( Click the thumbnails for enlarged view and the rest of the story - - the inline links for more of the story )
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Iceland was a place of austere beauty, a land of green valleys and shinning fjords, snowcapped mountains and blue mists. It
mystically claimed for its own all its native sons and daughters and retained over them a powerful hold no matter where their
paths would lead them down through the years. It was a majestic land of proud traditions that Islanders were proud to call
home. Yet the 19th century Iceland
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experienced a loss of many of these proud natives as boatload after boatload of our
forefathers charted their course for "America". The 19th century Iceland was a bleak and forbidding land shrouded in hardship
and suffering, a place of gnawing hunger, bitter cold, grim pestilence, and baleful oppression. These were the results of a harsh
environment caused by intermittent sieges of polar ice and fiery volcanic eruptions along with deeply-rooted social and economic
problems, including overpopulation, disparity, underdevelopment and trade monopolization, all of which contributed to a general
state of disillusionment and misery for large segments of the population. Those who left Iceland during these years did so for
many reasons - personal, economic, social, political, and religious. All of these reasons most of us can scarcely understand
many years later in our "America" of plenty and our society of personal freedom above all else. Each emigrant has his or
her own story, and as those of us who are the descendents of these brave, courageous people from another land and age have
a rich heritage in the past which shaped these stories - hopefully stirring the pride we have for our forefathers and a better
understanding of the conditions and customs prevalent in the land they left.
Our families story really begins in 1855 when the first emigrants from Iceland arrived in Spanish Fork, Utah. During the years 1855-1860 sixteen emigrants from Iceland established in Spanish Fork, Utah the first permanent Icelandic settlement in the United States. From 1861 thru 1880 when our family arrived in America, about 30 more Icelanders settled in Spanish Fork, thus setting the stage for our families emigration to to America. Even thou we can safely assume that Einar and Gudrun was very well aware of the harsh conditions their parents and grandparents, if not experiencing some of its effects, lived through in Iceland it seems the primary reason they left Iceland and came to America was to be able to practice there faith in freedom. In May 1874 Einar and Gudrun joined the LDS church and it was with the loan of $120.00 from the LDS members now living in Spanish Fork, Utah that made it possible for them to make the voyage to America where they could practice their religion with the freedoms America offered.
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After finishing his education to learn the goldsmith trade in 1869, Einar moved to Westman Island and it is here were he married Gudrun Magnusdottir and started a family. During the eleven years they lived on Westman Island they were blessed with five children, they lost their first, Halldora Helga when she was seven months old. Einar, not having enough money for all the family to sail to America was unable to leave with his family.
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On April 23, 1880 he put his wife and four small children, Lilja - age 7, Bardur - age 5, Eirikur - 2 months short of 2 years of age, and Helga - just 8 months old, on a ship for the voyage to America. They must have had a relatively easy crossing from Iceland to Newcastle-on-Tyn, England because they made it in less than eight days. They traveled by rail from Newcastle-on-Tyn to Liverpool, England where they boarded the big ship "Wisconsin" for sail to America. They arrived in Spanish Fork, Utah about
two months ahead of their father. Einar left Westman Island, Iceland June 7, 1880 to join his family in America.
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What courage, if we can scarcely understand the reasons for Icelanders leaving Iceland, can we really comprehend the courage it took.
Gudrun must have been a very courageous woman, and Einar must have been worried sick until he received word that his family had
arrived in Spanish Fork safely. To fully understand, maybe we would have had to live the hardships of 19th century
Iceland or had to fight our government, as Einar did, for the right to baptize our children in our own faith, I should say here that he
won the fight. If we can scarcely understand many years later in our "America" of plenty and our society of personal freedom above all else
the "reasons and the courage" of those who left Iceland there is one thing we should all understand very clearly. It was the Einar's and the
Gudrun's of the world that gave us the "America" we know and love today. Not just because of the story being told here but because
the hardships did not end and courage was not lost when they arrived in America. Einar gave the Icelandic people their first taste of
religious freedom before he left Iceland and his name appears in the histories of the places which he help settle here in "America".
We Erickson's should carry a great deal of pride in our Icelandic heritage.
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In 1938 the Icelandic Association of Utah and Daughters of Utah Pioneers placed a monument to honor the Icelandic
settlers in Spanish Fork, Utah. This mounument includes a "wall of honor" to name each of those who immigrated to Utah and sacrificed so
dearly. They included a rock from Iceland and story plaques that tell the 150 year story of the Icelandic settlement in Utah. |
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