The Icelandic Canadian - 01.10.1942, Side 31

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
27
Pioneer Days On Big Island
JON JONSSON
Jon Jonsson is one of our few surviving Icelandic pioneers. From the
time he came to Canada over sixty years ago he has kept a diary. The
following excerpt is translated from his journal by his granddaughter,
Val. S. Sigurdsson.
Translated by Val. S. Sigurdsson
JON JONSSON
It seems to m.e that the history of
Big Island begins with Magnus Hall-
grimson, postman. He was the first
Icelander who took a homestead — in
the year 1875. He had been in Ontario
for one year, when he heard that a tract
of land on Lake Winnipeg had been
surveyed and set aside for the Iceland-
ers. He had also heard that a saw-
mill had been built on the eastern side
of the island close to the bay. This bay
received its name from the mill and
was called Mill Bay. He decided to go
there believing he might get work at
the mill and be able to catch enough
fish for food. He moved there and
selected for his homestead the first
farm north of the mill. He named his
homestead Ingolf’s Bay because his son,
Ingolfur, was born there. He named his
son for Ingolf, the first settler in Ice-
land.
When the large group of immigrants
came to this country the following year,
some of them wished to move to Big
Island but others thought the idea was
unfeasible. However it was decided the
land should at least be examined.
Three leading men from the group went
to the island to look it over. They went
all around it and visited Magnus at In-
golf’s Bay. He spoke well of everything.
There was enough fish in-shore for food
he said, and it would be of help to the
settlers that there was a saw-mill from
which they could obtain slabs and lum-
ber for the roofs and floors of their
houses.
The men who went to examine the
land were Johann StraumfjorS, who was
leader of a small group and came from
StraumfjorSur in Miklaholts hrepp,
Hnappadals syslu; I-Ialldor Thorgilsson,
from Hundadal in Middolum in Dala
syslu; and a man called Sigurdur—if I
recall correctly his surname was Anton-
iusson. These three men took for them-
selves and the people who were with
them all the eastern shore from Mill
Bay north to the end of the island.
Some of the six families who came to
the island in 1878 had been urged to do
so by friends, who had written and
spoken well of their circumstances and
of the island.
When I came to Big Island on the
twenty-sixth of August, 1878, I was told
that all the suitable land on the eastern
shore had been taken. The western
shore was low and uninhabitable, but
was good for haying. The mill had not
been operating for a year so no work
was to be had there. All the men were