The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2001, Page 15

Vol. 56 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
97
History of Pioneers and Pioneer
Communities—A continual process
Final in a two part series
by Frank Sigurdson
Benediktsson Document Revision
to Family History
My next revision will have to deal with
material that is recorded in this 1917 article.
There is much information that is com-
pletely new compared to anything that I
had previously discovered. 1 will deal with
these items by relating to them in general
terms.
We are familiar with the plight of most
immigrants as they arrived in Winnipeg.
The situation of the Sigurdur Bjornsson
family was typical as they arrived with very
little more than the clothes they were wear-
ing. They could not speak English, but they
were willing to learn, to work and to exert
themselves. Benediktsson confirms this
state of affairs saying that this couple were
very poor when they arrived in New
Iceland. Wilhelm Kristjanson, in his book,
The Icelandic People in Manitoba, quotes a
report about the settlers arriving in 1883,
the year Jon Sigurdsson and family arrived,
which stated, “A great many of these peo-
ple, including nearly all the children,
arrived in a sick and exhausted condition,
requiring unceasing attention for some
time ...”
One of the first items not known is that
Sigurdur Bjornsson and his family lived the
first year, 1883-1884, on a farm in Hnausa,
which was named, Adalbol. It is well
known that they settled a farm in the
Hnausa area an named it Ekra. it is inter-
esting to learn that Sigurdur’s brother Jon
helped them acquire this first place to live
and Bjorn, another brother, helped by giv-
ing his money to buy a cow. Jon and Bjorn
had emigrated in 1876. Jon settled in Grund
near Sandy Bar and Bjorn lived in
Winnipeg, but later moved to North
Dakota. The fact that Sigurdur sold the
livestock in 1890 in order to return to
Iceland must have been devastating to his
family. It was then that Jon had to take
over the farm and build a new herd of cat-
tle.
This document provides some signifi-
cant information about Jon’s life in Iceland.
It includes data that tells us that he learned
his Catechism at age nine and was con-
firmed at age thirteen and worked for a
farmer as a sheepherder at age ten where
the farmer’s daughter spent her time teach-
ing him to write.
Benediktsson provides details that
enlighten our knowledge about Jon’s expe-
rience after coming to New Iceland. In
1884, when he was only fourteen, he had to
work for strangers. Especially noteworthy
is that he went to work in Winnipeg where
he attended school on his own time. There
is no doubt that his education was greatly
enhanced by going to North Dakota with
his paternal uncle Bjorn Bjornsson whose
son, Gunnar became the editor of the
Minnesota Mascot and was the father of
Vadimar Bjornsson, who became involved
in newspaper work and in politics in
Minnesota.
The account about Jon’s work for the
Canadian Pacific Railroad in the Rocky
Mountains, at age eighteen, is memorable
as it reinforces the qualities that were later
attributed to him such as his thoughtful-
ness, strength, endurance and leadership.
The information that he went back to
Ekra, at age twenty, to take over the farm
and also his work in fishing and freighting
fish to Selkirk was known. The detailed
description of the hardships of Jon and his
family, typical to most Icelandic immi-
grants, detailed in Chapter four is illumi-