The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1973, Side 21

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
19
The Tomas T. Jonasson Stopping Place
by Nelson Gerrard
The Tomas T. Jonasson Stopping Place At Engimyri, Icelandic River (Riverton)
The original stopping place at Engi-
myri was a log house, built by Tomas
Jonasson (a brother of Sigtryggur
Jonasson) shortly after his arrival in
1877. A part of the present building
was built in 1899, a part in 1904.
The lumber for the building came
from the Kristjon Finnson saw mill,
close by. The main building is 32 by
16 feet; the family room addition 24
by 16 feet. The overall length is thus
56 feet.
One point I have discovered regard-
ing the Tomas Jonasson “Stopping
Place’’ is that it was almost a tradition
in Tomas’s family and this may well
have been the reason why Engimyri
at Icelandic River became a stopping
location for travellers.
Tomas’s father, Jonas SigurSsson.
lived a great part of his life at Bakka-
sel, the outermost farm in the Oxna-
dal in EyjarfjorSur. This farm, origin-
ally settled by Tdmas’s grandfather,
the father of his mother, (Egill Tomas-
son) was a mountain dairy or “sel” up
until 1894 or so, when Egill home-
steaded up there, moving from one of
the largest, most productive farms in
Oxnadal, Bakka, to which this “sel”
was connected by lease. Egill was quite
a character and is described as a man
who liked to follow his own incli-
nations rather than follow in the foot-
steps of other men. He is always char-
acterized as a very intelligent man, al-
ways willing to help when the need
was foremost, kind to indigents and
hospitable or “gestrisinn”. Probably
the tradition started when Egill moved
to Bakkasel; but possibly guests were
accustomed to stopping at Bakka when
Egill lived there. Bakkasel, if you
know the Oxnadal, is located on the
route to Akureyri, right under the
eastern edge of OxnadalsheiSi, over