Founding Family

Information from Archive West : Guide to the Thorsteinson Family History, 1975

Dagbjort Dagbjartsdottir (1862-1941) and Helgi Thorstenson (1859-1945) grew up together as farm hands on an estate belonging to Gunnlaugur Arnoddson and Elsa Dorothea Thordardottir in Myrdal, Iceland. In 1887, Helgi and Dagbjort (Daga for short) now engaged, decided to immigrate to Canada where their friends had gone a decade earlier. They took the ship, Camoens, to Scotland and then another ship to Newfoundland. From there they traveled by train to Vancouver and took a final boat to Victoria. In Victoria they stayed with their friends from Iceland, Sigurdur and Valgerdur Myrdal. Helgi got work in a lumber mill and Daga did housework.

In 22 December 1888, Helgi and Daga were married. They moved into a little house built by Helgi in Victoria’s Icelandic community. On 15 August 1889 Daga gave birth to a baby boy. He was born premature and died the following day. On 4 August 1890 their second child was born, a girl named Groa for Daga’s mother. In 1891 Helgi and Daga sent for Daga’s mother. She traveled alone and lived with them for the rest of her life.

Helgi and Daga joined the Icelandic Literary Society and were active in their Lutheran congregation, which eventually became the first Lutheran Church on the Pacific Coast. In the spring of 1893 another child was born, a son named Gunnlaugur. He caught cholera and died on 2 September 1893.

In 1894 Helgi and some friends went to investigate Point Roberts. He decided to settle there and purchased a house. There was a depression in Victoria and little work. They had another daughter, Gudrun (Runa) and another son named Gunnlaugur (Laugi).

Helgi worked in the Alaska Packers Association of California cannery and he and Daga farmed as well. In 1899 Helgi started building a new house. They moved in in 1900 and also welcomed another son, Jonas. 1900 was also the year they became United States citizens. Daga had a natural ability for nursing and helped many of the pioneers over the years.

Helgi and Daga eventually formed a literary society called Hafstjarnan (Ocean Star). Daga was secretary for many years. In 1903 another daughter was born named Elsa Dorothea.

In 1908, after years of uncertainty, Point Roberts was opened by President Roosevelt for homesteaders. Prior to this, the community fought legislation that would have removed them for the building of a fort. Helgi went to Seattle to the land office to formally lay claim to their Point Roberts homestead. The community sent a tanned rug made from a pig to President Roosevelt as thanks.

In the 1930s fish traps were outlawed and the canneries closed. Helgi went into the poultry business and sold eggs to Bellingham. Helgi and Daga lived in Point Roberts for the rest of their lives.

Homestead

The original homestead was built in 1899, and the family moved in 1900. Over the years, the home was well taken care of and was passed to their second eldest daughter, Runa.

A century later, the old farm house was torn down.

Some of the following pictures are from Jim Murphy’s ancestry.com tree. Jim is Sylvia’s first cousin, once removed, and he gave us permission to use them on the website.

The Clam Diggers

Point Roberts, Washington, Feb. 14, 1927

Line drawing by Jonas Thorstenson. Characters from left to right (as nearly as we can determine): Jonas Thorstenson, unknown, Laugi Thorstenson, Brynjolf (Bryn) Burns, and Arne Thorsteinson.

Ella and Laugi Thorstenson

Laugi, one of Helgi and Daga’s sons, purchased 20 acres of property in the early 1940’s – now known as Crystal Water Beach. He and his wife, Ella, subdivided the property and began selling the lots.

The properties were purchased by a number of Canadian families looking for summer vacation properties, and has led to the current day CWB development and community.

Ella and Laugi built a second farm house near the original homestead. Surrounding the property were fruit trees, vegetable and flower gardens and, of course, the fields that were home to many horses. The farm was passed down to their daughter Sylvia, whom has taken care of the property for many years.

Genealogy

A handwritten genealogy wheel of Laugi Thorstenson records ancestors dating back to the early 1700’s.

Sylvia Thorstenson Schonberg

Robert Magnus Thorstenson

The grandson of Icelandic immigrants, he was born to Ella and Laugi Thorstenson on December 23, 1931, in Vancouver, BC, which was the closet hospital to their home in Point Roberts, Washington. He was extremely proud of his Icelandic heritage.

At the age of 13, his father was severely injured in a tractor fire and Robert (Bob) took over management of the family farm for the entire year. He graduated from Blaine High School in 1949 and after two years of service in the Navy attended the University of Washington, where he was Co-Captain of the Husky Crew team and graduated in 1956.

Upon graduation he was employed as a commercial purse seine deckhand as well as a tender operator before embarking upon a career in the commercial fish processing business. From 1959-1964 he rose from assistant cannery Superintendent in Petersburg to General Superintendent of all Alaskan operations of Pacific American Fisheries.

In 1963 he married the love of his life, Pamela (Martens) Thorstenson.

Once Pacific American Fisheries decided to sell it’s operations in 1965, he formed a group of fishermen to purchase the Petersburg Alaska plant, naming it Petersburg Fisheries, which was later to become Icicle Seafoods. His major partners, Tom Thompson, Magnus Martens, and Gordon Jensen all preceded Bob in death. This tight knit group, along with dozens of commercial fisherman, originally owned the entire company and they immediately formed an ESOP program so that employees could benefit from the company’s success. This was the first truly all-Alaskan seafood processing company. Upon the sale of Icicle in 2007, 62% of the company was owned by its employees and the rest by management and several of the original investors.

Bob served as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Icicle Seafoods from 1965-1981, Chairman of the Board from 1982-1991, and Board member from 1992-2007. His vision led the company and the Alaska seafood industry into new markets, new products, and led to a major shift from a policy of “outside” resource extraction that had plagued the Alaska seafood industry to a cooperative policy of sharing the profits with the fisherman and employees. He never had enemies. He believed that “a little competition is good everyone” and was good friends with nearly all of his major competitors in the Alaska seafood industry.

Mr. Thorstenson believed in giving back to the community and was involved as Chairman of the Petersburg School Board, Chamber of Commerce and he was appointed by 4 different US presidents to the International Pacific Fisheries Commission (where during his service the 200 mile limit was initiated). In his later years he served on the board of the Nordic Heritage Museum and co-produced 7 commercial fishing videos with his friend John Sabella. In 1992 he was named Northwest Fisheries Association Man of the Year and in 2009 he was honored by the United Fishermen of Alaska as one of the initial inductees into the Alaska Seafood Industry Hall of Fame. He was once referred to by a prominent Alaskan politician as a “legend before his time” and Bob certainly lived up to that billing. He never boasted about his accomplishments, instead choosing to share his successes, both the credit and the wealth with his business associates, fisherman and employees. He once said that he was only good at choosing talented people and allowing them to do their jobs.

Bob enjoyed listening to classical music, singing, puttering in his garden, and maintaining relationships with old friends and making new ones.

Mr. Thorstenson is survived by his wife of 46 years, Pamela of Shoreline, Washington, his children Bob Jr. (Gina) of Shoreline, Washington, Tani (Leif) Stenfjord of Shoreline, Washington, Peder (Kathleen) Thorstenson of Stafford Oregon, and his twin sister Sylvia Thorstenson Schonberg. He was also blessed by 10 grandchildren: Sylvi, Magnus, Ingrid, and Robert Gunnar Thorstenson; Thor, Annika and Anders Stenfjord; and Connor, Margaret and Elizabeth Thorstenson.

Mr. Thorstenson was a quiet doer of good deeds and he lived his life to the fullest, helping thousands of people in the commercial fishing community of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. He was a living example of the axiom that “actions speak louder than words”.