This week’s prompt for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is ‘Favourite Photo’. This one is hard because I have so many photographs that I love.
After much thought and flip-flopping I have chosen my paternal grandmother, Margaret Einarson (her forename was anglicized from Margrét to Margaret). I have always loved this photo. It was taken when she was working in Dauphin. She was a very beautiful young lady. She is looking straight at the camera with no hint of a smile. Her face looks pensive and maybe a little sad. Her eyes look like there is a story behind them she wants to tell. I never asked my grandmother much about this picture, although she did tell me where and when it was taken. I wish now that I had asked more questions so that I could have known her better, including her dreams for her life.
Margaret was born September 18th, 1897 in Arnes, Manitoba, Canada at the farm called Búastaði. Her parents were Jón Einarsson and Sigriður Jónsdóttir, both emigrated from Iceland in the early 1890’s settling in the Arnes area where they met and were married December 21st, 1895.
Margaret was the eldest of four children and the only girl. In 1903, when Margaret was five and her twin brothers were three, the family left Arnes for Kettle Bay on Red Deer Point. They farmed there for nine years and then moved to George Street in Winnipegosis in 1912.
Margaret worked for a couple of years at the King’s Hotel in Dauphin as a dining room cook when she was 17 – 18 years old. Margaret, also, worked as a camp cook at Hnausa on the shore of Lake Winnipeg in the summer and in the winter she fished with her brothers on Hunter’s Island, which was thought to be haunted.
Margaret was a great storyteller and a story I remember her reciting was about Hunter’s Island. She said that one season they arrived to their winter camp after the snow came and everyone got right to work leaving her alone to take care of the camp. She was in the cabin when she heard footsteps on the roof. When her brothers came back she told them what she heard. They checked the roof and could find no tracks. Everyone went about their daily duties and each of them heard strange noises that couldn’t be identified. These noises continued to escalate in volume and frequency until they concluded the camp must be haunted and all but one of them left for a neighbouring camp. The one left behind did not spend the night alone. As he was calmly reading by candlelight, he saw a ghostly man raise himself to a sitting position from the floor, while laughing eerily. This spooked the camper and sent him running in his long johns through the winter night to safety in the neighbouring camp. In the spring when the snow melted they found the remains of a body under the melting snow at the original camp.
Margaret married Bjarni Schaldemose Walterson March 27th, 1920. They met at a community event when he offered to buy her an ice cream cone. My grandmother told me that before she met Bjarni she had been engaged to a young man from a well-to-do family but had broken the engagement before meeting Bjarni. Margaret gave birth to four children: Ólína (who was born premature and died the same day), Kristjan (known as Kris), Oliver (baptized as Ólafur) and Jóhann (who died from pneumonia at the age of 13 months).
In the fall, the family would head to the fall fishing camp set up on an island at the north end of Lake Winnipegosis. Margaret and her sons would help in the camp while Bjarni and the other men fished. A Tug would come once a week to pick up the fish to be delivered to Winnipegosis. One year the fishing wasn’t very good near the island so the group set up camp on a barge out in open water. The fishermen would go out in their boats from the barge. Margaret was hired to cook and keep camp on the barge. She had two little boys at the time and to protect them while she was busy working she would tie one end of a rope to a leg of each of them and the other end of the ropes she would tie to the leg of the cook stove. This allowed the boys the freedom of moving around the barge but kept them from getting too close to the side of the barge where they might fall into the water.
Their winter fishing camp was set up on Shannon Island at the north end of Lake Winnipegosis. There was a cabin and bunkhouse located next to a trail travelled by the natives. When they saw natives going by, Bjarni would invite them for a meal. On Christmas day, it would seem like half the natives from the Chemawawin Cree Nation Reserve at Cedar Lake would come and Margaret would spend the day feeding them.
When they were not out at a fishing camp they lived in their home on Third Street which they bought in 1923. Margaret and Bjarni stopped fishing about 1930 to allow Kris and Oliver to attend school in Winnipegosis instead of taking school by correspondence when they left for the fall and winter fishing. They bought a ¼ section of land in the early 1930’s and started farming, but remained living in Winnipegosis. In 1938, they bought more farm land and moved to the farm in 1940. They decided to also keep the home in Winnipegosis.
Bjarni died January 19th, 1944 at the age of 48, leaving behind Margaret a widow at 47. The boys were adults at this time and were still living at home and helping on the farm. Kris left to serve in World War II, leaving behind Oliver to work the farm. When Kris returned from the war he worked the farm and Oliver left for Lynn Lake, Manitoba to work in the mines.
Margaret moved back to the house in Winnipegosis about 1950 after Kris and Oliver had left the farm. Margaret died August 13th, 1990 at the age of 92.
I have wonderful memories of the Sunday dinners we would have in my grandmother’s small kitchen. There would be at least 16 of us packed around the table; with my family of seven and my uncle’s family of eight. There was always stories and laughter served along with a wonderful meal.