The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1956, Page 29

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
27
Asa Wright and Her Plantation in Trinidad, B.W.i.
by W. J. LINDAL
It is well known that Icelanders
scatter far and wide. In Canada one
hears of them in the most unexpected
places—in northern Quebec and in
small towns in Nova Scotia. To come
across an Icelander permanently resi-
dent in the tropics would cause some
surprise; to discover an Icelander own-
ing and operating a large plantation
on a tropical island would be regarded
as something very unique; but to find
that the owner and operator of such
a plantation is a woman is little shoit
of a revelation. What better evidence
can there be of the true nature and
the permanence of the viking spirit?
Asa GuSmundsdottir was born in
Iceland on April 12, 1892. She is the
daughter of the late GuSmundur GuS-
mundsson, a doctor who practised
medicine in Stykkisholmur, on the
west coast of Iceland, for over a quarter
of a century. Her grandfather on the
father’s side was a minister who served
at Storuvollum in Landssveit not far
from Mount Hekla.
Asa’s father was a typical country
doctor. He completed his training in
medicine in Copenhagen and on com-
ing back to Iceland settled at first in
Arnes district, east of Reykjavik,
where he practised for about eight
years. He spent a year in England and
Scotland acquiring additional train-
ing. When he retired in 1927 he was
residing in Stykkishdlmur village.
Though a professional man, Dr.
GuSmundsson was always close to the
common people of Iceland and felt
that the best in the Icelandic people
derived from the rural areas. One bor-
ASA GUSMUNDSDOTTIR in Iceland,
at the age of twenty-two
bergur borSarson wrote a biography
of the late Rev. Arni borarinsson. In
that biography Dr. GuSmundsson is
reported to have made this revealing-
observation:
“I am a descendant of professional
and civil service people for eleven
generations. What a hell of a treat-
ment it is not to be able to rest upon
one solid farmer’s lineage”.
Asa’s grandmother on the father’s
side, Ingibjorg, was a daughter of a
district dean in the Church of Ice-
land.