The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2003, Blaðsíða 29

Vol. 58 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
27
Letters from FriSjon Fridriksson
Translated by Sigurbjorg Stefansson
Letter # 4 - To Jon Bjarnason
Kinmount, June 15, 1875
Dear Friend: (Jon Bjarnason)
Thank you for your postcard, which I
received on the 10th of this month, and
which brought me a lot of happiness. My
negligence in writing to you, last winter
and spring can hardly be excused. Many
times I was on the verge of beginning to
write to you, but I kept on putting it off for
various reasons about which I shall tell
you:
The latest news which you got of
Icelanders in Canada, more precisely here
in Kinmount, probably included the facts,
firstly, that we were looking for a school
teacher, secondly, that all had gotten per-
manent jobs at the Victorian railroad and
were hoping to be able to settle down
where they, at that time, found themselves,
but much has happened since then. When it
became evident that you could not come
here - which, by the way, I think was for
the best- I responded to the Icelanders’
request about moving to Kinmount and
became a manager for the trade or shop
centre which Sigtryggur Jonasson, the
Icelandic interpreter, had established here
in Kinmount last fall, but he became a
school teacher, teaching in a schoolhouse
which the regional government had built
for these purposes. The teaching began
early last March and it is still going on to a
great benefit for the children and the
teenagers. The teacher’s salaries have not
been settled yet, but the Missionary Society
is going to provide $200 and an equal sum
can be expected from the English Church
association here.
Early last winter Icelanders here start-
ed to become discontented. They found the
work at the railroad hard, they found the
salaries low (a dollar a day) and there were
many more grievances, some reasonable,
but others were pure imagination as a result
of deadly false ideas about America which
Icelanders both here and in Iceland possess.
For instance, they think that every puddle
here is full of various kinds of fish and all
they have to do is to choose which fish to
grab for their next meal. They think that
the forests are full of birds and wild animals
which can be caught whenever one needs
food. Furthermore, they expect to be able
to keep their jobs even if they only show
up for work 2 or 3 days a week. When
these hopes turned out to be illusions,
many Icelanders became desperate. They
thought that the Government of Ontario
had brought them to a miserable place, and
they wanted to get away. One day
Johannes Arngrimsson, who you know
from Milwaukee joined the Icelanders. He
was supposed to be an interpreter for the
Icelanders against the Government of