The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.2004, Qupperneq 53

Vol. 58 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
147
The Trausti Vigfusson House
by Nelson Gerrard
Trausti Vigfusson was born at
Ileykjakot in the Biskupstungur distrcit of
Southern Iceland on June 19, 1869, the son
of Vigfus Gudmundsson and his wife,
Audbjorg Thorsteinsdottir. On October
27, 1894 Trausti married in Iceland to Rosa
Aldis Oddsdottir, the daughter of Rev.
Oddur Gislason who emigrated that same
year to become a pastor in New Iceland on
the shores of Lake Winnipeg. Trausti
worked as a fisherman and carpenter at
Akranes and Isafjordur in the West of
Iceland for four years, until 1898 when he
and Rosa emigrated and joined Rosa’s par-
ents in New Iceland.
After living with Rosa’s parents for a
time, Trausti built a modest log house in
the village of Lundi, also know as Icelandic
River (now Riverton), and there a daugh-
ter, Thorunn, was born on September 15,
1900. Two years later, Trausti dismantled
the house, identifying each hewn log with
Roman numerals and moved it on a horse-
drawn wagon to the homestead (SW of 10-
22-3E) he had taken in the Geysir district.
On a small rise on this land, which he
named Vatnsdalur (Lake Dale), he then
reconstructed the house, and there he and
Rosa lived with their daughter, “Tota,”
until 1950. Trausti’s mother, Audbjorg,
also spent her last years at Vatnsdalur,
bringing to this home much old world lore.
Trausti and Rosa Vigfusson were kind,
gentle, cultured people who struggled to
adapt to this land amidst poverty and hard-
ship. Besides farming on a small scale,
Trausti plied his trade in the area, building
many homes and at least three local
churches, as well as fashioning beautiful
furniture with hand tools and his home-
made treadle lathe.
Both Trausti and Rosa were steeped in
the traditions of their homeland, and their
home was a place where supernatural phe-
nomena, such as dreams and visions, were
discussed as a matter of fact. In the summer
of 1908, Trausti had an unusually vivid
dream in whch a tall stranger emerged from
the bush and approached him from across
the home field. This proud-looking man
shook hands with Traust and introduced
himself as John Ramsay. Trausti had heard
of Ramsay from the old settlers and knew
of his helpfulness toward the Icelandic pio-
neers. He also knew of the tragedy Ramsay
had suffered in losing his wife Betsey, and
four young children in the smallpox epi-
demic in 1876. Ramsay had mourned his
wife and children deeply, and during the
winter after this tragedy, he had brought a
fine marble headstone all the way from
Fort Garry by sleigh, to the gravesite at
Sandy Bar. Ramsay, recently deceased at
the time of the dream, had also been buried
at Sandy Bar, beside his wife Betsey.
In Trausti’s dream, Ramsay recalled
trapping beaver nearby and predicted a
good fortune for the settlement. He seemed
to know Trausti was a carpenter and sad-
dened by the neglected state of Betsey’s
grave, he asked Trausti to rebuild the old
picket fence on the site. Trausti, in spite of
a heavy workload and the distance
involved, promised he would tend to the
matter, and Ramsay and he parted compa-
ny on good terms. Over coffee the next
morning, Trausti told of the dream to his
wife, mother and daughter who all agreed
that this had been a meaningful visitation.
Trausti was a man of his word and despite
various unavoidable delays, eventually
crafted a beautiful new picket fence with
ornate corner posts and transported it to
the gravesite at Sandy Bar on an ox-drawn
wagon—thus fulfilling the promise he had
made to John Ramsay.