ICELANDERS OF SPRING RIDGE
By Fred Bjarnason
Victoria, British Columbia, was a very different place when Icelanders began to settle here in 1883 than it is now. The city followed the waterfront along the inner harbour, extending inland only about four or five blocks. The Icelanders began to settle in an area east of the main city known as Spring Ridge, now the neighbour of Fernwood. There were multiple springs in the area that joined into a stream and flowed through Hillside Farm into Rock Bay on Victoria’s Upper Harbour. The area had been surveyed but not fully occupied. A map of 1884 showing Spring Ridge, written on the survey gridlines: “all streets through Spring Ridge proposed width 40 feet”. Most of the Icelanders settled in an area only 5 blocks by 6 blocks, surrounded mostly by open countryside, farmland, a city gravel pit, scattered country shacks, and trails rather than streets.
It was an expensive place to live, and hard for the men to get work. They needed to join
unions, whether working as a longshoreman, carpenter, or bricklayer. Union fees were
50 cents a month, but men could earn $3.00 per day. Any non-union jobs were taken by
the large population of Chinese in the city that were willing to work for less than half
wages. The fishing industry was mostly Salmon and was a different style of fishing than
the men were used to. Canneries owned a good portion of the fishing fleet and hired the
fishermen themselves. Others who had settled earlier coveted those jobs.
In the beginning, the women found jobs easily because there were so few women in the city. They could sew and it also became fashionable for the wealthier population to hire
blonde, blue eyed servant girls rather than Asian house boys.
Many of the men were able to get carpentry jobs; a couple worked in furniture manufacturing, others in a rice mill on Government St. What started from a single Icelander in 1883 grew to 40 by 1886 and then doubled to 80 by then end of that same year. In the 1891 census, 168 individuals declared to be Icelandic. The Sivertz Brothers ran a store on Spring Road. A second store and bakery on Humboldt st was owned John B. Johnson, “Merchant John.” Skúli Johnson ran a little dairy and delivered milk. They built a church; Sigurður Myrdal led the services. A literary society was formed, a ladies’ sewing club and a singing group.
Then in July 1892, smallpox was detected in Victoria and Spring Ridge was quarantined; when the men couldn’t go to work, the Sivertz brothers extended credit not just to the Icelanders but to many of their neighbours too. On August 7, the same year the Rock Bay Powerhouse caught fire, it burned fast and furious; every fire brigade in the city battled it. During the fire, the huge smokestack collapsed, embers flew high into
the air, and a prevailing wind sent the sparks and embers straight to Spring Ridge. The
roof of the Sivertz Brothers Store at number 13 Spring Road caught fire and burned to
the ground along with several homes. These events resulted in nearly half of the
Icelanders deciding to leave, most resettled in Point Roberts, others in Blaine and
Seattle.
Those Icelanders that remained are often forgotten; in this article we hope to remember
some of those people. Victoria wasn’t kind to foreign accents, and with numbers dwindling, those remaining assimilated into the community more rapidly than most other settlements. However, they held onto as much of their heritage as possible. If you read old copies of the Lögberg newspaper, you will see many contributions such as letters and poetry from J. Ásgeir J. Lindal, who came from Miðhopi in Húnavatnssýlu. Poetry from Einar Brynjólfsson from Norðtunga in Thveráhlíðarhreppur of Mýrasýslu.
When K.N. Julius visited Victoria, there were readings of his poetry in the Icelandic church and in private homes; his sister Steinunn was married to J. Ásgeir J. Lindal. When Stefán G. Stefánsson visited, he also did the same with readings from his works; he was presented with an ebony walking stick with gold trim from the Icelandic community.
But the remaining Icelanders also contributed locally and more. Einar Brynjólfsson´s company was contracted to cap the Ogden Point Breakwater with cement using their special formula for concrete, and it is still in use today, serving the most cruise ship visits in Canada.
The Lester Brothers convinced Icelanders Frank “Freddie” Fredrickson, Harold “Slim” Halldorson, and Ernie “Moose” Johnson to play for their hockey team, the Victoria
Aristocrats. The team changed names in 1922 to Victoria Cougars, and won the Stanley
Cup in 1925-26 season, the only non-NHL team to ever win the Stanley Cup. Frank
carried on with the team when it was sold to Detroit the following year.
Christian Sivertz, originally from Barðarströnd, emigrated in 1883 with his employer
Bjorn Skaftason. In New Iceland, he apprenticed under Sigtryggur Jonasson on the SS
Victoria and later the SS Ogema. He came to Victoria in 1890; he and his brother Thórólfur built and ran a grocery store in Spring Ridge. After the store burned down, the brothers borrowed money to rebuild but ended up bankrupt in 1896. Christian married Elinborg Samuelsdóttir; they bought a house on Denman Street from her brother Jónas and raised 6 sons there. Christian was secretary-treasurer for the Victoria trades labour council and remained active after the fire; he eventually became president of the BC federation of labour in 1913. Christian became a mailman, was active in the labour union, the first secretary-treasurer of local number 11 Postal Carriers, a director on the board for the Royal Jubilee Hospital, and a Trustee on the Victoria school board. During the First World War, he did censorship duty, which was confidential and not revealed until after the war. When conscription began in 1917, he also sat on the exemption board.
Ólafur Jónsson, known locally as Oliver Johnson, originally from Hrafndal in Strandasýslu, is recognized as the first Icelander on Vancouver Island; he came to Victoria in 1883. He is often remembered as the father of “Boss” Johnson, the premier of B.C. from 1947-53, but Oliver has an interesting story of his own. In 1881 he emigrated to join his maternal uncle contracting for the Canadian Pacific Railway West of Winnipeg as a teamster driving teams of horses moving earth and leveling rail beds as well as transporting ties for the transcontinental line.
He heard that activity was booming in B.C. because the rail line had started from the west as well. The young entrepreneur took his horses as far as he could go by American rail lines, then by paddle wheeler down the Columbia River and by steamer to Victoria. Hearing of the shortage of Dray horses locally and the extremely difficult and dangerous terrain through the Fraser Canyon, he chose to settle in Victoria.
Oliver started an express and cartage business, which was very lucrative. He built a stable and storefront in the downtown core on Yates Street. His horse stables were
upstairs, accessed by a ramp system, and the wagons and carts were below. He sold general merchandise in the store. Oliver married Gudrún Árnfinnsdóttir, originally from Snæfellsnessýslu. She came to Victoria to join her sister Elisabet, who was married to John B Johnson from Héðinshöfða in northern Iceland. He was known as “Merchant John” and owned a store and bakery with a residence upstairs on Humboldt Street near the James Bay bridge. Gudrun was employed in the store with her sister, her brother Byron (Björn), as well as John’s brother Arngrímur Johnson, who was involved in municipal and provincial politics.
In 1893, when construction started on the present legislature building, Oliver´s company was contracted to dismantle the old legislature and to move the satellite buildings that surrounded it. These buildings were jacked up and loaded onto huge beams on dollies and pulled by horse, then set down into place on vacant lots. One of these huge buildings was taken to Government Street and served for over sixty years as a museum.
Oliver was one of a group of “Yúkonfari” that set off from Spring Ridge bound for the Klondike Gold Rush late in the Summer of 1897; others included J. Ásgeir J. Lindal, his brother Joseph Lindal and Þorkell Jónsson, known as Kelly Johnson; he was the son of Reverend Jóns Eyjólfssonar of Stað í Aðalvík .
Kelly´s name appears on a claim staked
Sept 18, 1897, and another on Aug 12, 1899; they all returned to Victoria later that fall.
Other pioneers: Einar Brandsson and his wife Sigríður Einarsdóttir from Mýrdal. Einar
was the Superintendent of the historical Ross Bay Cemetery. He took over from Jón
Sigurðsson when Jón suddenly left his wife Oddný Samuelsdóttir alone with 4 young
children. Einar held this position for over 30 years. He was founding secretary of the
Literary Society and stayed active with the Icelandic community. It is their daughter
Margaret and her husband, Richard Beck, who are still contributing to our Icelandic
heritage in Victoria, even after their deaths. They donated their personal library of 2,500
volumes to the University of Victoria Library and bequeathed their home and assets to
create a trust to provide public lectures on Icelandic literature and culture, administered
by the University.
