Gold Dust On His Shirt: The True Story of an Immigrant Mining Family
By Irene Howard
3.5/5
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About this ebook
Gold Dust on His Shirt is an evocative telling of the experience of a Scandinavian immigrant family of hard-rock miners at the turn of the century and up to World War II. Based on fascinating historical research, these are tales of arriving in ‘Amerika,’ blasting the Grand Trunk Pacific railway, work in the mines, and domestic life and labour struggles in company towns throughout British Columbia.
Part family history, part economic and social history, Gold Dust on His Shirt is an intriguing look at life on the industrial frontier, the world of immigrant workers and the rise of unions such as the Wobblies. This remarkable and provocative tale of a family, region and era references a number of broader social and political issues.
Born in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, to Scandinavian parents, Irene Howard has devoted her writing career to combining her interest in labour and immigrant history with her love of literature. She has been an English instructor and has broadcast talks for the CBC and written articles and essays for Canadian magazines and journals. She is the author of several books, including The Struggle for Social Justice in British Columbia: Helena Gutteridge, the Unknown Reformer, which in 1993 won the University of British Columbia Silver Medal for Canadian Biography and was shortlisted for a City of Vancouver Book Award and the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize.
Irene Howard
id=titleinfo.tmpl>Born in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, to Scandinavian parents, Irene Howard has devoted her writing career to combining her interest in labour and immigrant history with her love of literature. She has been an English instructor and has broadcast talks for the CBC and written articles and essays for Canadian magazines and journals. She is the author of several books, including The Struggle for Social Justice in British Columbia: Helena Gutteridge, the Unknown Reformer, which in 1993 won the University of British Columbia Silver Medal for Canadian Biography and was shortlisted for a City of Vancouver Book Award and the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize.
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Reviews for Gold Dust On His Shirt
16 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a personal history, a memoir, of the story of one family in the Canadian mines during the first half of the 20th Century told by the only daughter of a Swedish immigrant father and a Norwegian immigrant mother. It is passionate in telling the story of the family, their friends, and neighbors--the hardships and the good times. Howard also uses her personal history to discuss not only mining history, but the history of Canada (and, to some degree, the U.S.) in dealing with topics such as unions, mediation, birth control, company towns, etc. The personal history is familiar to me in that I, too, was part of a large family that followed my father from company town to company town, or from country to country, for many years. Despite the hard times, there is lots of laughter in remembrance, and there is a good amount of love shown in this story. However, it is interspersed with some hard history lessons, and the book is more suited for history buffs than the casual reader.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gold Dust on His Shirt: The True Story of a Pioneer Mining Family is a well-researched biography. In 1905 a Swede immigrant named Nils Alfred Nilsson arrived in Eastern Canada. In a few years he wound up in British Columbia working in the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. He then met and married a young widow from Norway, Ingeborg Aarvik Viggen. This is the story of the Nilsson family. The father's work moved the family from drilling and blasting rock of the railway to doing similar hard-rock work in mines. Dangerous work with low wages and frequent relocation, but the family story tells of meeting hardships and overcoming adversity. The Nilsson's story also touches on the working conditions and labor movement in Canadian mines. This well-researched biography contains historical photographs. (lj)
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I am of Scandinavian descent, Danish & Norwegian, third generation. While my family were not miners, Ms Howard's history captures the experiences of her family in a no-nonsense, unsentimental telling, similar to the way my family's story has been told. Conditions were rough, sometimes hostile, and immigrants expected only to make their way through honest, hard work. In addition to the specific family history, Ms Howard includes back stories from Norway and Sweden based on her own visits as well as pictures that enhance the look and attitude of these hearty, determined people. Ms Howard's expert skill as a writer is noteworthy.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Irene Howard's Gold Dust on His Shirt is part biography, part memoir, part history book. She does more than just explore the "ghost dust on his shirt", that is, she explores more than just the mining years of her family. She travels back to Sweden to find the roots of her family, visits her hometown in the wilderness of British Columbia, Canada, and researches everything from folklore to labor history to fully bring her family alive. Included in the book are beautiful black and white photographs that capture both family and the harsh working and living environments of her ancestors. Howard's book is a wonderful work of nonfiction, with only one minor flaw. Sometimes, the book gets weighed down with description and images. Still, even those parts are relatively easy to wade through, especially when most of the book is well worth waiting for! A great read for those interested in labor history and memoir.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Irene Howard uses archival records, family stories and her own memory to tell her family's history of immigrating to Canada in the early 20th century. For those interested in the role of Scandinavian immigrants and the evolution of the Canadian mining industry, this book is likely to be of use. For the general reader, it is probably less compelling.