Icelanders Made Their Homes In The Wild Woods

Photos by Fred Schulz

FURTHER ADVENTURES WITH THE ICELANDERS IN HEKKLA, MUSKOKA

SETTLERS ARRIVED EXPECTING MORE - AND BETTER

     PUBLISHED IN THE ICELANDIC MAGAZINE, 'LOGBERG,' IN SEPTEMBER 1988, IS A DESCRIPTION OF THE HOMELAND CONDITIONS IN 1874 DURING THE EXODUS PERIOD. THE ARTICLE READS AS FOLLOWS:  "THIS IS THE ERA WHEN THE LARGE MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE TO CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES WERE BEGINNING. IN 1874 THE POPULATION OF ICELAND WAS A BIT OVER 71,000. AGRICULTURE WAS THE MAIN OCCUPATION AND MOST OF THE PEOPLE LIVED IN THE RURAL AREAS. THERE WERE 2,000 PEOPLE IN REYKJAVIK. THERE AND IN OTHER MERCHANTILE VILLAGES, FISHING ON OPEN ROW BOATS AND SMALL SAILING VESSELS WAS THE MAIN OCCUPATION. MANY FARMERS ALONG THE COASTLINE ENGAGED IN FISHING. SOME FARMERS SENT THEIR MALE HELP TO THE SOUTH AND WEST COASTS TO TAKE PART IN FISHING FOR SEVERAL MONTHS. THEY LIVED IN SMALL HUTS BUILT FROM PILED STONES AND TURF. THE CONDITIONS IN THESE HUTS WERE BAD." POVERTY WAS MAJOR FACTOR FOR THESE FUTURE HOMESTEADERS, AND MANY FELT THEY HAD NOTHING TO LOSE BY JOINING THE ADVENTURE TO NORTH AMERICA. FOR SOME, ADMITTEDLY, IT WAS A FATAL MISTAKE.

     IN YESTERDAY'S BLOG (YOU CAN ARCHIVE BACK IF YOU MISSED IT), I PUBLISHED EXCERPTS FROM A LETTER WRITTEN BY ICELANDIC SETTLER, PALL SNAEBJORNSSON, DATED 1887, RECALLING THE EARLIER CROSS-ATLANTIC VOYAGE ABOARD THE STEAMSHIP, "GRESIAN." THE INITIAL PASSAGE FROM ICELAND TO SCOTLAND WAS ON THE SHIP, "CAMEONS." THE LETTER CONTINUES:

     "WE WERE ALL SEASICK BUT GUDRUN WAS THE LEAST," HE WROTE. "WE WENT SWIFTLY, LIKE A BIRD, AND IT WAS HARD TO SEE THROUGH THE WINDOWS FOR THE HEADS OF OTHER PEOPLE, BUT WHAT WE SAW SEEMED BEAUTIFUL SCENERY IN SCOTLAND, EVERYWHERE. THERE WERE ACRES OF FIELDS, HILLS, MOUNTAINS WITH FORESTS IN BETWEEN. THERE WAS HAY OUTSIDE IN SEVERAL PLACES. IT WAS RAKED UP AND LOOKED TO ME LIKE IT IS DONE IN ICELAND. I SAW A LOT OF SHEEP AND PIGS, ALSO SOME GOATS. WE SAW HORSES IN THE COUNTRY AND ALSO SOME IN GLASGOW. IN GLASGOW, I MEASURED MYSELF WITH ONE AND IT SEEMED TO ME TO BE TWICE AS HIGH TO THE COLLAR-BONE THAN I WAS, AND I WAS AMAZED AT HIS SIZE. WE WENT THROUGH TUNNELS ON THE RAILROAD IN DARKNESS AND I DIDN'T LIKE IT AT FIRST. WE ARRIVED IN GLASGOW LATE IN THE DAY IN POURING RAIN. WE GOT OUT OF THE TRAIN AND WALKED A LONG WAY THROUGH THE CITY UNTIL WE ARRIVED AT THE IMMIGRATION OFFICE AT 6:00 P.M. WE WERE GIVEN A MEAL AND A POLICEMAN STOOD IN THE DOOR AND WOULDN'T LET ANYONE IN EXCEPT THOSE WHO WERE ELIGIBLE TO ENTER."

PASSAGE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

     "We had an interpreter in Reykjavik. He was Daniel Danjellsson, and he was good to us on the way, but that evening in the immigration office he went away and we didn't know where he was. We had no interpreter and we couldn't do anything about it," pens Snaebjornsson. "We had to go on board ship that night, as the boat we were to go on had waited just one day for us. It was a 4,000 ton ship and was called the 'Gresian.' We sailed next morning downstream and in very calm weather. It was lovely to see the shores and buildings on both sides. Everyone had to go on deck and show their passports and the number of passengers had to be counted. There were 285 Icelanders an over 200 other nationalities. It was much nicer to have people on board than the 40 horses that were brought on the 'Cameons' from Iceland to Scotland. After the count we kept on sailing and that evening we had gone quite a distance on the ocean.

     "The next morning Ireland disappeared from view. We were half sick while crossing the Atlantic Ocean and it was rough except the first and last day of our journey. One night it was so rough that we had a job to stay in our beds and our trunks and comforts were going back and forth. Two babies were born on that trip, and one baby, who was three weeks old when it left Iceland, died on our last day on the Atlantic Ocean, and it was put overboard. After eleven days we landed at Quebec and from there we went to Ottawa. Everyone left us there and went to Winnipeg except Bjorn and Valdorasi and two went right away to Quebec, as they were hired by an American who was on the boat from Scotland.

     The Icelander writes, "At Ottawa we waited from 2:00 o'clock until midnight and then went to Toronto. From there we went to Bracebridge where Bjarni (great grandfather's brother) met us, and we sure were glad to see him. We went to Rosseau by boat and it was 11|:00 o'clock when we arrived at Hekkla. Bjarni's house had burned to the ground that spring with most of the contents. He was building another house and had the roof on it when we came. He was real pleased to see us and we have been with him these three weeks since we arrived. I have been helping Bjarni with the house. It is 23 feet in length and 16 feet wide. We have laid the floors and put in the upstairs and there is a basement under it all. We will be moving in, although there will be a lot to finish, but that can be done by degrees. I thought the trees were pretty here but there are a lot of hills and knolls and the scenery isn't nice. We got to Hekkla on a Saturday and the colourings (October) of the trees were in every shade supplied by nature but now the colours are fading. The weather has been nice since we came, as any July weather in Iceland.  We have had night frosts but hot in the daytime. The grass is quite green and the cattle are still outside but the horses are housed and fed hay and oats as they have been used to.

    "Bjarni has two colts; one is two years old and the other only one year. I haven't seen a bigger horse in Iceland than the two year old. She is broken-in and draws well, and the one year old is to be broken in this winter. He bought them this spring for one hundred and ten dollars and considered it a good buy. Anywhere I have gone since I came here, is nothing but bush except where men have cut the trees and sown grass and grain, or grown vegetables. All one can see is the land that has been cultivated as the rest is all bush. There are six homesteads here and big fields. When a house is built and trees cut down and fields begin to get bigger, one will be able to see further about us.  Communication was difficult and connections with home were rare except for the occasional letter. Much mail never made it to the isolated frontier homesteads. But it was the bond of the community that offered new settlers faith and home pride to continue the arduous task of carving out their individual farmsteads." (letter from Hekkla by Pall Snaebjornsson)

     Contained as a conclusion to one of the Icelandic journals I had access to, at the time I was researching the settlement of Hekkla, the following summation sheds considerable light on the relationship between all those of varying nationalities struggling to survive....most often against all odds. The journal, as first translated by the late Bena Grenke, quotes a letter written by a Hekkla resident, Asgier, to Iceland in the year 1990: "There has always been a warm neighborly feeling among the Icelanders in Cardwell. Since 1888 when the reading society was formed, it has grown and we have a lot of Icelandic books now. A true feeling toward the Lutheran Church has been retained and Bible readings have been continued. Although the Icelanders were so inexperienced when they came to this country, it is true that they have progressed better than people of other nationalities. So much of the virgin forest has been cleared, giving farmers large accretes of land and they have build good houses on their farms. If ever the Icelanders disappeared from this settlement they would always be thought of as hard-working, self-supporting people."

     The Icelanders had been dealt harsh realities, both in their homeland and on the Canadian frontier. Although the historian finds it difficult to deny that Icelanders were better prepared for hardships than other settlers, coming to Muskoka at the same time, accumulated evidence supports this presumption. While they weren't loggers when they arrived in Canada, they soon learned how to use the axe and saw, and in fact, made their first money, clearing roadways for the government. The had a cultural / community bond that helped them stave off the feeling of isolation on the frontier, and there were many examples of Icelanders helping each other on building projects and farming generally. As well, there are other examples of homesteaders of other nationalities, assisting the Icelanders, and the reverse also holds true.

     The Icelanders had endured the ravages of economic depression in their homeland. They struggled against climate and failing agriculture, and the associated problems of unpredictable volcanic action, that caused immeasurable hardship for those in closest vicinity. The combination of unfortunate factors was a motivational peak to many potential new-land settlers, willing to gamble that a better future existed......somewhere else. The Icelanders, like thousands upon thousands of immigrants, had been purposely misinformed about the availability of employment (in the Village of Rosseau, as relates to the Icelanders), the food and material provisions upon arrival, suitable shelter, arable land and adequate tracts of land to construct a village. Tactics used by government and steamship agents should have been considered suspicious. At the time however, Icelanders felt they had little choice, but to gamble on at least part of the claims being correct. The land agents were obviously getting commissions on the number of immigrants they were able to sign-up, in conjunction with steamship clerks, working the same avenue. They told good stories but a lot of it was sheer fiction.

     When the settlers, bone-weary from the gruelling journey, finally arrived in Muskoka, the vista was haunting. From expectations of the 'promised land," to the eerie, smokey darkness of towering forests, rock and swamp, the Icelanders were introduced harshly, to the future in all its ominous glory. Through the smoke of a thousand fires, burning off the slash of woodcutting, and the seemingly endless bogs and rock outcroppings, it is hard to imagine the fortitude in the wake of near-desperation, how the settlers set to work to make the best of an adverse situation. They learned quickly how to diversify their personal economies, and made good use of the resources the hinterland provided. The logging industry was Muskoka's most active industry, in those years, and for many settlers, working in logging camps over the winter season, and concluding with the spring drive, helped feed their families, and provide money to buy seeds for spring planting. The Icelanders participated in the industry both as labour and entrepreneurs.

     Hekkla had its failures just like any other pioneer community on the Ontario frontier at this time. Certainly some of the immigrants buried beneath the markers at the Hekkla United Church Cemetery, perished as a direct result of the physical hardship presented by homesteading. Today, however, as descendants of the settlers meet to honor their families, pride of accomplishment exchanges in handshakes, between long time family friends and kin. When they pray together at special anniversary services each autumn, the strength of the congregation is witness to the survival of proud Icelandic-Canadian culture. The legacy of Muskoka Icelanders survives, not only in Hekkla, but in many parts of the district where descendants now live and work.

     In conclusion, the words of Muskoka Historian Thomas McMurray seem most appropriatre to the study of the Icelandic immigration to Canada in 1873: McMurray writes, "A strong, hardy class of men, possessing courage and perseverance, with constitutions capable of endurance, assisted by a little means, are sure to get along well in this country, and in a few years to become independent."

     Thanks for joining today's historical blog. Hope you will come back and visit again.