Interesting Icelander for March 2026: Hjörtur Thordarson
- Icelandic Roots
- 23 hours ago
- 4 min read
By George T. Freeman
This month's Interesting Icelander article featuring Hjörtur (Chester) Þórðarson/Thordarson was written by Hjörtur's great-great-nephew, George Freeman. Arriving in North America as a young lad of six, we learn about Hjörtur's life and legacy. Icelandic Roots is sharing this article with permission.
THE VIKING HALL AT WISCONSIN’S ROCK ISLAND STATE PARK
Icelanders and their descendants enjoy tales of the accomplishments of other Icelanders. In the case of inventor Hjörtur Thordarson (I481526), the story leads an interested traveler to a stone Viking Hall on an island at the end of Wisconsin’s beautiful Door Peninsula.
When Hjörtur, later known as Chester, stepped onto the Milwaukee train platform with his family in July 1873 he had no idea about building a feasting hall in the old Nordic style on his estate at Rock Island, Wisconsin. Tired from the long trip, and only six years old, he surely only wondered what his family would do in the new land far from his birthplace in Hrútafjörður, Iceland.
Chester lived in Wisconsin until 1879 and then moved with his family to a homestead in the Icelandic community at Mountain, North Dakota. Chester was thirteen when his family started the two-month trip to North Dakota. He traveled the entire 700 miles on foot.
He also learned to read and educated himself from a physics book translated into Icelandic. His study of this book and the suggested experiments led him to want to work with electricity. It also left him with a love of books.
Chester moved to Chicago at age eighteen and completed the first seven grades of school in the next two years. When he found work, Chester took one dollar of his weekly wage of four dollars and started to buy books. He bought books his entire life. His first jobs involved installing electric engines in streetcars. Later he worked at the Chicago Edison Company before starting his own business in 1894. The business prospered and at one time employed over 2,000 people.
Chester married Júlíana Friðriksdóttir (I398093) from Eyrarbakki on New Year’s Eve, 1894. Some of her relatives lived in the Icelandic community on Washington Island, the island next to Rock Island.
In 1904 Chester constructed a one-half million volt electrical transformer at the request of Purdue University for exhibition at the 1904 St. Louis Fair. No one had built a transformer this large before and Thordarson was awarded a gold medal for the accomplishment. Chester later built a one million volt transformer that was exhibited at the San Francisco International Panama-Pacific Exposition. Chester became widely known in the electrical community and over his life had over 100 inventions, most of them patented. These ranged from electrical transformers for radios to other non-electrical ideas.
Chester bought Rock Island in the early part of the century and made many alterations to the island. In 1926 he started the construction of the boathouse and feasting hall. Chester also asked Icelandic artist Halldor Einarson to carve the oak furniture and the runic letters above the huge fireplace for the hall. Einarson based the furniture carvings on the myths in the Prose Edda. The Great Depression in the 1930’s eventually ended Chester’s hopes for large mansion to be shared with scientists and scholars.
During his life, Chester accumulated one of the largest private collections of rare books in North America. The University of Wisconsin acquired the library of over 11,000 volumes after Chester’s death. This rich collection is known for its “elephant folio” edition of Audubon’s Birds of America. The library has numerous rare books on science, flora and fauna of the world, long runs of English almanacs and many Icelandic titles. The collection is now the foundation for the Department of Special Collections housed at Memorial Library in Madison, Wisconsin. Many students of the history of science use Chester’s rare books for their work.
After Chester passed away in 1941, the state of Wisconsin turned the Thordarson estate at Rock Island into a park. This thousand-acre island with four miles of three hundred foot limestone cliffs lies to the north of Washington Island, a large island at the end of the Door Peninsula.
Rock Island is a short ferry ride from Washington Island. The main attraction is Chester’s large stone building appropriately named the Viking Hall. The building has sixty-foot oak beamed ceilings and a large fireplace over eight feet high. Tall arched windows look out on Lake Michigan and the hall still houses the Einarson oak furniture. The visitor can stay in the campground, read on the beach and hike a gentle forest trail around the island.
Some of the first Icelandic immigrants to North America came to Washington Island. These fishermen sent letters to Iceland praising the fishing and agriculture that lead to other immigrations from Iceland. Of course, the early immigrants knew a little bit about the new land from Leif Erickson’s exploratory voyage a few years earlier. Washington Island takes great pride in its Icelandic community, as well as its camping, biking and boating.
These attractions provide a pleasant excursion to the Door Peninsula and Rock Island for those interested in the first Icelandic immigrants and a rare piece of architecture.
George Thorstein Freeman is the great-great nephew of Chester Thordarson. His grandmother Olivia Thordarson Freeman was the daughter of Chester’s older brother Grimur Thordarson. Grimur’s North Dakota homestead is still in the family.
More about Chester and Rock Island from Icelandic Roots:
Exploring Washington Island and Rock Island, Wisconsin
In addition to this article, the Icelandic Roots library holds three books about Chester as well as extensive information about Wisconsin Icelanders. All books and periodicals will soon be housed in the upcoming Rootshús, our heritage interpretive center opening in July 2027.
Valhalla In America - Norse Myths in Wood at Rock Island State Park, WI
Book explaining the carvings on the Rock island boathouse furniture which Iceland woodcarver, Halldór Einarsson, did for Chicago industrialist, Chester Thordarson. Contains 35 photographs explaining the Nordic myth illustrated, many of which have runic inscriptions which are translated. Available through most book retailers.