The isolation of their island homeland equipped early Icelandic settlers well in facing
the challenges of settlement in Alberta. The Icelanders who
settled in Alberta brought a love of their language, literature and
sagas. Of the Icelanders who came to North
America, the number settling in Alberta was significantly fewer
than those in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Still, the Icelandic
settlement at Markerville, established in 1888 to the west of
present day Innisfail is a fascinating study in Alberta's cultural
history.
The Journey from Iceland
Icelandic settlers to Alberta did not come directly from Iceland.
Those who settled in the Markerville area largely came from North
Dakota and from Manitoba and Wisconsin before that. It was their
third attempt at settlement.
With little arable land and its northern latitude, Iceland's
economy was traditionally supported through raising livestock and
fishing. In the mid 1800s, under Danish rule, facing livestock
epidemics, crop failures and volcanic eruptions, tenant farmers
were forced to leave Iceland to survive. The first large group of
170 people left for North America in August 1873. Arriving in
Ontario's Muskoka region, adverse conditions as well as
unfulfilled promises of support from the Canadian government led
to another migration. In the Interlake region of Manitoba, north
of Winnipeg, they established 'New Iceland.' A number from the
original group moved to Wisconsin.
First Settlements
New Iceland was granted the right to manage its own affairs and
the bloc settlement was suitable in that it allowed the Icelanders
to speak their language and maintain cultural practices. However,
a smallpox epidemic, food shortages and malnutrition led to the
departure of some New Icelanders in 1878 to reestablish themselves
in the city of Winnipeg, or at settlements in present day
Saskatchewan and in North Dakota.
The Icelanders who established the Pembina County settlement in
North Dakota faced many of the problems as before. Led by a
Lutheran clergyman, by the early 1880s the community was well
established with community institutions such as churches, schools
and post offices.
Stephan Stephansson, who would become a prominent member of the
Markerville settlement, was among those at Pembina County. Like
other Icelanders, he learned to read not at school but in his
family's practice of daily common reading. A poet, pacifist and
political radical, he learned some English while in Iceland as
well as Danish and Norwegian. At Pembina, he established a
cultural society with the objectives of 'Humanity, Research,
Freedom.' These goals reflected Stephansson's opposition to the
religious thought of the Lutheran Church, the state church in
Iceland and predominant church for the immigrant community. This
criticism and debate between such cultural societies and the
Lutheran Church was common in Icelandic settlements in the United
States.