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Sisters Gudny (Gušny) Lee and Thorunn Lee (maiden
name was Thorliefsdóttir) are credited as two of the first Icelanders to
settle in the Blaine area. The year was either 1887 or 1888. Both had
previously married gentlemen by the name of Lee. The men were first
cousins, originally from Norway. Gudny was
born in Iceland November 22, 1844. She was married to Jon Thorlakson, a
fisherman, when daughter Svafa was born, Feb 2, 1880. After Jon's death
Gudny and Svafa left Iceland in 1883 to find friends in America. They
settled in Milton, North Dakota that same year, living with the Haroldur
Peterson family. Gudny, seeking work, soon moved west to the Northwest,
leaving daughter Svafa to remain with the Petersons.
In 1885 Gudny married Peter Lee, a Norwegian who
had also immigrated to North Dakota. In 1889 Gudny, Peter, and their two
young sons Andrew and Ole settled on raw land along the Brown Road,
one-half mile east of Jackson Road. This area would be known as the
Whitehorn community. Today their land is in the middle of the BP
refinery near Cherry Point.
Gudny and Peter were the first settlers in the
Whitehorn area. In 1916 Peter died. Gudny asked her daughter Svafa and
her husband William Ogmundson to take over the farm on Brown Road. It
was here that the Ogmundson sons Harold and Fred were raised and would
later farm themselves, until the advent |
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Gudny and Pete Lee with son
Andrew. The photo was taken in New Whatcom about 1897. |
of the oil refinery in 1969. Gudny remained on
the farm after Peter's death. In the 1920s she moved to Blaine, where
she died July 24, 1934. She was 89 years. |
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Sister Thorunn was born in Iceland in
1855. She immigrated to the United States about 1876. She married Ole
Lee in North Dakota in 1880. They arrived on their new farm in 1888 or
1889. The property was at the corner of Blaine and Alderson Roads, on
the east side of the Blaine Road. Their children Sina, Anna, and Ole
attended Pleasant Valley School by 1899. Later children included Peter,
Lars, and William. The Ole and Thorunn Lee family left the area around
1920. Thorunn's date of death is not known.
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Svafa and
William |
William Ogmundson (age 14) with sister
Fredricka and his parents. Taken in Minneota, MN in 1895. |
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Gudny's daughter Svafa Thorlakson came west from North Dakota in 1899 to
visit her mother and stepfather in Blaine for the first time in 15
years. She initially found a seamstress job in Bellingham. Soon she
moved to Seattle, where she first worked in a bakery, then as a
seamstress.
It was here she first met Bertha. (Bertha would marry Andrew Danielson.)
They would become lifelong friends. In 1910 Svafa |
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married William
Ogmundson in Seattle. In 1916 they arrived in Whitehorn, near Blaine, to
take over the family farm of Peter Lee, who was recently deceased. |
Svafa Thorlakson (on left) and friend Bertha who later married
Andrew Danielson. |
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William Ogmundson was born in eastern Iceland in 1881 to Gudmunder and
Sigrieder (Thorlacksdottir) Ogmundson. William had one sister, Fredricka,
born in 1882. The farm was two days journey from the nearest town of
Seidisfurd. After a rock slide destroyed much of their farmland, the
family left Iceland in 1893 to settle near relatives in Minneota,
Minnesota.
Sixteen year old William and his family arrived in Seattle about 1897.
William first got a job in a Ballard lumber mill. By 1904 he had met his
future wife, Svafa. They were married in 1910. They settled in the
Blaine area (Brown Road) in 1916 where they would stay until 1966. They
retired to Stafholt, where they lived out their remaining years. William
died in 1978, Svafa in 1979. |
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William and Svafa Ogmundson in
1935 at their silver wedding anniversary, with sons Harold (left) and
Fred. |
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