The Icelanders: Their Ontario Year

(Ed: And the Trek to New Iceland).

By Jean Elford, author of A History of Lambton Country. (Beaver, Spring 1974)

THE WORD 'PIONEER' in Canada is synonymous with hardship.

The experience of the Icelandic pioneers of 1874 reinforces this concept. Though they came late enough to travel by steamboat and train, they endured as many hardships enroute from Iceland to Gimli, Manitoba as other settlers who, forty or fifty years earlier, came to Eastern Canada by sailing ship and traveled inland by stagecoach and on foot.

PART ONE: THEIR ONTARIO YEAR.

The Icelanders spent a year in Ontario before moving to Manitoba. They had been encouraged to emigrate by their countrymen, who wrote letters describing the prosperity they enjoyed in the United States. They were further persuaded by accounts sent home by Sigtryggur Jonasson, then 22 years of age, who had come to Canada in 1872, and by the fact that a number of their compatriots had made homes for themselves in Rosseau, Ontario a year earlier.

While a few single young men might readily have settled, the group of 352 persons who came to Ontario in 1874 were at a disadvantage because of their numbers and because of their desire to stay together. Such a large group could not be accommodated in an established area, while in outlying districts there were few opportunities for employment. Because they brought their families, the men were not free to travel about to seek suitable land and satisfactory employment.

The people were handicapped further in being in the vanguard of the emigration from Iceland. While settlers from the British Isles were advised of the availability of good land by other Britishers who had come before them, the Icelanders arrived knowing little of the nature of the country, its language and its way of life. In Iceland they had raised livestock and fished for a living. In Canada they were cut off from the sea and the best means of establishing themselves lay in clearing land and raising cash crops. Their livestock they could not bring and they had no funds to buy more. Day labour was available - as 'navies' - but this was alien to them.

Nor did they time their arrival well. The 1870s were times of depression in Canada. To add to their hardships, they reached Quebec in September with winter just ahead. A spring arrival would have given them months of good weather to ensure adequate housing, a vegetable garden, and a chance to lay in supplies. As it was they were dependent on day labour for their winter needs.

Though not an improvident people, their cash supply had almost disappeared by the time they reached Canada. With a deposit of $500, 540 people had booked passage on a Norwegian steamer due to sail out of Eyjafjordur in July 1874. They left their homes and, carrying their baggage, went to the port to wait for the ship. She failed to come. The expense of living away from home forced some to return to their villages. At the end of six weeks the remainder took passage on the St. Patrick at $35 each. They arrived at Quebec on the 23 September, worn out after a difficult passage and ill from unfamiliar food.

Even at this stage the immigrants did not know where they were going to settle. Their original intention had been to go to Nova Scotia, and an immigration agent from that province did persuade thirteen of them to go there. Their countryman, Sigtryggur Jonasson, met them in Quebec and prevailed on the rest to come to Kinmount, Ontario, a small hamlet in Victoria County. He had been authorized by the Ontario department o immigration to extend the invitation. He had consulted the Icelanders who had come to Rosseau, Ontario the year before, and they had suggested that Kinmount, southeast of Rosseau, would be a desirable location for the new arrivals.

One of the pioneers, Simon Simonson, tells of the journey from Quebec in his Reminiscences:

That night we moved into the coaches, which the majority thought a considerable novelty so very different from anything at home. We proceeded to Montreal, where we had a meal and then went on to Toronto. On the evening of the twenty-fourth, we moved into the immigration shed.

The Icelanders lived in the shed for two weeks while accommodations were prepared for them at Kinmount. They expected to find a house and some cleared land for each family awaiting them. Whether their expectations were justified or not is open to question. Nova Scotia did provide in this way for its immigrants and it could be that such a promise had been made. At that time, in an effort to bring in settlers, many promises were made by immigration agents whose salary varied according to the number of people they attracted to the province that hired them.

From Toronto, the Icelanders traveled by train one hundred miles north to the end of the rail at Coboconk. Then they traveled another fourteen miles over a rutty trail either on foot or seated in horse-drawn baggage wagons.

Simonson describes their arrival:

... the people were dumped out of the wagons under the trees in darkness such as I have scarcely seen the like. We knew not where to go and had the sick children on our hands ... Two of our countrymen came bringing a faint light, and directed us to a hovel which was under construction ... The following day the people were allocated to the newly built huts ... our family, and eight others, were assigned to number four hut. It will be left to the imagination what the atmosphere was like inside ... the walls and gable ends of logs and the roof of boards. The beds were one above the other, with end to the wall ... such illness prevailed in these huts that the poor children were stricken wholesale.

Elderly people were worn out with the journey by this time, and the children suffered not only from fatigue but from lack of a suitable diet. Simonson continues:

Most bitter of all, for me, it was to see my little Gudrun suffering intensely and to be unable to ease her suffering. She kept nothing down. There was little milk to be had and what little there was, was not good. About nine days from the time Gudrun became ill, God took her to himself, in his merciful embrace.

During that winter there were twenty-four deaths among the Icelanders, and of eight children born, five died. In addition to the deaths, sickness and their overwhelming disappointment, the Icelanders found few opportunities for employment. Work began on the Victoria Railway on their arrival, but there were more men than jobs. The company exploited this over-supply of labour, reducing wages from one dollar to ninety cents a day. The men found the work hard, for they were not accustomed to that form of labour and were in poor physical condition after their arduous journey. One man who worked as many days as any of the group was employed for fewer than one hundred days between the middle of October and the middle of March when the job came to a halt due to lack of capital.

Of those who could not find work on the railway, some hired out as farm servants in return for board for themselves and their families. Sigtryggur Jonasson, who had set up a store along with Fridjon Frederickson of Minnesota, wrote to the Ontario immigration department in January stating that there were:

'over twenty-five men out of work of whom quite a number is married men with families. I can not supply them anymore so they have either got to get work or starve.'

At this juncture, a representative of the Bible Society, John Taylor, stationed at a mission near them, turned his attention to helping the Icelanders. First he tried to have a school established for the children, but later seemed to feel that some form of adult education would be of more service.

(Ed: See Guy Scott article on Kinmount for details on how John Taylor became involved).

He wrote to the superintendent of the Ontario department of education on 15 January 1875:

I received your letter informing me of an appropriation for a 'temporary' building ...

I have been indulging the hope of seeing these Icelanders settled so comfortably among us as to induce many thousands of their fellow countrymen to join them ... what a great advantage we now have presented to us for setting up this back country with a hardy and suitable class of people ... Is it not possible for our government with so much surplus revenue to adopt some liberal and comprehensive measure having this desirable end in view, namely, the occupation of our now useless wild lands by such a quiet and contented people as these ...

If some influential friend could only be found to obtain from the Government a grant of land and money to establish a model farm in these back townships, where both employment and education could be given to those who required it, the whole question would be at once satisfactorily settled.

The Icelanders tried hard to better their situation. Thirty-eight went to Nova Scotia on the advice of Johannes Arngrimsson, a government agent from that province. Others went to Lindsay to work in the sawmills. Thirty-one married men contracted to take up four thousand acres of wild land but could not get the clearing done in time for spring planting. Those who had work could not afford to leave their jobs to get the land ready; the rest had no money to establish themselves. Moreover, a careful examination of the soil showed it to be infertile and thin.

(Ed: Moved two paragraphs to end of the first part as a conclusion to the Ontario Year).

Spring of 1875 came and the jobs promised to the Icelanders on the roads and railroads did not materialize. A letter written by Sigtryggur Jonasson to the Ontario department of immigration described their unenviable position:

As the last $60.00 worth of provisions... was distributed among the poorest families on the 4th inst. it is about consumed now, and as no work will, for ten days at least, be started, these families will be equally needy for this space of time as these two last months, as I am placed in such a position that I cannot possibly, on my own responsibility advance them anything till they have commenced work. I therefore apply to the Department on this account to authorize sixty dollars more.

A month later Jonasson wrote again to the immigration department stating that:

... work had not been commenced on the Victoria Railway There are 16 men left here without steady employment is it not possible to start work on the Monk Road east of Kinmount, very soon, so that those poor men left here, who have large families, could get work.

During July, sickness added to their tribulations. An inspector from the provincial immigration department reported:

The absence of proper ventilation and carelessness in regard to diet are supposed to have caused the illness in question... one man had been unable to work for several weeks. He is suffering from pulmonary consumption and his recovery is improbable. His care has occupied the undivided attention of his wife and it is quite certain that they would have suffered from hunger had not Mr. Frederickson... supplied them with provisions out of his store.

A young doctor, Joel Bates, attended the sick, but found that they could not pay him. He appealed to the Ontario department of immigration and his letter implied that since the department had brought these people to Ontario it was responsible for them. His statement read:

To medical attendance per Frederick Jonasson... 12 visits and medicine $18.50.
To medical attendance per Jason Thordarson... 5 visits and medicine $10.00.
To three visits and medicine for Borga Thorlaksdottir $2.50.
To one visit and medicine for Indriasson $1.50.

The English-speaking people of Kinmount petitioned the department to have the doctor paid and at the same time brought the plight of the Icelanders to the attention of the authorities. Their letter bore the signatures of eight men:

The Icelanders who have immigrated to this place are greatly in need of assistance, as the wages they are commanding are not sufficient to sustain them, and a number of them have been dangerously ill and are yet under the doctor's care. We have a resident doctor in Kinmount, who has been successfully treating them through charity ... you would greatly favour the inhabitants of this place by using your influence in obtaining assistance from the Government on behalf of them as a remuneration for the doctor, as he has been very attentive.

Utterly discouraged, the Icelanders, both at Kinmount and in the Rosseau settlement, thought they would be better off if by some means they could reach the western plains. The new province of Manitoba at that time was attracting settlers from Ontario. John Taylor offered to go to Ottawa to seek support from the federal government towards establishing the Icelanders there.

Taylor found that federal government officials had little interest in his request and that no funds were designated for moving immigrants from one part of the country to another. It seemed that nothing could be done. Then Lord Dufferin, the Governor General, interceded. He had visited Iceland when a young man and had great admiration for the Icelanders. He pointed out that the department of agriculture might legitimately help to establish these settlers on western farm land. On his request, the department financed a delegation to go west to select a suitable locality for the colony.

(Ed: The memories of the pioneers themselves were probably bittersweet, some maintained a correspondence with the residents of Kinmount. The passage to the second and now the third generation has softened many of the recollections and kindled a desire to commemorate the first stopping place in the new country of Canada, itself only seven years old when the Icelanders arrived).

PART TWO: THE TREK TO NEW ICELAND.

While the Icelanders were (continuing the experience at Kinmount), their delegates prepared to seek a place in Manitoba for a new settlement. On 2 July, Skafti Arason, Kristjan Jonsson, Einar Jonasson, Sigtryggur Jonasson, and John Taylor set out for Manitoba and were joined at Milwaukee by Sigurdur Kristofersson, representing the Icelanders of Wisconsin. Going by way of the Red River, the party journeyed into southern Manitoba. They found that for three years in succession grasshoppers had stripped the land of vegetation. The bodies of these insects lay in heaps along the river banks. This spectacle deterred the delegates from choosing land south of Winnipeg.

At Winnipeg the Hudson's Bay Company furnished the party with a York Boat. From there Joseph Monkman guided them further north, beyond what was then the northern boundary of Manitoba to the site of present-day Gimli. There they decided to found New Iceland. The area had timber, a waterway to Winnipeg, fishing, a large tract of unoccupied land, and no grasshoppers. If the line of the Canadian Pacific were to pass through Selkirk, as proposed, the Icelanders would have employment that would furnish cash for stock and machinery. No one seems to have considered the isolation, the severe climate, and the heavy soil.

On his return to Ontario, Taylor reported the findings of the delegation to the federal department of agriculture, and solicited funds to take the Icelanders west. John Lowe, secretary of the department, sent him final instructions on 15 September 1875:

I am directed by the Minister of agriculture to inform you that it has been decided to afford assistance to the Icelanders now in Ontario, understood to number about 200 adults, in order to enable them to proceed to a settlement selected by the deputation accompanied by you, on the west shore of Lake Winnipeg, north of the Province of Manitoba, in the following manner: A sum of $5000 will be granted by the government, $2500 of which will be given as an aid towards such removal, and $2500 will be afforded as an advance to the Icelanders to be repaid after settlement, and for security of such repayment the guarantee of the Hudson Bay Co. will be taken, or bonds from the settlers under the provision of the Dominion Lands Act ...

You are authorized to buy necessary supplies for the Icelanders for use on their way to the new settlement before starting to an amount not exceeding $1000...
The Icelanders on arriving at Toronto from Kinmount can be temporarily lodged at the government immigration Station... . e b

Tickets for the Transport of the Icelanders will be furnished by Messrs. J.&H. Beatty & Co., from Toronto to Winnipeg upon application by you to them for $14 per adult, children under 12 years of age half price, and under 4 years free ... the usual quantities of baggage free.

A sum of $1500 is herewith furnished to you in order to defray the expense of removing the Icelanders from Winnipeg to their reserve and placing them upon it ...

Your service will be engaged for a period of eight months from this date, at a rate of pay of $ 1 00 per month, and your duties will be to assist the Icelanders in their first settlement ...

Within six days after the arrival of this letter close to two hundred Icelanders had assembled from points within a radius of one hundred miles of Kinmount and were on their way to Toronto by train. Those who had livestock sold it for what they could get. Those who had crops left them unharvested. Those who had employment left it reluctantly.

At Toronto they were joined by others of their countrymen bringing their party to 208 persons. With the exception of Sigtryggur Jonasson who left them here to go to Iceland to find more immigrants, the settlers traveled by train to Sarnia. They passed through the fertile settled lands of Southern Ontario, and Simon Simonson noted in his Reminiscences:

On the way to Sarnia, a distance of about 250 - 260 miles, there were beautiful towns and attractive settlements.

They stayed overnight at Sarnia and boarded the Beatty steamer Ontario the next morning. This wooden ship had been built the year before in Chatham (Ed: Seems improbable since the city is inland), Ontario for 'Beatty's Sarnia and Lake Superior Royal Mail and Express Line'. She measured one hundred and eighty-one feet in length, thirty-five feet in the beam and drew twelve feet. Advertisements described her as the largest Canadian ship in the Lake Superior trade. Mr. Simonson continued his account of the journey:

When cargo goods, luggage, and other litter had been stacked on board, and a quantity of livestock including hors-s, cattle, pigs, sheep and poultry had been squeezed in, our turn came and we were packed like sardines on top of the luggage. No one was permitted to leave his place, so were compelled to sit there and endure the stench of the livestock. The boat was so small and so unstable that two of the crew were continuously on the go with two sand-barrels rolling them against the list ... In addition we met with rough weather, and all this we had to suffer for the duration of the voyage to Duluth which lasted almost five days ... The owners' purpose was obviously to make as much profit as possible, and they gave no thought to the passengers' comfort.

In fact, the profits to Beatty's from the trip must have been small. The regular single fare was $35.00 from Toronto to Winnipeg and the Icelanders traveled for $14.00 each, with an additional $300 for their 60,000 pounds of baggage.

To be sure the journey was not a luxury cruise. The fare did not cover meals, apparently, for Taylor bought provisions at Sarnia, Goderich, Sault St. Marie, Duluth, Glyndon, Fisher's Landing, Grand Forks, and finally, aboard a Red River steamer.

At Duluth they were joined by eight Icelanders from Wisconsin and continued their trip across Minnesota by train. At one point when they changed trains, they stayed in an old blacksmith shop overnight to wait for the next train. This one took them to Crookston on the Red River, a town so new that the majority of the inhabitants were living in tents.

There they boarded flat-bottomed open boats and sat on top of the baggage while a wood-burning steamer towed them down the river. As they sailed northward, they stopped frequently to unload goods at towns and villages along the way and to take on wood to fuel the boilers. The steamer ran aground occasionally and the men had to wade into the river to push her free.

On 15 October they landed at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers at Upper Fort Garry. There the men unloaded the baggage and the party was quartered in an immigration shed. During their stay in Winnipeg, Taylor purchased supplies valued at $4,000 from the Hudson's Bay Company and borrowed another $1,000 from the Company to buy other goods - two candle moulds, five cookstoves, fishing twine, and firearms. He also laid in a supply of beef and bread for immediate needs.

From Winnipeg, Taylor had intended to hire a steamer to take the settlers north to Gimli, but he found it would cost $1,000. As this sum was beyond the means provided, he bought six old flat-bottomed boats, two skiffs, and the lumber to repair them.

When the repairs were made, the party set out again on 17 October, the men rowing the boats heavily laden with goods and people. At the entrance to Lake Winnipeg, Taylor hired the H B C steamer, Colville under Captain G. Hackland to tow the boats across the open water of the lake. At the outset, one of the rowboats caught in the propellor of the steamer and a quantity of winter goods was spoiled.

On their arrival at Willow Bar on the afternoon of 21 October John Taylor wrote a letter which he sent back with the steamer to John Lowe, a secretary of the department of agriculture at Ottawa. He headed the letter, 'Gimli, New Iceland, North West Territory, October 21, 1875.' It read in part:

I have the honour to announce to you the safe arrival here of the party of Icelanders under my charge ...
I have a few cases of sickness resulting from much exposure in traveling four weeks and four days. No deaths but one birth last night, a male child, our first native born citizen.

On this day the Icelandic settlers began their new lives in an isolated wilderness at the beginning of the long northern winter.

In the summer of 1877, Lord Dufferin visited the settlement and in his official address said:

'I have pledged my official honour to my Canadian brethren that you will succeed.'

(Ed: Framfari, "Progress", described this visit in Vol. I, number 3, in 1877, see the INL book).

In spite of the hardships endured, the Icelanders of Gimli (Ed: This probably should have said "of New Iceland") through their industry, thrift, and strong resolution more than justified the faith that Lord Dufferin placed in them.