NOW AND THEN

The People of Point Roberts

by Davea Fisher

Sylvia Thorstenson Schonberg, a well-known member of the community, is the church organist, a member of the Point Roberts Historical Society, and owner of the beautiful Icelandic horses seen from APA Road. She enjoys gardening, and takes pleasure in working in her own garden and helping to maintain the one at the church.

Sylvia thinks of herself as being “born in Point Roberts,” even though she and her twin brother Bob were actually born in a local Vancouver hospital. Sylvia remembers when today’s community center at 1487 Gulf Road was built in 1937. Then it was a three classroom schoolhouse with three or four grades in each room. When school first started there were ten grades taught there, but by the time Sylvia was older, the children were sent to school in Blaine for grades seven through high school.

“When I was a child Point Roberts was made up mostly of small family farms. Everyone walked in those days until they were old enough to have a bike. The main roads were gravel, so people also rode horses. We had two grocery stores - Water’s and Ben’s. Even though there were not many conveniences, and times were hard, people took pride in being completely self-sufficient. It seems to me that there was more talking then, despite the fact there were no phones. We didn’t get phones until sometime in the 50s.”
Sylvia’s father, Laugi Thorstenson, was a farmer and fisherman born in Point Roberts in 1897. Her mother Ella Thordarson (b. 1905) was a young woman from Blaine who previously worked in a bank in Seattle. They lived at 1998 Waters Road, the family home where Sylvia lives today. Sylvia’s grandparents, Helgi Thorstenson (b. 1859) and Dagbjort (b. 1862), lived right next door. Helgi and Dagbjort came to Point Roberts from Vik, Iceland in 1894 living in Victoria for a short time first. The families worked to support themselves by fishing and farming, as did most of the residents of the Point.

“Dagbjort seemed to have a natural ability for nursing. Without any training, except that which she learned from a doctor’s book from Iceland, she delivered many of the first babies born on Point Roberts. She also was the nurse when a doctor from Ladner came and performed tonsillectomies on her dining room table.”*

“Both Dag and Helgi were very fond of books. Sometimes those first years they would walk through the woods on a narrow winding trail to the Benson home. There they would visit and borrow books from Kristian. Later as the Icelandic population grew, they formed a literary society and ordered books from Iceland. They called their society “Hafstjarnan” which means “Ocean Star.”*

Helgi, writing to his parents in Iceland in 1898 said, “We now have a post office on Point Roberts. When we first came here our mail came to Ladner, B.C. in Canada. We men here took turns walking the ten miles to bring the mail and buy much needed supplies. Later one of our Icelandic friends bought a horse and made deliveries. There is a store here now and the post office is in it. They buy from us butter at 20 cents a pound and eggs at 15 to 25 cents a dozen.”*

Sylvia’s grandparents were industrious and enterprising. Helgi built a boat and Dag made the sails and the net by hand. Sylvia’s favorite family story is the one about her grandfather Helgi buying a cow and bringing it to his farm. The trip took three days as he bought the cow in Blaine and walked the cow 30 miles home.

Sylvia was an excellent student, graduating from Blaine high school as Salutatorian and from Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, Cum Laude in 1953. She majored in Home Economics and Education. While at Washington State she met her husband, Roy Schonberg, a veterinary student. After graduation they raised a family of six children: Thor, (who died at the age of 10), Kristian, Paul, Laurie, Julia and Kirt.

When the children were grown Sylvia went back to college getting her Masters Degree in counseling at Western Washington. In 1987, Sylvia returned to the Point to take care of her parents, and happily ended up living here again. She loves nature, the beach, the woods and the birds. Then as now, Point Roberts is a beautiful spot.

*Echoes from the Past” by Runa Thordarson

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