The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1946, Blaðsíða 54

52
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Winter 1946
deal of potatoes to go with the fish, and
potatoes served as fodder for the cow.
The soil was a tangle of roots down
to clay and was difficult to cultivate
with the one implement available, the
hoe. One worked hard all day, with but
little to show for it. The roads were im-
passable, so that draught animals were
of little use. In any event, these were
possessed by only a few, and their use
was chiefly in winter.
In October of 1876, we took GuSrun
Johannsdottir from Johanna Thorbergs-
dottir, who had a struggle to maintain
her four children and an aged mother.
-She had lost her husband, and a very
promising son, Paul. I have not made a
note of how long we kept the girl. Also,
in the spring of 1877, we took GuSrun
Kristjansdottir and her child. They re-
mained with us on into the following
winter.
On the fourteenth of September, 1877,
Lord Duffer-in visited Gimli.
On Saturday, the sixteenth of March,
1878, at four o’clock in the afternoon,
Valdis gave birth to a daughter. Re-
becca Johnson was in attendance. The
child was christened on Palm -Sunday,
by Reverend Jon Bjarnason, and named
Johanna GuSrun.
The house at Laufas burned down at
noon on March 30th. Two women were
at home at the time, one of them with
an infant, and virtually nothing was
saved. In the circumstances, we tried to
help, and Arni and GuSrun came to
stay with us, with their son Jon, who
was then in his first year. It did not
take long to rebuild. The people were
always good neighbors.
On the day of the fire at Laufas
our Bubot calved. Her udder was ex-
tremely large, and her yield was rich.
Jon Magnusson and Jon Sigurjonsson
possessed the farms immediately to the
south of us. They were both poor, so
that it was sometimes necessary to give
them a portion of our meagre supplies.
Erlendur and Ingibjorg, who lived near-
er to the lake, were both frugal, and
they prospered. Little Andres, their son,
grew to manhood, and was married.
Skapti Arason and IndriSi IndriSason,
who owned lands by the lake, had good
hayland. A narrow inlet ran up to Ind-
ridi’s home, and I had a landing place
there for my boat. Skapti was located a
little farther to the south, on an inlet
called Husavik. Sometimes I drew my
boat ashore there, but the distance was
greater, which was a consideration when
carrying things.
My last year in the settlement was the
most difficult for obtaining hay. I owned
little meadow-land and my pastures
were in the woods, and they were in-
sufficient to maintain a significant num-
ber of cattle.
Sometimes I alternated with Valdis in
going to Winnipeg to earn money for
necessaries, but it was a long and a hard
pull, and earnings remained small.
The people in the settlement had to
rely on the outside world for many
things, while neither fish nor any other
local produce had an outside market.
Trips to Winnipeg were numerous and
the travelling was difficult.
The members of Reverend Jon Bjarna-
son’s congregation abided the difficult
conditions longer than did the followers
of Reverend Paul Thorlaksson. It was
the Reverend Paul who opened the eyes
of the people to the miserable prospects
in the country, while abundant good
land was to be had elsewhere. Discon-
tent took hold in the settlement and
large numbers moved to North Dakota.
Those who left, forfeited their cows and
stoves and the other items furnished
through the government loan.
In the summer of 1880 a few men went
to look for land elsewhere in Manitoba.
S. Kristofersson, Kristjan Jonsson, W.
Taylor, and S. Snaedal formed one group;
the Arnason brothers, Skapti Arason,
Skuli, and Halldor, another. They walk-
ed all the way, proceeding south to
Emerson, west to Pilot Mound, and then
north to Argyle. They apparently took
a shorter route on their return but all
this walking must have been strenuous.
These men selected land for them-
selves and for others, and there followed
the heaviest outward movement that