Rannveig Björnsdóttir emigrated when she was a year old with her parents, Björn Þorsteinsson and Þuríður Hjálmsdóttir in 1887. They lived in the Lundar settlement, where Rannveig grew up. She married Björgvin Guðmundsson and after that signed her name as Gudmundson. She wrote an article about Björg Jónsdóttir, a teacher, which was published in the publication “Lundar Diamond Jubelee” and printed in Winnipeg in 1947. There she says:
Franklin school Photo: WtW
“Björg J. Thorkelson, a teacher, was born on Nov. 3. 1868 in Iceland. Her parents were Jón Jónatansson Thorkelson and his wife Guðrún Sveinungadóttir. Björg came west across the ocean in 1883. It best shows her talent that she went through school and was granted a teacher’s license in 1890, seven years after she came west. She was therefore the first Icelander to graduate from the teachers’ school in Winnipeg. She taught in Manitoba and Saskatchewan for over 30 years, but her home was with her sister, Guðleif Johnson, in Grunnvatnsbyggð (Shoal Lake settlement), and she stayed with her after she stopped teaching. She taught at Franklin School in Álftavatnsbyggð (Swan Lake settlement) in 1893 and was therefore one of the first teachers in that settlement, and at Markland School in 1899 and 1900. Most country schools at that time were only open during the summer months. But Björg always had school in her home during the winter months, usually at her sister’s home, and she taught there the children who had no other schooling options, and many were teenagers who got their first lessons from her, and some never got any other schooling but what she taught them at her home in the winter. She was extremely conscientious, and loved teaching others what she knew, and if she was with children or teenagers, she was always teaching them something. I have never known anyone who knew so many stories for children, or could tell them so well to them. She loved the flowers and the birds and everything that was beautiful in nature, and if she didn’t make the children appreciate the glory of nature, it wasn’t possible. She was very inquisitive, and it is worth noting that in the later years of her time, she learned French so well without instruction that she could read it for her own benefit and enjoyment. She was also learning Spanish, and it came easily, a remarkable phenomenon for a woman in her eighties. Sig. J. Jóhannesson has the following words in his memoir: “Björg died on March 15, 1948, at her sister’s home. One of our spiritual settlers said goodbye there, she took land in the souls of Icelandic children and cultivated it and it flourished. It will never be shown by numbers or calculations how much was accomplished by the pioneers during the early years of our settlement here. That work went on as quietly and noiselessly as the life of this noble sister of ours.” “
English version by Thor group.