The Icelandic Canadian - 01.02.2007, Qupperneq 33

Vol. 60 #4
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
159
the compiler of this short biography. It
may be that a single woman homesteading
was not commonplace, but, at the same
time, not so unusual that it deserved to be
commented upon. Evidence that supports
this claim is that five (3.5%) women in
Township 30, 2 (4.1%) in Township 31,
one (0.7%) in Township 32 had been
awarded a quarter section of land.42 Or it
may have been the case that Goodman’s
status as a single woman didn’t warrant
attention because she wasn’t by herself.
As Stella and I discovered later, it was not
the case then that she had no familial rela-
tionship in the latter part of her life; rather
this relationship had not received official
sanction and therefore was erased from her
obituary.
No reasons are offered as to why
Goodman emigrated. Again, the lack of
commentary on this significant event in
Goodman’s life suggests that the reasons
were so commonplace or obvious that they
did not merit any explanation. In my
diary, I ask what motivated Gudrun to
leave her native Iceland? Was it over the
loss of her husband? Was it a spirit of
adventure, having no family ties left in
Iceland? These questions are entirely and
embarrassingly romantic. We will never
know why she left Iceland but a little
research revealed, that like many immi-
grants, Gudrun probably left for economic
reasons. Lindal states that the main reason
for Icelanders’ emigrating was “the dire
need among some of the people in
Iceland.”43 The Icelandic economy col-
lapsed in 1858 and this downturn contin-
ued into the 1880s. Large-scale emigration
began in the early 1880s and Lindal reports
that “The year 1887, was ‘agileget eym-
darar’, a terrible year of misery and the
largest emigration in any year took place
that summer.”44 Since the first known
Icelandic homestead entry in Canada is
1885, and Gudrun emigrated in 1886 and
arrived in Canada in 1887, we can establish
that she was part of the first wave of immi-
grants, and was most likely seeking a better
life.
The obituary of Gudrun Goodman
tells one story of her life grounded in nar-
ratives of settlement and immigration.
Hers was a ‘success’ story of a woman who
had faced great hardship, but, by hard
work, she persevered and overcame these
barriers (seemingly as a single woman), and
had owned land while serving the commu-
nity by delivering many babies. Another
version of her story was recounted by
Konrad Halldorson, the son of Gudbjorg
Eyjolfson, when I interviewed him on
April 6, 2002; he had just celebrated his
81st birthday. Stella was able to track him
down since we knew that his mother had
married Thomas Halldorson; and some of
their children still lived in the Foam Lake
area. Unfortunately, Konrad Halldorson
was quite ill in hospital but he was still
keen for me to interview him. Because of
his ill-health and age, Mr. Halldorson was-
n’t able to give me much new information
about Gudrun Goodman or the circum-
stances of Gudbjorg Eyolfson’s birth. As
it turns out, because Mr. Halldorson “was
not at his best when I interviewed him”
according to Kay Halldorson, his wife, he
could not remember some of the details
and also invented a few (which Mrs.
Halldorson pointed out in the transcript).
Nor does there seem to be any reason that
he should remember Gudrun Goodman
because he was only two years old when
she died. However, a few key elements
stand out from the interview. The first
was Mr. Halldorson’s vivid account of
Gudbjorg Eyolfson’s birth.
Well, my mom’s mother was
Gudbjorg Sveinsdottir, well I’ll start
maybe with her father. Her father Konrad
Eyjolfson was working to earn some
money to get started. He was working on
the railroad a long ways from home and so
she, Gudbjorg Sveindsdottir, was trying to
do some chores. She was staying with this
midwife Gudrun Goodman and she was
helping what she could and she was just
umm, went to pump water for the oxen at
noon. It was a hot day and the flies were
bothering them, and they had these terrible
long horns and they swiped to get the flies,
you know how they do? And they just
ripped her apart and this Gudrun
Goodman, the midwife, was there so she
just saved my mother but my grandmother