The Icelandic Canadian - 01.04.2006, Page 10

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 60 #1
realized. The people were gathered from
various places in Ontario and another jour-
ney began.
After about a month’s travel, the last
short distance on flat-boats, steamer-towed
from Winnipeg “and on the twenty first of
October the steamer Colville towed us on
our way to Willow Point... A stiff breeze
blew from the south ...” There Valdis
delivered the little boy, the first to be born
in New Iceland, exactly 130 years ago.
Valdis was a good midwife and delivered
many children both in New Iceland and
Argyle.
Valdis travelled to Winnipeg to work
in domestic service. In 1876 Simon began
building his new house, on his own land
and the work of building took two days,
because Simon had already cut the logs
required. He planted potatoes and then he
went to Winnipeg with his son, Mundi, to
meet with Valdis. They stayed on in
Winnipeg. Simon working for Taylor at
making flat-boats for the party of
Icelanders who arrived that summer. The
first group came with Sigtryggur, 750 peo-
ple, and the second with Halldor Briem
with nearly 450 people. Simon went back,
finished the roof of his house, and moved
in, in late September. “I named the place
Skogar (Woods).” It was rightly named for
the land was for the most part heavily
wooded. The cows arrived at the end of
July, 1877, 250 of them from Minnesota.
The settlers had been without milk for two
years, and we can just imagine how wel-
come these creatures were. Simon and
Valdis called their cow Bubot, (Bountiful).
On September 14, 1877 Lord Dufferin vis-
ited Gimli.
Gudrun is born in the bushes in Gimli,
1878.
“On Saturday, March 16, 1878, at four
o'clock in the afternoon Valdis gave birth
to a daughter. Rebecca Johnson was in
attendance. The child was christened on
Palm Sunday, by Reverend Jon Bjarnason,
and named Johanna Gudrun.”
Simon and his family left New Iceland
in March, 1881 for Argyle. There they lived
for a long time, until they moved to
Winnipeg and later to Selkirk where Valdis
died in 1923, at age 89 and Simon died
1927. He was a diligent man and a good
farmer and is thought to have made out
well in the West (Canada).
Simon's diary is a treasure, now safely
kept at the University Library of
Manitoba, in the Icelandic Collection. He
never intended to publish his diary, “it is
highly personal and does not attempt to tell
a comprehensive story of the settlement.”
Valtyr stayed behind.
Now back to Valtyr Gudmundsson
who stayed behind because he wanted to
get an education. Where did this very poor
boy in North Iceland get the idea that he
could attend school like the children of
well-to-do people did. One explanation
could be that his father had attended the
school at Bessastadir. When he died in
1865, Valtyr was five years old, and inher-
ited his properties, not his books or manu-
scripts.
Another explanation could be that
while Valtyr lived with Simon and Valdis at
Heidarsel, where he ran away from, Valtyr
and a neighbour's son formed a friendship
and that friendship lasted as long as they
lived. This man was Stefan Stefansson, who
later became Headmaster of the Akureyri
College and was among the foremost natu-
ralists in Iceland during his lifetime (Flora
Islands). Undoubtedly these two bookish
boys talked about their desire to get educa-
tion. It appears that later the people at
Heidi assisted Valtyr with obtaining work
at Saudarkrokur and got a private teacher