónasson-Friðriksson
venture includes a store, logging camps,
a sawmill, and a boat building facility –
all of which provide crucial employment
in the settlement.
Near the sawmill is a homestead
with a fine, two-storey house. It is called
Möðruvellir after the place in Iceland
where Sigtryggur had spent many of his
formative years, and like its namesake
in Iceland this Möðruvellir is also an
important headquarters and cultural
centre. Since Sigtryggur’s election as
New Iceland’s head of council, this
is now an important administrative
centre, and the settlement’s only post
office has been moved here from Gimli.
Möðruvellir also housed the first school,
and here the newspaper Framfari is
edited.
In charge of the household is
Sigtryggur’s wife, Rannveig, a delicate
and cultured woman unsuited to pioneer
life – but devoted to her husband, who
is away on business much of the time.
Rannveig and Sigtryggur have recently
adopted a little boy, Percy, who is the
apple of their eye. Their household
includes an interesting array of people
– including Torfhildur Hólm, a young
widow writing a novel; and Halldór
Briem, Sigtryggur’s successor as editor
of Framfari.
It is this economic and administrative
activity at Möðruvellir that holds a
crucial, critical mass of settlers in New
Iceland during the settlement’s lowest
ebb – following one stroke of bad luck
after another: smallpox, wet weather,
religious conflict – none of which could
have been foreseen through any amount
of foresight and planning. As a result of
this enterprise, the settlers at Icelandic
River stand their ground, and by 1883 an
influx of new immigrants will join them
to repopulate New Iceland from end to
end. Thus the settlement is narrowly
saved from collapse and abandonment.
It is now August 11, 1894 and
we find Sigtryggur in Reykjavík,
addressing a large audience. His
subject is improved transportation and
communication for Iceland – regular
steamship sailings and exports to
Britain, an Icelandic railway system,
telegraph lines and more – deemed by
Icelandic Member of Parliament Skúli
Thoroddsen as “…the most significant
legislation of its kind ever to come
before the nation and parliament of
Iceland”. Iceland had won trade reform
in 1854 and a new constitution in 1874.
Now, in 1894, Sigtryggur argued, it was
time for Iceland to take control of its
own transportation. Only then would
economic reforms provide Iceland with
enough employment and development
to maintain its increasing population
and stem emigration... Having even
arranged potential financing, Sigtryggur
had laid this proposal before Iceland’s
Parliament, where it won considerable
support. Some of Iceland’s politicians
were not ready for such change, however,
and ironically it would not be for
another 20 years, 1914, that the nation
would finally gain its own transportation
company in the form of Eimskipafélagið
– the Icelandic Steamship Company –
based on the same principles.
Now we find ourselves at a meeting
in the “Gimli Hall” on Aug.11, 1905.
All in attendance rise to their feet in a
unanimous show of gratitude to one
man, Captain Sigtryggur Jónasson,
without whose help and intervention
Gimli would have been by-passed by the
proposed CPR line. When New Iceland
was selected in 1875, the projected
transcontinental railway had been
mapped out through the settlement, from
Selkirk to The Lake Manitoba Narrows,
and when these plans were changed,
New Iceland and the Interlake region as a
whole had been left in relative isolation.
For decades, delegations of settlers had
lobbied their elected representatives
to have the railway extended to the
area, but despite promises and good
intentions, after 30 years Gimli still
had no rail connection. Now, through
Sigtryggur’s deft negotiations with the
CPR and strategic communication with
the riding’s MP in Ottawa, S. J. Jackson,
the rail bed was being surveyed north
from Winnipeg Beach to Gimli – now
one of the few remaining rail lines in
Manitoba.
It is now February 11, 1908 and the
setting of this scene is the Manitoba
Provincial Legislature. During a debate
on the budget, 56 year old Sigtryggur
rises to his feet. The first Icelander
to serve in a Canadian Legislature,
he had been elected to represent
the people of St. Andrew’s on Lake
Winnipeg’s west shore in 1896, and
re-elected in 1907 to represent the new
constituency of Gimli. A fine speaker
and ever the visionary, he draws the
Legislature’s attention to the promise
of the North and advocates the further
extension of provincial boundaries...
a policy adopted by Prime Minister
Laurier’s government that same year
and implemented in 1912. Sigtryggur
then focuses his words on the Interlake
– some of which is now among the
finest agricultural land in the province
– and points out the need for roads,
drainage, and railways. The finances
are there, he argues, they simply
need to be distributed more fairly and
judiciously.
Sigtryggur’s keen under-standing
of government and the corporate world,
along with his tenacity in advocating
for his region, would bring the CPR to
Árdalur two years later, in 1910. This
stimulated the creation of the new town
of Arborg and opened for settlement
and development the entire Rural
Municipality of Bifröst – and beyond.
A second railway extension was won
in 1914, to Riverton, which then grew
in leaps and bounds as a transportation
and mercantile hub for the North.
This development was also of huge
benefit to all who would homestead the
surrounding districts in years to come.
Given Sigtryggur’s contributions
in the area of transportation, it is most
appropriate that the municipal road
running through his homestead has now
been approved for historical designation
as Sigtryggur Jónasson Way.
The next scene is set in the new
Riverton Park, on August 6, 1928, on the
occasion of an Icelandic Celebration. The
Riverton Band, directed by Sigurbjörn
Sigurðsson, has just performed, and
the speakers seated on a freshly painted
podium include Sveinn Thorvaldsson,
one of Riverton’s most progressive
citizens, and Sigtryggur Jónasson,
“Father of New Iceland” – now 76 years
of age and resident at nearby Engimýri.
A description of the scene was published
in Heimskringla:
“...A huge crowd had gathered
from all directions – certainly no fewer
than 1500 people – and wherever one
looked, whether around the stage or
across the playing field, the eye beheld a
beautiful sight: happiness and courteous
conduct; handsome people, young and
old, bearing the characteristics of their
forebears; and all around the idyllic,
productive countryside...”
Among those present that day were
undoubtedly generations of Sigtryggur’s
closest relatives, likely including his
granddaughter Rannveig, age six; his
grand niece Jónína, by then 13 years
old, and my mother, a great-grandniece,
age eight – all of them present at the
unveiling of his statue. It was a scene
that must have given great satisfaction
to the old pioneer – whose most heartfelt
and steadfast dream it had been to see
New Iceland flourish. No doubt he also
believed that his people’s obligations
to Lord Dufferin, who had pledged
his honour on their behalf in 1875,
and to the Canadian Government, who
had welcomed the Icelandic people
so generously, had now been fulfilled
– and that members of the Icelandic
community would continue to contribute
for all time.
The final scene is in the Riverton
Cemetery on November 30, 1942, the
pioneer being laid to rest on the eve of
winter is Captain Sigtryggur Jónasson.
Though he had been honoured by his
peers many times during his long career,
at 90 he had outlived most of those who
knew first hand of his countless acts of
benevolence and service to others. The
funeral in Arborg had been simple and
only moderately well attended – with
little indication that this was the final
farewell to one of the most remarkable
and significant individuals in the
history of the Icelandic people in North
America. It is safe to say that without
Sigtryggur, history on a larger scale
would have unfolded very differently...
and of course none of us would be here
today...
No doubt Sigtryggur would be
pleased to see that his vision lives on...
and though he never sought public
recognition throughout his long career, I
feel he would be honoured by the token
of respect and esteem we unveiled on
the bank of his beloved Icelandic River,
on a corner of his original homestead,
Möðruvellir.
As Sigtryggur is remembered and
honoured on the 160th anniversary
of his birth and 140th year since his
arrival in Canada, may the vision,
commitment, integrity, leadership,
and service Sigtryggur demonstrated
throughout his long career... serve as
examples for us all, in our daily lives
and in our various communities...
That these values endured among us
has certainly been evident through the
strong show of support our group has
received – from many people, in many
places, in many forms – during the six-
year struggle to bring this project from
concept to reality.
Editor’s comments: This is the
text delivered at the unveiling of the
Sigtryggur Jónasson statue 20 October
2012 exactly 112 years after the arrival
of the “Large Group”in New Iceland.
L-H features this series of photographic mysteries in conjunction with the
Nelson Gerrard’s “Silent Flashes” project, which explores early photography
among Icelandic immigrants and their descendants in North America.
Any successful solutions will be published.
To obtain further informa-tion on the “Silent Flashes” project or to provide
input, contact Nelson Gerrard at (204) 378-2758 or eyrarbakki@hotmail.com, or
by mail at Box 925, Arborg, Manitoba R0C 0A0.
Check out the “Silent Flashes” website and photo archive at www.
sagapublications.com.
Photo mystery
This photo from
the collection of the
late Flora Benson of
Winnipeg, courtesy
of Judith Hoye of
Ottawa, shows three
young Icelandic
nurses about 1910-
1920, almost certainly
graduates from the
Winnipeg General
Hospital.
Does anyone know
them?”
Do you know these people?