The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2002, Page 21

Vol. 57 #1
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
19
wagons were ferried across. The horses
were led behind the boat and the cattle
were made to swim across. Everything was
done before night fall, without mishap. It
had been a tiresome, dangerous task for
both man and beast. That night they
pitched their tents near Sage’s place. They
were on the north side of the Red Deer
River, eleven families and four single men,
a total of about fifty people. Included in the
group, was Gudmundur Jonsson, Olafur
Gudmans father who had joined them from
Calgary and had previously homesteaded
in the area, and Jon Jonsson, who had left
Dakota the winter before and had worked
for Olafur Gudman. Olafur had hired him
to help his father build a house on the
homestead. While there Jon filed on a
homestead for himself and his father who
was still in Dakota. Jon went back to
Calgary to work for some time but his wife
and family stayed with the group.
The next day, the 28 th of June, the men
started to look around. Everybody had had
enough traveling and wanted to settle
down. They scattered far and wide looking
for suitable places to build. Some went far-
ther than necessary, for they found it hard
to work together when they were so far
apart. Now, after ten years, it gives me
shivers to think back to the situation then -
to be out there with women and children,
altogether penniless in a wild country, 100
miles from civilization and the comforts of
life. It was awful and for a long time many
paid for the dream that brought them out
here. But on the other hand, it was mar-
velous how well everything went and how
well all of the obstacles and hardships were
conquered by those first pioneers.
Most of us have agreed that the age of
this settlement is June 27th, 1888.
Pioneer Women
Address by Rosa Benediktson
Madam Chairwoman, Ladies and
Gentleman;
The role of the pioneer woman was
different from the present day life of a
housewife. They lacked the amenities,
which we of this modern age, take so much
for granted. They had to be brave, fearless
and resourceful, in order to meet the needs
of their family, and to take part in the
building of a good community, from a
wilderness area. It required strong faith,
and determination to come to an unknown
land, where you had to carve out your exis-
tence, with your bare hands, so to speak. I
do not ever recollect hearing of how hard a
task it was. Rather it was a challenge, which
that hardy breed of women met with
courage.
Both my grandparents with their
teenage children emigrated from Iceland in
1873 to Wisconsin, U.S.A. and settled on a
homestead. Their next move was to
Pembina, North Dakota. Again they
homesteaded in the fertile Red River
Valley, in contrast to the hardwood forests
of Wisconsin.
Then after 16 years in the U.S.A., my
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