The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1973, Síða 25

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
23
“An Oldtimer’s Tale” was written by a sixteen-year old high-
school student as an essay for an Icelandic Festival historical
essay competition. An interesting feature of this entry is that
it is written by a non-Icelandic student whose sole reference
was a history of the Icelandic people in Manitoba in the school
library.
Part I. and II. of the essay are being published as a sample of
the work done. The main part is omitted because the story is
well-known to most of the readers of the Icelandic Canadian.
—Editor
•AN OLDTIMER'S TALE”
The History of New Iceland, the first Icelandic Settlement in Manitoba
by Jule Nazeravich
PART I.
“There it is down below, that’s
Gimli. We’ll land at the airstrip.”
I live in Winnipeg now but this is
where I was born and raised. I came
to see the festival and my Grandfather
who is getting kind of old. It was
three years ago when Grandma died.
Grandpa get’s quite lonely so I try to
visit him as often as I can.
“This 'town is so beautiful. I really
love it. Hello, Grandpa?”
“Hello Paul! Oh I’m so glad to see
you son. Oh, come on Paul, please sit
down for me. Tell me what you’ve
been up to.”
“Nothing at all Grandpa. I’m just
lazing around these summer days.”
“Would you like to go see the
parade?”
“Yea, I really would.”
“I can still remember my young
days in the old settlement, Paul. I was
born in the summer of 1890, but I
had my first taste of life in 1895. That
day in spring my mother let me roam
away from home. I ran right to the
lake where my father was fishing and
he heaved me up and looked me
straight in the eye. Then he started
laughing because he knew he scared
me It was four years later that he told
me how he came to New Iceland. Ice-
land was beautiful but his hardships
were too numerous, so he came to
Canada. About 150 Icelanders came
altogether and they settled in Ontario
at Rosseau. They found the land poor,
so some tried Nova Scotia. The gov-
ernment there offered 100 acres of
free land to any person over fifteen.
The soil was impossible to work and
when these unfortunate settlers heard
of New Iceland, they moved here.”
“My father came here with the first
settlement just before freeze-up in
1875. They sailed from Sarnia to Du-
luth by steamer. From Duluth they
took the train to Fisher’s Landing on
the Red River, and another steamer
brought the Icelanders down the Red
to Winnipeg. In Winnipeg the settlers
put their freight on flat-boats and
sailed down to Gimli.”
“My father told me of John Taylor,
who pictured himself as Moses leading
his people to the promised land. He
wasn’t Icelandic though. Sigtryggur
Jonasson, the first Icelandic settler in
Canada, was another great man play-
ing a large part in the colonization
of New Iceland.”
“The winter of 1875-1876 was a cold