Carleton Place Arena, 1965 – Picture

The Carleton Place Arena, 1965

From The Carleton Place Canadian, Thursday, July 8^th, 1965 :

To the casual observer the steel structure of the old arena, that is now being demolished, appears to be in good condition: however, “all that glitters is not gold.”

As the wooden covering of the building was removed, serious defects in the steel structure began to appear.  Rust and frost heaving were the main causes of trouble, but some of the steel sections were bent badly out of shape due to excessive loading caused by rotting of the wood framing.  Sections of steel columns that were until recently concealed from view are rusted beyond usefulness.  In fact the inspection of the rusted base of one column disclosed a hole roughly four inches long and two inches wide.

All in all the building was in much worse condition structurally than was discovered by the inspection which led to its closing last February.  The citizens of our community can be thankful that the structure did not collapse and perhaps, now in retrospect, appreciate the worry that faced the men responsible for operating the old rink.  Special thanks must be accorded Mr. Arnold Weedmark, the safety inspector, who had the wisdom and courage to make the unpopular decision to close the rink in the middle of the skating season.

It is now apparent that rebuilding the arena around the old steel structure would have been impossible and the decision, taken several months ago by Town Council, to build a completely new building has been further strengthened. 

Demolition of the old building is proceeding rapidly and it should reach its final stages by the weekend.

The Arena Fund Campaign is moving briskly with two of the larger men’s organizations now having made pledges to the Fund, the cash on hand, post-dated cheques and the above mentioned pledges total $25,197.42 dollars.  This however, is only a start towards the campaign objective of $100,000 dollars and everyone in our community will have to dig down and give until it hurts before this project will become a reality.

We no longer have an arena, we need an arena, so now let us build it this year, not the next or the next.  The campaign will have to reach 75 to 80 percent of its objective by October in order for construction to begin in time to provide some skating during this coming season.  Please take this into consideration when the Arena Fund Canvasser calls on you.

The Arena Committee takes it hat off this week to the ladies of the Carleton Place Home and School Association, the Men’s Organization of St. James Church, the Cubs and Boy Scouts of St. Mary’s Church and to an enterprising group of young residents of theLake Ave.region who have been selling their comic books on behalf of the Arena Fund.

It goes without saying that we bow especially low to the still aching members of the Lions and 100 Club who performed valiantly in a soft-ball (?) game last Thursday.  The fireworks provided by the Jaycees were fitting climax for the reassuring demonstrations put on by the Ocean Wave Fire Company.

Further on the H & S bake good sale, Evelyn Sadler reports that the cooking skills of about 40 Prince of Wales district mothers were a big hit with theLakeParkcottagers last Saturday.  The total score for the Arena Fund was 48 dollars.  This week it is the turn of Victoria district ladies and we know they are just waiting to set a new record.

 Editorial by the Arena Committee (1965).

Billy Moore and Scouting in Carleton Place by Frank Roy

Here follows a brief biography of Billy Moore as related to his connection to Scouting in Carleton Place, and to the Billy Moore Collection. 

Mr. Moore was born in Sheffield in England in 1872, and raised in Birmingham.

He served an apprenticeship there as engineer, or what is now called machinist.  In 1898, age 26, before he could find work in his trade, he volunteered for service with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and in 1899 found himself in the South African Boer War, with the British 1^st Army Corps under the command of General Redvers Buller.

 

During the first two weeks of the Boer War, in October, 1899, the Boers swiftly besieged three towns – Mafeking, Kimberley and Ladysmith.  This manoeuver effectively bottled up the 13 thousand British South African Regulars in these towns before the war got going.  The 1^st Army Corps arrived in South Africa at the end of October, and General Buller attempted to relieve the siege of Kimberley and Ladysmith.  He was unsuccessful in this.  At the Battle of Colenso on the 15^th of December, he failed to cross the Tulega River and relieve Ladysmith.  He then moved his army along the river to another point, and on the 16^th of January, crossed the river and began to move back towards Ladysmith.  By this time, the Boers had set up a defensive line in some hills, the largest of which was Spion Kop or Look-out Hill.  The battle over this Hill, which took place on the 23^rd and 24^th of January, 1900, was to be the bloodiest single engagement of the War; although, as with most bloody military engagements, it was not tactically significant.  Following this, General Buller was replaced in his command by Lord Roberts, who re-grouped the British, outflanked and relieved the town of Kimberley, trapped the Boer General Cronje and forced his surrender with four thousand of his men on 28^th February.  With this, the besieging Boer troops around Ladysmith withdrew, relieving that town.  Lord Roberts then moved northwards into the Transvaal to take Pretoria, and on this route, a force was sent to relieve Mafeking, on 18^th May, 1900.  By this time, the town had been under siege for 218 days.

 

As all Scouts and Cubs know, during the siege of Mafeking, the man in charge of the troops there was Colonel Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scout movement.  Eight years later, Baden-Powell wrote a book called “Scouting for Boys”, based on his experience with organizing the boys and young men of Mafeking to help out during this siege, by going out for food, carrying messages, bringing in news of the Boer movements, and so on.

 

How many of our Scouts and Cubs here in Carleton Place know that Mr. William (Billy) Moore, the sponsor and leader of the 1^st Scout Troop in Carleton Place, was a soldier in all those battles just reviewed, and was with the force which relieved Mafeking?  At that time, and later in 1902, in England, he met Baden-Powell as a soldier.

 

Following the relief of Mafeking, Lord Roberts had to pause in his march for several weeks because of a serious outbreak of enteric fever among the troops.  Mr. Moore was struck down by this fever and several weeks later, he awoke in a hospital in Durban.  The doctor who examined him when he regained consciousness, told the nurse that she should be ready to move him out to the bone-pile the following morning.  But, fortunately for boys in Carleton Place, the doctor was wrong about that one.  As is said, you can’t keep a good man down.  Or, on the other hand, it is also said, there’s no rest for the wicked.

 

Well, Mr. Moore was repatriated in 1902 to England.  At that time in England there was a grave shortage of work, so Mr. Moore came out to Canada in 1903.  For a short time he was night foreman at the Grand Trunk Locomotive repair shop in Stratford, and then in December, 1906, he came to Carleton Place, to take up work in the Canadian Pacific locomotive shop here, in the roundhouse where the wool grower’s store is today.

 

Meanwhile, Baden-Powell had also left the army, and after the success of his books on Scouting, and the formation of Scout Troops in England, he sent a Mr. Hammond to Toronto in the fall of 1908 as Field Secretary, to organize scouting in Canada.  Mr. Moore had spent some time talking and thinking about Scouting, so he wrote Mr. Hammond and invited him up to Carleton Place in the spring of 1909.  Together they went into Rideau Hall to see the Governor-General, Earl Grey, who agreed that starting a troop in Carleton Place or district, would be a good idea.  So they went around on various evenings after work to Almonte, Arnprior, Renfrew, and Pembroke in search of some organization that would stand for sponsor and provide a group committee.  They found no takers.  Then they went to the Canon of the Anglican Church here in Carleton Place.  He also could not encourage them.  Apparently the problem was two-fold.  Firstly, the popular idea of Scouting at the time was associated in people’s minds with the military and no one wanted to support an organization which turned boys into soldiers.  Secondly, there was already a well-established organization, called the Church Boys Brigade; and no one wanted to upset that establishment.  So, in the end, it was agreed that Mr. Moore would be the sponsor, group committee, scout leader, and general factotum; and thus the 1^st Carleton Place Scout Troup started operations in May, 1909, with five boys, two of them being Mr. Moore’s sons.

 

It is a further matter of interest that Mr. Moore, in the course of his long association with Scouting, and also as a Boer War veteran, had met every Governor-General of Canada from Earl Grey onwards, except the Honourable Mr. Michener.

 

The first meetings were held in Mr. Moore’s house, but several weeks later, the Troop strength was up to nine members and the Mayor of the town offered them quarters upstairs in his store.  So each Scout brought his own chair and a stick of firewood to the meetings.  Though it has been an up and down sort of affair, Scouting in Carleton Place had grown considerably since then.

 

Some of the highlights claimed by Mr. Moore of the first Carleton Place’s history are that his first assistant, Mr. McCaffery, was the first Assistant Scoutmaster in Canada.  In 1919-20 the Troop had four of the youngest King Scouts in Canada; Gibson Craig, Jim Misner, Howie Foote, and Waddy McIlquham.  In 1920, also, Mr. Moore was awarded the Scout Medal of Merit for his service to the movement.  In 1939, during the visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to Canada, Mr. Moore arranged the use of a special car on the train to Ottawa West and from there guided the Carleton Place band of Scouts, Cubs, and Guides to Rideau Hall so they could personally salute the King and Queen.  Mr. Moore was awarded a Bar for his Merit Medal on this occasion.  So, along with the victorious hockey teams and canoe club, in the years before the war, the Scout Troop was a credit to the town also.

Mr. Moore’s enthusiastic support of Scouting continued in his later years and in 1969, the 60^th anniversary of the 1st Carleton Place Scout Troop, the Troop presented Mr. Moore with a Diamond Willow Staff made from a stick of willow sent in from Saskatoon.  The reference for this is:  (http://carverscompanion.com/Ezine/Vol2Issue2/BobGander/DiamondWillow.html).

 

Mr. Moore dedicated the staff as a trophy for annual award at St. Lawrence Region Camporees, to the Troop displaying the best scouting spirit.  The first Troop to win it in 1969 was from Deep River.  Where it is now is not immediately known.

 

Billy continued to provide encouragement and support to the leaders and the boys until his death at the age of 97 years, on September 26, 1972.

 

Mr. Moore was a fine gardener.  On his passing, his wife Mrs. Moore decided to move into more convenient quarters.  Sad at having to leave all the bulbs and plantings in the garden, she offered them to the boys of the 1^st Carleton Place Troop.  The lads carefully harvested the material that fall, had a garden sale, and with the money raised, funded the first Billy Moore Collection of books at the Carleton Place Public Library.  It would be nice if a collection identified with Billy Moore could be continued.

 

Frank Roy

Perth, Ontario

2011

 

 

Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness

It is with great sadness that I report that Bridgett Schneider, best known as the primary person behind Random Acts Of Genealogical Kindness, has passed away (November 2011). She was 64 years old.

The last message received from Bridgett was on October 18 when she wrote:

RAOGK has been around with our volunteers helping other genealogists get copies of documents required to prove your lineage back to Adam and Eve (giggle). Pictures of your ancestors’ tombstones were also high on the lists of requests. I hope everyone got as much service as we were able to give.

Our heart is saddened that we will be offline for quite awhile. Between computer problems (harddrive turning to toast) and the health of the administrator very questionable … RAOGK, after 11 years, will cease to exist for awhile.

Bridgett Schneider
RAOGK Administrator

Bridgett and her husband Doc began Random Acts of Kindness (RAOGK) in 1999 in their Nebraska home. What they began with a handful of volunteer researchers in 1999 grew to over 4,000 people around the world.

Bridgett made many new friends over the years through RAOGK, attending conventions, society meetings, and helping the many researchers via online resources.

Bridgett’s husband Doc has assured the RAOGK volunteers that Random Acts Of Genealogical Kindness will be back online in the future – a promise he has made to Bridgett. For now, some people are helping individuals through the RAOGK Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/groups/33868082803/. Bridgett has brightened the lives of countless people and will be dearly missed.

Source of this article is Eastman’s Genealogical Newsletter – http://www.eogn.com.

Dave Findlay honoured by Carleton Place and Beckwith Historical Society

It’s wonderful to see Dave Findlay’s volunteer work being honoured with an ward by the Carleton Place and Beckwith Historical Society  Now’s the time for all you amateur historians in Carleton Place and Beckwith to submit an essay pertaining to an individual, family or group or organization, building or location or event within this particular community!  Entries are due by February 1, 2012. 

CARLETON PLACE MARKS 160th ANNIVERSARY : 1819 – 1979

Carleton Place Paddlers Create Enviable Records, by Howard M. Brown, Carleton Place Canadian, 09 August, 1962

Some recollections of regattas and racing accomplishments of former generations of paddlers of the Carleton Place Canoe Club are concluded in this number.  A previous installment told of the starting of the town’s long flourishing club and of the first Canadian Canoe Association contests at Brockville and Carleton Place.  The publishing of these stories coincides with an appeal for support and cash donations needed to assist this institution in continuing its record of athletic and recreational service for large numbers of the younger residents of the town.

Club Regatta

The Carleton Place Canoe Club in 1905 held what was said to be its first regatta for local competitors only.  Paddling honors were shared were shared with those of motor boating and other water sports.  The paddling events in addition to the green and the open singles, tandems and fours, were boys tandem, ladies tandem and mixed tandem races and two war canoe races, one a straightaway half mile, the other a half mile with turn.  Added with the great novelty of a motorboat race were a tub race, a crab race, a hurry-scurry, a swimming race and a gunwale race.

In the war canoe events the crew in the old canoe under captain Ab Keyworth won the straightaway half mile, and the new crew under Captain Jack Welsh the quarter mile and return.  First and second in the open single blade race were Archie McPhee and Archie Knox.  The judges were Walter McIlquham, George H. Findlay, Mr. Daniel A. Muirhead and W. M. Dunham.  Other officials included timekeepers Andrew Neilson and William J. Muirhead, clerk of course John Bennett, starter Walter H. Dummert and referee Robert Patterson.

Motorboat Race of 1905

The gasoline-powered motorboat was coming into its own.  Durably built, as by the Carleton Place boat works, on rounded seaworthy lines, later superseded in popularity by an elongated torpedo style , the inboard motorboat started its reign in a generation before the outboard marine engine had helped to lay the foundations of the present North American boating boom.

The Herald’s description of the scene at the Town Park and the motorboat race included:

“The club house and the old mill were decorated with flags and bunting.  A temporary platform was arranged on one of the old piers for the judges, whilst the Town Band furnished music from one of the galleries of the sawmill.  The river was covered with boats of all descriptions from steamers and launches to canoes.

In the race for gasoline launches seven were entered.  There are some ten or twelve of these handsome boats on the river, nearly all built at the Gillies launch works of this town.  Competitors in the race were the Alice, 5 h.p. – J. H. Gardiner ; the Ariel, 4 h.p. – R. Patterson ; the Marjorie, 4 h.p. – F. McDiarmid ; the Iolanthe, 4 h.p. – A. H. Edwards ; the Rose, 5 h.p. – W. J. Hammond ; the Zephyr, 3 h.p. – Cram and Burgess ; the Wawanessa, 3.5 h.p. – McAllister Brothers.

Within seconds from the gun fire all were under way.  The Ariel, Marjoire and Alice very soon forged ahead.  Mr. Cram in the Zephyr undertook to cut off a corner in the river channel and became entangled in the weeds and was out of it before reaching the lake.  The turning buoy was placed beyond Rocky Point, some three miles up the lake, and the Ariel was the first to show her nose around the flag.  In rounding the sunken rock at Lookout Point a foul was claimed against the Alice but was later withdrawn as her pilot was a little inexperienced with the channel and the foul was unintentional.

The silk trophy flag, donated by James Gillies, Esq., goes to Mr. Gardiner.  The time taken for the round trip was forty minutes.  Robert Patterson’s Ariel came in second.  Third place went to Fred McDiarmid in the Marjorie.  Much enthusiasm was shown by the spectators.  Each boat as she crossed the line was greeted with hearty cheers and waving handkerchiefs, and much whistle blowing from the excursion steamers and horn blasts from the smaller boats.

Commodore Harry Hicken and the officers of the club are to be congratulated on the success of their efforts.”

Great War Canoe Crews

A cheering crowd, a civic reception and a torchlight procession welcomed the Carleton Place paddlers two years later on their return from Montreal.  Competing successfully against larger clubs in the annual Canadian Canoe Association meet, they had won first positions in three events including the coveted half mile war canoe championship.  Photographs of the memorable half mile finish of 1907 made by Carleton Place photographer W. J. Hammond remain in existence.

The members of the winning crew were Carl Lamb, stroke, William Knox, Howard Morphy, Archie McCaw, John Hockenhull, M. Ryan, Wilfred Hunter, Fred Milliken, Andrew Dunlop, Gilbert Gordon, Mark Lamb, T. Winthrop, Neil McGregor, Andrew Robertson, and Ab. Keyworth, captain.

Canadian war canoe championships were won again by Carleton Place in 1920 and 1938.  The town club officials were hosts for the 1920 national regatta, held on the Lake Park course.  In the Northern Division eliminations a strong Carleton Place club had won the senior events including both war canoe races and the senior fours, on the Ottawa New Edinburgh Canoe Club’s home waters, when seven crews had contended for the half mile war canoe win and six for the mile.

Without the annual weed cutting which has been carried on for many years through the Mississippi Lakes Association of Carleton Place, weedy areas on the course hampered paddlers despite the best efforts of Mr. Willis, who had sought to clear it by dragging with the steamboat the Commodore.  The attendance at Lake Park was said to be the largest ever assembled for a regatta here.  On hand to furnish musical entertainment between races was the Regimental Band from Perth.

Race starts were standing starts from a row of logging booms extended at Lookout Point, lower extremity of the Lake Park peninsula and downstream end of the half mile course.  The senior fours winners were the Carleton Place crew of Ernie Halpenny, Allan Call, Gib Gordon and Herb Bennett.  Ottawa New Edinburgh and Toronto Balmy Beach were tied to lead in aggregate regatta points.

The Carleton Place half mile war canoe win was at a time of 3:17  Lake weeds robbed the outstanding Carleton Place paddlers of an additional war canoe trophy when in the mile race after a late start at the Nagle shore they ran into a mass of weeds on the favoured inside course, still ending a close second to Toronto Parkdale’s time of 6:41.  The paddlers of the great Carleton Place crew of 1920 were E. Halpenny, P. Dunlop, R. Munshaw, D. Findlay, A. Ashfield, E. Bennett, W. Phillips, L. Hockenhull, A. Call, H. Bennett, R. Waugh, W. Bush, C. Carr, H. Sinclair, and G. Gordon, Captain.

Now for over sixty years succeeding generations of Carleton Place paddlers have pursued the historic sport which in this country originated with North America’s first native citizens and is one of Canada’s few thriving exclusively amateur sports of today.  The town’s canoe club – like the Lakes Association’s recently suspended maintenance of the Mississippi waterways which the club uses – is a distinctive community asset which appears to merit, in the interests of the town and its residents, a wide measure of public backing, recognition and support.

Carleton Place Canoe Club Dates Back To 1893, by Howard M. Brown, 02 August, 1962

Among the many Carleton Place organizations of the past and present in the field of athletics, sports and recreation, the award for longest active life appears to go to the Carleton Place Canoe Club.  Through times of enthusiastic public backing and financial support as well as in leaner years, the canoe club has served its community well.  In many years it has spread this town’s name and paddling fame throughout Canada.  For sixty-two years it has offered a wholesome outlet for the social and athletic energies of the youth and younger adults of the town.

Carleton Place, with the waters of the Mississippi as its attractive setting, has an aquatic sports tradition which goes back to its village days of the past century.  In the decade of the Carleton Boating Club, the first local venture of its kind, competitive rowing in long light racing shells had its days of glory in the eighteen eighties for this district.

Professional and amateur Ontario oarsmen including world champion Ned Hanlan attended the local club’s big annual regattas.  Then the first Carleton Place canoe club was formed in 1893, under the name of the Ottawa Valley Canoe Association.  With a membership of owners of canoes and other pleasure craft, its original officers were elected at a midsummer meeting of some twenty persons, held in the cabin of the Lake Park Company’s eighty foot side-wheeler steamboat, The Carleton. 

They were honorary president A. H. Edwards, president S. J. Mclaren, vice-president W. J. Welsh, secretary Colin McIntosh and advisory committee members Robert Sibbett, Albert E. Cram and Robert Patterson.  For several years the association’s races and regattas were held at Lake Park and on the river near the town bridge.

The present Carleton Place Canoe Club was organized in April, 1900, when at a meeting in Colin McIntosh’s law office it was decided to affiliate with the proposed international canoe association and to unite in forming a league expected to be composed of Ottawa, Brockville, Aylmer, Britannia and Carleton Place clubs and others.  Equipment was to be secured for the town club including a war canoe, “a vessel that takes fifteen paddles to propel it.”  Accounts of several of the regattas of the club’s first twenty years may serve to illustrate the earlier part of the long and notable record of this town’s canoe club.

Brockville Canoe Regatta

The town’s new club sent several winning entrants to Britannia and Ottawa club regattas in 1901, including Archie McPhee, Fred McRostie, Cornell and Jack Welsh.  The eight clubs listed to enter the Canadian Canoe Association’s meet at Brockville in that pioneer year of competitive paddling of the present kind, and the colours assigned to each, were Brockville Bomemians, red ; Brockville Rowing Club, blue ; Montreal Grand Trunk Railway Club, white ; Carleton Place, green ; Ottawa, black ; Britannia, purple ; Smiths Falls, orange ; and Brockville Y.M.C.A., yellow.  The judges appointed were James Powell of Montreal, Dr. Ewen McEwen of Carleton Place and George P. Graham of Brockville.

The Carleton Place Herald’s report of the August, 1901, Canadian canoe meet at Brockville said:

“The river was very rough and there were many accidents from swamping.  Carleton Place was the only club that entered all the contests, although they had but their war canoe crew.  In doing so they certainly handicapped themselves in competing with fresh men in the different events.  As it was they captured some seconds and made a good showing in the war canoe.

In this race there was a foul between the Britannias and the Y.M.C.A. of Brockville, the Otta- was also being mixed up in it.  At the finish the Bohemians were first, Britannia second and Brockville, Carleton Place and Smiths Falls all bunched within a length for third place.  The race was declared null on account of the fouls and called again.  The Bohemians refused to paddle, and at an evening meeting it was decided to call the race off and have it paddled again within a month, probably at Carleton Place.

“In the senior four, won by the Grand Trunk club, the second place Carleton Place crew was that of Welsh, McRostie, Cumbers and McPhee.  Jack Welsh placed second in the double blade.  The second place in the green four was taken by the Carleton Place crew of Donald, Moffatt, Cumbers, and Penny.  Our war canoe crew included J. Penny, F. McRostie, W. Moffatt, Gibson, McCallum, Leslie, Cumbers, Boucher, Howe, Donald, Sibbett, McPhee, Cornell, and Welsh captain.  Our boys deserve some recognition for the very gamey way in which they have upheld the sport the last two seasons.”

National Meet at Lake Park

Decision to hold the Canadian regatta for 1902 at Carleton Place was reached at a November meeting here reported by Will Allen in the Herald:

“A meeting of the executive of the Northern Division of the American Canoe Association, which covers all of Canada, was held here last week.  It was decided to hold the next annual race meet at Carleton Place, probably the last week of June.  Mr. Herbert Begg, Commodore, Mr. Harry J. Page, secretary treasurer, of Toronto, and Mr. E. R. McNeill, Ottawa, of the executive, met with the local canoeists here Friday evening and finally decided upon Carleton Place.

“The American Canoe Association is divided into divisions, Atlantic, Central, Eastern, Northern and Western.  Canada is in the Northern Division, but the contests are open to members of the American Canoe Association of all divisions, and none but members can compete, so the meetings are usually very large gatherings.  The Association is kept up by membership fees – annual fee $2.00,   which admits members free to all association contests and gives a year’s subscription to The National Sportsman.

On Friday evening the local canoeists entertained the visitors of the Leland, where a fine spread was laid by Mine Host Salter.  After the tables were cleared Mayor Patterson took the chair……The meet here should prove a big advertisement for the town.  Now that the log has been started a-rolling we hope to see it kept agoing until June, when our townspeople will realize what we have tried to picture feebly with our fingers stiff with the pinches of Jack Frost.”

Carleton Place Canoe Club officers for the big year of 1902 were patrons Mayor Robert Patterson, William McDiarmid and Dr. George McDonald, commodore Colin McIntosh, vice-commodore R. A. Sibbett, captain W. J. Welsh, secretary treasurer J. N. Gibson, executive Frank Donald, Dr. K. C. Campbell, George Cornell, J. F. Moffatt and Fred McRostie, and auditors M. G. Howe and C. A. Roberts.  Chairmen of committees were, Racing, Fred McRostie ; Sailing, Dr. K. C. Campbell ; Entertainment, Frank Donald ; Property J. F. Moffatt.  The course from Nagles Shore to above the Lake Park steamboat dock was measured on the ice in March.  Mounting interest in June was noted in this newspaper by W. W. Cliff, who said :

“There are some thousands of persons who regard the coming Canoe Meet as considerably more important than the new fast trans Atlantic service, or even perhaps the end of the war in Africa.  Doubtless they are mistaken, but the world would lose a good deal if a temporary bias due to the ardor of youth did not exist.”

Northwesters in Terrible Fury

Winds higher than those on the St. Lawrence of the year before played havoc with the schedule of the 1902 national regatta, held in the last week of June at Lake Park.  The ten crews in the mile war canoe race, started at 7 p.m. when the “northwesters in terrible fury” had lessened, were two Toronto crews, the Bohemians of Brockville, two Brockville Y.M.C.A. crews, and Britania, Lachine, Smiths Falls, Grand Trunks of Montreal and Carleton Place.  In the mile the Grand Trunks were first with time 5:57 2/5, and Smiths Falls was second.  Several including Carleton Place who were grouped for third place protested successfully that the race had been started before all boats were in position. 

The visiting canoeists, numbering over two hundred, were said to be probably the largest aggregation of paddlers ever yet gathered at one meet in Canada.  They had their tents pitched on the Lake Park grounds and remained a second day for the completion of the regatta.  Though the wind was very high on the second day the principle events were completed before nightfall.

In the protested mile war canoe race, repeated without the formerly winning Grand Trunks, Smiths Falls was first, Britannia too second and Carleton Place third.  Grand Trunks took the half mile and quarter mile war canoe events, followed in the half mile by Smiths Falls and Carleton Place and in the quarter mile by Carleton Place and Britannia.  The Carleton Place crew of W. Wilson, F. McRostie, A. Powell and J. Welsh won the senior fours, a half mile straightway race, and local paddlers Welsh and McRostie came third after Ottawa and Toronto in the tandem half mile with turn.

A ball was tendered the visitors at the Lake Park Queen’s Royal Hotel, combined with a huge bonfire and a fireworks display. 

A second installment in conclusion will recall the first annual club regatta of the Carleton Place Canoe Club, a motorboat race of the same time, and the Canadian regatta held here in 1920 at Lake Park.

90 Black Bass In Less Than 2 Hours Once Caught, by Howard M. Brown, Carleton Place Canadian, 14 June, 1962

In the early days of Carleton Place’s Vacationland of the Mississippi, most of the tenting lakeside vacation dwellers seem to have taken only a casual interest of the frying pan in the excellent fishing that was available.  Their numbers included few duck hunters, though the duck hunting season then started in mid-August.

Very large catches of fish and bags of ducks by other town and district fishermen and hunters were reported, and earlier the similar wholesale shooting of now extinct passenger pigeons.  The harvests of fish and ducks by some went to the town’s food markets and restaurants, then a legal selling operation.  Occasional notes in the local newspapers told of catches of fish in what were considered newsworthy quantities and sizes.

Fish Stories

Of the larger game fish, black bass were prominent in reported catches, before an apparent increase or dominance in numbers of pike and the later introduction of pickerel.  Introductions of whitefish and lake trout in the Mississippi Lakes in the eighteen eighties were unsuccessful.  The whitefish experiment was made in 1884, year of the formation of the “Carleton Place Game, Fish and Insectivorous Birds Protective Society.”  On May 1^st this newspaper reported:

“Through the active agency of Mr. Joseph Jamieson, M.P., about 300,000 fry of the white fish species were deposited in the lakes here last Saturday.  The fry came in three large tin cans from Ottawa and in charge of an expert.  The Morning Star was chosen, and accompanying the expert were Deputy Reeve William Pattie, Thomas L. Nagle, Joseph Wilson, and William Bell.  The first can was emptied into a quiet cove near Squaw Point, the second off the Landing at Prettie’s Island, and the third in the channel reaching into the Big Lake.  In three years maturity will be reached and propagation set in ; and the fish grow and increase to between eight and twelve pounds.”

According to our fishing news note of early September of the same year, “Mr. Sid Anable and son Hiram went off in a skiff Friday morning last at 3 a.m., reached the mouth of the Innisville river at 6, and fished from 6 to 9 a.m., catching 37 black bass, five pike, and sixty rock bass.  On one side of the boat they caught minnows for bait.  On the other side the rods had not a moment’s rest.”  Several weeks earlier in a record catch, as reported in the Carleton Place Herald, “The Messrs. Anable last Friday caught ninety five black bass in the Innisville branch in less than two hours.  Among them were some very heavy black bass.”

Fish from large catches sampled by local newsmen were fairly sure of receiving public mention.  A corrected report of an August 1890 outing, previously misprinted in this column, said in part: “One morning last week a party composed of Rev. Father O’Rourke, Maurice Burke and the old standby Sid Anable in five hours landed sixty of the finest black bass we have ever had the opportunity of tasting.  The fish weighed on an average three pounds each.”

A similar news note of the following July stated:  “Mr. S. J. McLaren caught thrity-two fine black bass up near the Big Lake lasts Thursday.  The previous Friday he made a haul of forty-two.”

The Perth Courier a decade later reported in July, 1903:

“There has been some excellent fishing in the Mississippi waters at Carleton Place this season.  Many good catches of black bass and pike have been reported.  Among them, John Butts and James Umpherson frequently bring down from fifty to sixty fine fish in a morning’s catch.”

Duck Shooting in the Eighties

Down from the eighteen eighties came samples of similar news stories of the abundance of ducks on the Mississippi Lakes.

An October 1883 account said:

“A party of Ottawa gentlemen were out duck shooting on the Mississippi last week and succeeded in bagging no less than one hundred and forty of them.  Mr. Hugh Moore of Carleton Place, who was one of the party, shot a fine deer at Squaw Point near Wylie & Company’s shanty, for which the Ottawa men gave him eight dollars.”

According to a late August report of the following year, “Messrs. Glover had a very successful duck hunt last week.  One day they killed forty-six.  The C.P.R. restaurant took four dozen of the luscious fowl.”

Present Lake Problems

This last series of brief glimpses of activities on the Mississippi of over fifty years ago in recent numbers of The Canadian has been designed to recall a few more of the many ways in which these waters continued to serve from the first years of settlement as one of the leading natural assets of the Carleton Place area.  The decades of large scale lumbering and of industries based on local waterpower were followed by the rise of hydro-electric power and a decline in industrial uses of the lakes and river here.  Now the Mississippi from Carleton Place to Innisville serves in the role of a recreational area which is attracting growing numbers of some thousands of seasonal residents and visitors yearly.

The future quality of this latest phase of development of the lakes, and the trend of its value to Carleton Place and to the adjoining townships, can be expected to depend in part on whether land and water use in this recreational region receives the community guidance and assistance needed.  Such needs, as seen by some observers, include improvements in lot and building restrictions, and the promotion and application of policies to prevent unsanitary or offensive conditions, game law and traffic misconduct, and water pollution, among others.

Improvements and precautions of varying degrees of adequacy have been provided in some such respects in recent years under township, provincial and national government auspices, and at the instance of several lake community associations and by the Mississippi Lakes Association of Carleton Place.

Lakes A Town Asset

The Mississippi Lakes Association is a pioneering illustration of how our water recreational resources may be maintained and improved in the interests of the town.

In an earlier age, an incidental effect of the towing of great rafts of logs down the Mississippi Lakes to Carleton Place appears to have been the prevention of excessive waterweed growths over wide areas.  After the ending of nearly a century of rafting on these waters, rank growths of underwater weeds gradually spread, choking navigation and speeding the growth of mud shoals by slowing the normal flow.  In this way a large part of the lakes and river here was being progressively ruined for boating, swimming and the most popular types of fishing.

Now for nearly 20 years weed cutting machines have been operated by the Mississippi Lakes Association of Carleton Place.  Initiated by public-spirited citizens including the founding president, Mr. E. H. Ritchie, and bought and maintained by voluntary public support, these machines, together with other activities of the association, have been instrumental in keeping a large lake and river area in good usable condition.

The erection of additional scores of summer cottages of lengthening seasonal use and the occupation of an increasing number of year-round residences on the lake shores has followed this checking of the lakes’ deterioration.  Among the yearly products of this continued lake maintenance and development are additions to the volume of business of local merchandising and service trades, with the prospect of a continuing contribution of useful proportions to the population and general business and tax revenues of this area.

These gains can remain only if the lakes remain a desirable summer resort region.  The principal attraction inducing most of the lakeside summer visitors and residents of today to come here and to buy and continue to occupy property here is a readily accessible lake with water which has been kept fit for swimming and fishing and boating, activities of newly soaring national popularity.  A lake shrunken in usefulness and attraction by wide spreading weed beds, and with future boating by newcomers and others endangered by unmarked rocks, submerged piers and shoals, would not meet this modern test.  In that case many summer residents, both owners and tenants, soon would go elsewhere.  Such business benefits, instead of increasing, would decline accordingly.

It would be a greater loss to the town than appears to be generally recognized if insufficient assistance for this Lakes Association work were to lead to the eventual abandoning of our waterways near and in the town to their approaching weedy stagnation of fifteen or twenty years ago.

The Association’s prime mover and president since its founding, Mr. E. H. Ritchie, indicated a year ago his intention of asking to be replaced, after his many years of vigorous and successful direction of this Association’s activities.  The Mississippi Lakes Association at present is in urgent need of more Carleton Place members who are willing to give some of their time and ability in the spring and summer seasons to its particular community services, by helping in the management of the association’s work and annual membership fund collection campaigns on the lakeshore roads and in the town.

An enthusiastic response to this need and opportunity will ensure against a decline and ultimate loss of a large part of the water vacationland for which Carleton Place now serves as the headquarters.

Story of First Steam Boats On The Mississippi, by Howard M. Brown, Carleton Place Canadian, 31 May 1962

One of the newer features of the Carleton Place area is the growth of its Vacationland of the Mississippi during the past few years.

It is a growth recorded in increases in numbers of summer homes bordering the Mississippi Lakes, and in the larger numbers of summer visitors seen each year on the township roads to lakeside sections and on the streets and in the stores of Carleton Place.

The multiplying numbers of boats on the lakes and the river tell the same story.  There now are probably larger numbers of motor-propelled craft afloat here in an average summer day than could be seen in the course of a year a generation ago.  Between this recent change in the face of the lakes and the countless years of the birch bark canoes of the Indians, there lies a time of little more than a hundred and twenty five years during which these local waterways have been used for transportation, for supplying food and water and water power, and for recreation.

The record of this intervening time since the beginning of agricultural settlement and commerce shows that the use of steam powered engines on these waters began with the development of the region’s lumbering industries.  It may be surprising to recall that the days of the steamboat lasted as long on our Mississippi as has the period of boats with gasoline engines.  Throughout the same times sailboats, canoes and rowing skiffs have been used in varying numbers and types.  Other water craft of such contrasting kinds as commercial barges and rowing shells for racing are now locally things of the past, as are the odd sailing catamarans at one time in limited vogue.

Steamboats of Romantic Names

Steamboats of romantic names and impressive size, most of them locally built, operated between Carleton Place and Innisville from the eighteen sixties to the nineteen twenties.  While serving mainly for industrial towing and incidentally for pleasure excursions, several of the larger ones were designed for paying their way by the carrying of passengers and goods.  That aim was attained only briefly, if at all, even in a time when summer roads remained bad and automobiles and trucks did not exist.

The first steamboat on the Canadian Mississippi was launched in the year of national confederation.  It was built here by John Craigie, who had opened a riverside shingle mill producing for the United States market with machinery of his own invention.  His boat, like the last steamer to be built and used here, was given the name of the river.  An announcement of August, 1867, said, “The little steamer Mississippi is now making regular trips between Carleton Place and Innisville, carrying freight and passengers.  Excursion parties desirous of seeing the lakes, or fishing, shooting ducks, gathering berries, etcetera, can have the use of the boat at reasonable charges.”

A larger steamboat was wanted for the ambitious plans of the Mississippi Navigation Company, incorporated two years later with an authorized capitalization of $100,000 to build locks at Innisville and Fergusons Falls and transport commodities expected to include sawn lumber and iron ore for rail shipment at Carleton Place.  Headed by James H. Dixon of Peterborough, the company’s local directors included Abraham Code, M.P.P., then of Innisville, John Craigie, Robert Bell and Robert Crampton.  The new steamer, the Enterprise, built here by John Craigie for the short lived navigation company, was launched in October, 1869.  James Poole, secretary treasurer of the company, said in May, 1870, in his Carleton Place Herald:

“The steamer Enterprise has now made several successful trips between Carleton Place and Ennisville.  We have not had time or opportunity, owing to the demolition of our old building and the erection of new premises, to avail ourselves of the pleasure.  We notice also several packages of freight leaving the steamer.  We believe that our spirited member, Mr. Code, is sending his manufactured cloth to Montreal by steamer via Carleton Place.  Soon also picnics and other social gatherings will be the order of the day.  When the locks at Ennisville and Fergusons Falls are built the property of our beautiful village will be a fixed fact.” 

The navigation scheme collapsed and in the spring of 1872 the Enterprise, in a neglected state of repair, was sold by auction.  The Enterprise operated on the lakes and river in the service of the lumber industry under the ownership of Peter McLaren and the Canada Lumber Company for about twenty-five years.  It was made available throughout those growing years of the town as an excursion steamer for many summer and social activities.

Other towing and excursion steamers were added on the lakes in the eighteen seventies and eighties.  Among them were the Witch Of The Wave, The Morning Star, the 43 foot Ripple, and the 30 foot Mayflower.  In the eighteen nineties there were added the Commodore, which was to see many years of service, the big 80 foot shallow draft paddle wheeler the Carleton, and the Lake Park hotel’s 40 foot Lillian B.  Smaller private steamboats included the Nellie, the Four Macs, the Lizzie, the Reta and the Carmelita.  After 1900, with several of the oldest steamboats no longer in use, the Nichols’ 26 foot tug, the Belle, was launched in 1903 and Mr. S. Cooke’s larger Mississippi in 1905.  The hulls and engines of both were built in Carleton Place by the John Gillies Estate Company, as were those of the lake’s largest steamboat, the Carleton.

Carleton Place Boat Builders

The leading Carleton Place builders of skiffs and other small boats of superior quality, starting in the eighteen seventies and continuing his individual craftsmanship for fifty years, was Adam Dunlop.  The John Gillies Boat Works, which began operating here in the eighteen eighties as a branch of the Gillies machine and engine manufacturing plant, produced boat engines and marine craft for national distribution for about twenty-five years.  The company’s master boat builder, J. S. Ferguson, before coming here already had taken exhibition prizes awarded at Quebec City and London, England, for boats of such variety as a thirty foot racing shell weighing only thirty four pounds and a Gaspe fishing boat.

For the Gillies firm Mr. J. S. Ferguson directed the making of vessels ranging from paddle wheeled steamboats to standard types of gasoline launches, and large and luxurious cabin boats finished in fine woods for shipment to such places as the St. Lawrence’s Thousand Islands, Montreal and western Canada.  At the time of the company’s plant fire of 1906 it had some twenty or more employees.  When this Gillies business was closed after the death of James Gillies, Frank Walton, former Gillies boat builder for many years, continued to build hulls for gasoline launches and other boats at Carleton Place.