The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2000, Side 16

Vol. 56 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
14
there was greater opportunity for work there
than here in Ontario. We therefore set off south
and traveled by ship to Milwaukee. We stayed
in a hotel there that night, but in the morning
when we had paid for our lodgings, we found
we had just .15 cents left. Now we were in a
predicament!
We did not know where the Icelanders
lived, and we had nowhere to turn."
Woolen underwear
"Tell her how your husband happened to
find the Icelanders" said Miss Herman.
"That was quite funny," said Fru GuSny
smiling. "He told me to wait at the hotel. He
was going to walk around the town to see if he
could get any information about them. He
walked the streets for a long time, suddenly he
noticed some laundry hanging on a clothesline
of a house near by; he felt there was something
familiar with this laundry; he saw some knit-
ted woolen underwear hanging there! Yes!!
There must be Icelanders there! He knocked on
the door and he was right! There were several
Icelanders there. A joyous reunion ensued! On
the way south they had been in a railway acci-
dent and some had been slightly injured and
were there under doctor's care. A short time
later the doctor came.”
Fridjon had learned English and could
speak to him and told him of our circum-
stances. The doctor invited us to stay with him
for the winter, but he could not pay us. We
nevertheless accepted his offer. Fri3jon
The Fredrickson family, 1898, (rear): Aurora and her husband,
Thomas H. Johnson, (front l-r): Kari, Gubny, Haraldur and
Frictjon.
worked for the doctor, and I helped his wife
with the housework and benefited much from
my stay there, for I learned the language and
also the cooking methods used here.
First home
In the spring my husband got work in a
store and the wages were good. Some time
later we received a letter from his brother
Arni in Toronto, saying that we should come
there, because there was a good job opportu-
nity for Fridjon there. When we arrived in
Toronto we bought our first home and Arni
lived with us. We did not, however, stay long
in that place. After some months we moved
to Kinmount. There my husband took over
the store for Sigtryggur Jonasson. We left
there in the fall of 1875 with a large group of
Icelanders heading west to Manitoba with the
intention of settling on the land there and
establishing an Icelandic settlement on the
shore of Lake Winnipeg."
"Didn't you find it tiring to be moving so
often?'
"It did not bother me too much" replied
Fru Gudov. "I was young and with my hus-
band; wherever he was, that was my home."
Trials and tribulations
"Didn’t the settlers have many difficulties
the first years after you arrived in Gimli?1
"Yes, the people lived through terrible
ordeals, but I will say this -" said Fru Gu5ny,
and she emphasized her words-"they showed
admirable courage in all the trials
and tribulations, and were extremely
helpful and shared each other's bur-
dens. It was tragic not to have any
milk for the blessed children the first
winter; and many young children
died. As the winter wore on, many
people suffered greatly from scurvy
because they had neither enough or
fresh food."
"Was it not possible to use fish
from the lake, and rabbits from the
forest?" I asked.
"No, first of all the men didn't
know how to fish through the ice,
and secondly they had no equipment
to do so. Many had an aversion to
eating rabbits - they felt it was like
eating cats. I soon began cooking
these animals using the recipes I had