Guðmundur Grímsson

Vesturfarar

In the work Saga Íslendinga i Vesturheimi, volume V, there is a chapter about the Minnesota Icelander and it says the following about Guðmund Grímsson p. 338:

“Guðmundur Grímsson Dalmann (G. A. Dalman) from Fögrukinn at Jökuldal must have come early to the Icelandic settlement in Minneota, where he is well known in history for half a century. He was a novelist and a good writer. He wrote for the Icelandic weekly newspapers, especially Leif and Heimskringla. He appears in the archives with newsletters and essays in Leif as early as 1883. He many social issues were very important to him; politics, religion, abstinence and in fact all matters that he felt had any significance for his countrymen and their welfare. No one matched him with Icelandic writing among the Icelanders in Minnesota years ago, unless it was Axdal, at least not for matters of interest. In American politics, he was a red-hot Democrat in earlier years. I don’t know if he maintained that policy until his death. Dalmann’s life’s work was trading for his own profit. He came from Iceland in 1879, but in 1888 he established a grocery store in Minneota. In 1890, Jón Stefánsson from Egilsstaðir in Vopnafjörður joined him. They broke up in 1899 (Dalmann & Stephanson); Jón went west to the coast, but Dalmann continued the trade alone.”

English version by Thor group.