The Reach P8134  Ellison family photo, 1922.

Back row standing, left to right: Pearl Ellison, Einar Ellison, Helga Ellison; seated: Trina & Martin Ellison; front row standing: Myrtle Ellison

The turn of the century brought Scandinavian immigration to Canada.  An article on the large Norwegian settlement in Matsqui appeared in The Norwegian American Vikings and Their Descendents by Martin Ulvestad, 1928, listing twenty-seven families that had settled in Matsqui between 1900 and 1914.   Swedish and Finnish families also immigrated to the area, having learned of the strong Scandinavian presence in the area.

The business district of the Village; hotel, stores and blacksmith, grew up along St. Olaf Street, named for Norway’s Viking king, Olaf Haraldson, who united the country as a kingdom and introduced Christianity.  To provide spiritually for the community the Matsqui Lutheran Church was built in 1904.

Martin Ellison (with family, P8134) , wife, Trina and daughter, Helga, left Norway in 1911, arriving in the Matsqui Prairie community of Gifford via New York in 1912.  Martin found employment at the Clayburn Company and maintained a small dairy farm.  Three more children, Pearl, Einar and Myrtle, were born in Matsqui.