The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1982, Qupperneq 46

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SUMMER, 1982
A YOUNG PIONEER
by Arnetta Hanson Moncrief
In 1881 young Vigfus Hannesson (later
changed to Hanson) and his older brother,
Hannes, came from Iceland with other
settlers, most of whom went to Gimli.
Vigfus and his brother decided to seek their
fortune in Winnipeg, where they obtained
work unloading lumber off the Lake Win-
nipeg boats. This was hard work — and
often dangerous — owing to slush and
slippery ice at the landings. But the boys
had great determination, their avowed
purpose being to earn enough money to
send for their parents, Snaebjom and
Solveig, and the rest of their family to
come to Canada. They stinted on their
food. After a time Vigfus, a growing boy,
became too ill to work. However, he re-
covered, and soon afterwards found a job
with the C.P.R. hotel in the city. His func-
tion was to meet the passengers from the
East, inducing them to come to the hotel.
Carrying a lantern, he would greet the
passengers: “This way, follow me to the
C.P.R. hotel.” Then he led the way for
those who would ‘follow’ him to the hotel.
In those days some of the English-
speaking citizens showed their contempt
for newcomers who spoke a foreign tongue
by playing mean tricks on them. One older
worker at the hotel picked on Vigfus and
once threw his only cap into a swiftly
running drainage ditch in which it dis-
appeared. When the manager found out, he
made this man pay for a new cap for the
boy. After this the man ignored Vigfus.
His next venture was to work for the
Canadian Pacific Railway, now being ex-
tended across the prairies and through the
Rockies. Many tragic events befell the
work crews, one being an epidemic of
typhoid fever. Many died and were buried
in the snowbanks along the right-of-way.
Vigfus decided to leave the camp on foot to
go farther east where there was work being
done on a snow avalanche. Along the way
he encountered robbers on horseback, who,
after discovering he had only a small coin
on him, felt sorry for him and gave him 25
cents, a considerable sum in those days.
Vigfus carried on with his work on the
railway and became a brakeman on the
trains. Later he gave up his job and his
ambition of becoming a conductor. He then
went to Seattle where there was more em-
ployment. During his first night in a hotel
there, he had a vision or a dream, seeming
to see the murder of a young woman. The
next morning he told the desk clerk what he
had dreamt. The man exclaimed: “This is
amazing! Everything you have narrated
happened in that room a year ago!” Inci-
dentally, the murderer was caught. Vigfus
was psychic; he sometimes foretold im-
portant events.
Two cities of Canada, Calgary and Ed-
monton, were in their embryonic begin-
nings. Vigfus, having saved a considerable
sum of money, bought a small property in
one of these cities. Later he sold it at a
profit.
At this time conditions were difficult in
Iceland; earthquakes, volcanic eruptions,
inclement weather, and famine. As a result
Vigfus’ parents, Snaebjom and Solveig,
who had been rather prosperous farm-folk,
had become almost destitute. The young
brothers in Canada sent them their fare.
The family then left their farm, Hrisum in
Helgafjall’s parish, to migrate to Canada.
Later they moved to Dakota Territory
where they established their home.
Vigfus married a talented young woman,
Margret Rose Jonasson, whose parents
were pioneers in the Gimli district. She was
an artist and her paintings sold well. Vigfus
proudly displayed one of them in the living