Remembering Our Saskatchewan Roots Part 2
Icelandic Roots
A collection of stories by:
Nancy Asmundson Linda Breidfjord Judy Dickson Lois Janusson Yasinko
The month of September presents the Saskatchewan settlements in our North America settlement journey. This two-part article is a compilation of four contributing authors remembering their ancestral roots. Part 2 brings you a story of Wynyard, Saskatchewan. Our Samtal host, Judy Thorfinsson Dickson, reflects on growing up in Wynyard and her Icelandic family, but also the influence of this multi-cultural community. The ties that bind us to our heritage are many, found in friendships old and new. Thank you, Judy.
Part 1 was published in the IR Rætur Fréttir/Roots News on 13 September and is available HERE.
WYNYARD
Memories of growing up and the family ties that go beyond the early years by Judy Dickson
My story begins when I was born in the Icelandic community of Wynyard, Saskatchewan. When I arrived on September 13, 1945, the local hospital was very busy with babies born that same month. My parents told me that the hospital had run out of bassinets so I was put into a wooden apple box from Bergman’s General Store…I assume that it had been lined with soft blankets and made safe for a newborn.
I was the first child in our family and for the first year or so we lived with my Thorfinnson grandparents in their home. These were my Dad’s parents, Friðrik (I166321) and Henrietta (Sveinson) (I213119 ) who had married and then moved from North Dakota. Friðrik was a baby born in Brekkukot, Skagafjörðarsýsla when he emigrated with his parents to the United States. Henrietta was the daughter of Sigurjón Sveinsson from Sydra-Fjall who had emigrated as an adult and Solveig Valgerður Þorláksdóttir who had emigrated with her Þorláksson/Thorlaksson family from Stórutjarnir, Iceland.
My maternal afi was Sigurður Guðni Árnason (I20580252) who had emigrated from Skörd near Húsavík, S Thingeyesýsla, Iceland with two brothers some years after both of their parents had died in Iceland. My Amma was Sigridur Lara Freeman (I20580706)
who was born of Icelandic parents in Akra, North Dakota. After my grandparents married they lived in Upham, North Dakota, had ten children and, in 1924, made the decision to move to Wynyard with their youngest five children. My mother was of Icelandic heritage and American but at age eleven moved to Wynyard, Saskatchewan, Canada. However, by the time my mother entered nursing school at Winnipeg General, her family in Wynyard moved to Fargo ND and a few years later to Portland, Oregon.
Both my parents were proud of their same heritage and, from a young age, I was very aware that we were fortunate to be of Icelandic roots. My parents could speak Icelandic and did so with my grandparents and some Icelandic friends, but we spoke English at home and usually only heard the foreign language when they were sharing a secret or using a certain word for emphasis.
We lived in a house that was newly built and I know that many of the neighbours around us were of Icelandic descent. On the corner from us were Ole and Martha Jonasson (F68860), behind us were Hank and Evelyn Anderson (F216719), across our back lane were Helen and Bert Goodman (Gudmundson) (F4877896) with grandfather Skuli Gudmundson (I184189) and also Leona and Bill Martin (F317079 ) (whose original name had been Hjorleifson).
Janis, my only sister, was born almost three years after me. We spent much of our early playtimes with each other and all our lives we have been very close. We were also fortunate to have aunts and uncles in Wynyard along with our cousins; three older ones on our Uncle Art and Aunt Mickey’s side and three younger ones in Aunt Elsie & Uncle Bunnie’s (Karl) family. That family lived with our Grandma Thorfinnson in the family home near to us. We always spent special occasions with them when we lived in Wynyard and now, even though we live in different provinces, we have tried over the many years to see each other when we can.
Our community was small with about 1500 people when I lived there. The population was mainly comprised of persons from Iceland, Ukraine or Great Britain. I recall fowl suppers in the Legion Hall where we had a choice of turkey and beef, vinarterta, cabbage rolls, perogies, bread puddings, Icelandic brown bread, German sauerkraut; various nationalities were represented. At other times I loved having skyr made by Luella Gillis, pönnukökur perfectly made by my grandma, vinarterta made by my Mom, and glorious Icelandic brown bread also by Mom.
At Christmas time we had tastes of rullapylsa or even hangiköt, which I never grew to like. Dad spoke of blood pudding but I never wished to try that. The coffee pot was always on the stove in our home and in other Icelanders’ kitchens. I can still remember tasting coffee as a child but only through a moli (a sugarcube) with my American Amma.
I don’t remember any celebrations that were held in town for those of us with Icelandic heritage. There was a red brick church which was the Unitarian church but the minister was only in town for special occasions and for some church services, so there wasn’t a regular Sunday school for children then. I know I was christened by a Unitarian minister, probably at home.
It is interesting also that there was not a Lutheran Church at all in my day even though there were many Western Icelanders in Wynyard.
Apparently in my grandmother’s day, she was a charter member of the Day Alliance, which had begun in 1909 when eight Icelandic ladies first organized the Framsokn. This organization lasted for more than sixty years.
I can remember many of the businesses and shops along our Main Street (I think it was named Bostock but no one called it that.) Some of the proprietors were Icelandic when I think of my father’s International Harvester implement business, Laura Hallgrimson who owned “Palace of Eats” and renamed "Laura’s Lunch”, A A (Steini) Bergman, General Merchant and the pharmacist Arne Eyolfson at Rexall Pharmacy. Also familiar to me were Wynyard Stern Motors (before that it was P O Einarson Motors), Petersen’s Meats where Chris Bergsveinson worked, the Town Hall, Wynyard Post Office, Vogue Theatre, Sing’s Department Store and his brother George’s National Cafe, Robinson’s Store, my uncle Art’s A S Thorfinnson Agencies, and at the end of the street the Artwal Hotel which was owned by my uncle Art and my Dad. Also on or off the main street were N R Park & Son Jewelry, Central Drugs, the Wynyard Advance Newspaper Office, Marshall Wells Hardware, Paul (Wsiaki) the Shoemaker, Wynyard Rural Telephone Company run by an Icelandic couple Kris & Runa Axdal, John Deere Implements (run by my uncle Karl Sundquist) and near the highway Olafson’s Motel owned by Helgi & Thelma Olafson.
Wynyard served the town and a large rural community. I believe my mother may have been more particular about fashion after living in sophisticated cities in Oregon and California. I remember many car trips [from Wynyard] on a gravel road 120 miles to Saskatoon where we would stay for a night or two in between shopping for shoes because my sister and I had narrow feet, new outfits for the seasons and, the most boring of all, fabric because my mother sewed many of our clothes.
Our town was quite compact with commerce and services in the centre of town and nearby; the fancy Court House a couple of blocks away; the Wynyard hospital stood on higher ground east of town and one could easily walk from one end of town to the other. The CPR railroad tracks ran perpendicular north of the main street, the local golf course was on the edge of town as was the Pleasant View Cemetery where I now know more family names there than I would in the town.
I have a memory now of being a small child who was allowed to look at the line of bushes on the south of town but never go past that border because that was where the Indians lived. It is shocking to think of that now, and I also recall that I never knew any First Nations families nor attended school with them.
Something intriguing about Wynyard was its location near to the Quill Lakes; Big Quill and Little Quill were connected by Middle Quill, all of which consist of alkali water. Apparently, in the early days, residents went there for picnics and to swim. They constructed a pavilion, boathouse, baseball grounds and cabins. Fishing was also a sport in the lakes back then.
However, when I was a child my parents built a cabin at Fishing Lake and there we spent a wonderful time in the summers. That spot became a popular recreation spot.
Only as I grew older have I marveled at what a shock it may have been for my Mom after living in larger cities Winnipeg, Portland and Long Beach, to marry and move again to a small town. We did not have a sewer system in Wynyard until I was six years old and I remember people being so happy to finally have flush toilets! I have memories of water being delivered by truck, large ice blocks for the first type of coolers, milk bottles right to your door and even the “Honey Wagon” doing the rounds.
I began grade one at the one elementary school, a red brick structure that had been there for a while. Kindergarten wasn’t available in my time. When I see my first grade class photo, there are 41 students all posed along with our lovely Miss Humphreys. This was her last year before retirement and I have a nice connection with her. She lived in the hotel in town. A few years after my Dad and uncle purchased, renovated and renamed it, my family moved into a large suite there, so I had the opportunity to see Miss Humphreys through the years. We stayed in touch by letters through all the years until she died in Saskatoon.
I have to say I loved school and most of my teachers. Elementary grades were one to eight, then for grades nine to twelve, we transferred to Wynyard Composite High School. This was an exciting step, of course being with older students, but also because many of the grade nine students from farming areas were now attending our school as well. Our school numbers expanded for those four years.
For all my school years until the last six months, we did not have a gym. In the elementary years we had to have physical education (PE) in the basement or outdoors; for Assemblies we all stood on the stairs and main floor of the entrance foyer. Finally in our grade 12 year, we moved in January to a brand new building for the Wynyard Composite where we students could enjoy our first gymnasium.
That didn’t stop most of us from participating in many activities. In the community there was a 4H Club, Air Cadets (boys only) and through the churches Sunday school, CGIT, Hi C Club plus other choices. The school offered Student Council, Jr & Sr Glee Clubs, Social Committee, Drama Club, School Newspaper, Music & Band, Jr & Sr Football Teams, Cheerleaders, Curling, Volleyball & Basketball Teams (in my last year) and Track & Field Club. There were some fine music teachers in the town mainly for piano lessons. I was a couple of years too early to take part in figure skating or ballet lessons which arrived in Wynyard later. I participated in a lot of the above activities; my favourites were performing in plays that our school produced and also Bryant Oratory competitions where I got to travel to other centres for competition.
One curiosity that I appreciate now at an older age was how so many of the Icelandic people seemed to have nicknames. My parents were called by different names but they were mild compared to some of the colourful ones in Wynyard. My mother Fjola was nicknamed Toni when she first moved to town at age 11 and my father Walt was most often called Thorfie (from his official name Thorfinnur Walter Thorfinnson).
I remember clearly being scolded as a preschooler by Scrub Sigga, an elderly woman who was quite stooped, wore ragged clothes and must have had a sharp tongue. She told me my doll (a rag one at that) was far too dirty and needed a washing. I never forgot that but probably never told my Mom because she was the queen of cleanliness and I would have gotten into trouble. I can think of Icehouse Kris who probably was the man who delivered those ice blocks before modern refrigeration. There were others with odd names like Crazy Joe, Grease Hooks, Lame Joe, Wild Joe and Lefty.
I must say I felt I had a full life in Wynyard as a child. We were free to roam all over with our pals, had to organize our own games and teams, rode our bicycles from one end of the town to the other and knew most everyone in our school. Naturally I was impressed by bigger and better sights when we went to Saskatoon or Regina and especially in the United States visiting relatives in North Dakota, Oregon and California. I had wonderful parents, relatives, neighbours and friends and from my folks I always was proud to be of Icelandic heritage.
I left Wynyard after my grade 12 year, at age 17, because my family had moved to British Columbia. I registered at the University of British Columbia (UBC) to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree. To my surprise, I was immediately placed into second year. We did not have counsellors in my secondary school and I had no idea about this huge institution in Vancouver, nor did I know a single student there. Somehow I managed even though I felt intimidated!
The knowledge of being of Icelandic heritage and the pride instilled in me by my parents has continued through my life. I feel that growing up in a community filled with Western Icelanders contributed to my interest in our family tree from a very young age. Long before there were online genealogy organizations I had notes about my family members a couple of generations back.
My American aunts would forward letters from Icelandic relatives to me and for years I kept in touch with two cousins in Iceland. On my first lengthy trip to Europe after I graduated from UBC, I made a trip to Iceland with a friend. There we met my Arnason cousin, then stayed with her in 1967. She introduced me to distant cousins and to Reykjavik. This was before the Ring Road was built and really before Iceland was very well known.
That journey and my longing for more connection have led me to make four more trips where I have been able to connect with my cousins on the original farm where my maternal grandfather left Iceland. I feel a deep and personal bond to these cousins from Iceland and am so very grateful to Icelandic Roots for strengthening this bond and making me even more proud of my heritage.
Lastly, here is an example of how far and wide the Wynyard connection can be for many people who came from this Icelandic settlement. My parents attended school together in Wynyard along with many other friends who were Icelanders. Time went by, many people moved away, my mother left Wynyard to study nursing and my father served in the Royal Canadian Air Force. When they married they were the only school friends who then lived in Wynyard.
Years later when I was in grade 12 they moved to Kelowna and then four years later to Vancouver, British Columbia. When they settled there, they felt like they had gone back home. Why, you may ask. There in Vancouver and its suburbs they reconnected with seven other Icelandic couples who graduated from Wynyard High School at the same time as my folks! When they celebrated the 50th anniversary of their graduation, they chose Vancouver for the city. It was perfect for Rose & Jack Reykdal, Evelyn (Jonasson) & Erling Bjarnason, Evelyn & Carl Josephson, Aldis (Hordal) & Stanley Straker, Verna & George Thompson, Mary & Carl Bjornson, Grace (Peterson) & Harry Fordham and my parents Fjola (Arnason) & Walt Thorfinnson
