You know the Seven Wonders of Lanark County– well I think we need one in Almonte and Carleton Place too. I am going to ask all of you what you would pick.. Here are Your Results:
Donna Mcfarlane– When they discontinued parking in the park. Access to the area where folk used to picnic was cut off. Julie Sadler, your grandmother, The Arcands, Cuffaris and my family used to picnic once a year there but when they could not drive close to picnic tables it was discontinued. Cuffaris and ARcands were from Ottawa and loved our park
Linda Pond Photo–
Carleton Place Walking Trails
We moved to town so we could walk everywhere. Along the river is spectacular scenery
Barb Fergusson— Definitely the falls. Actually the towns its self. All the little shops you can spend hours browsing in. Warm welcoming people.
Karen Hirst The Woolen Mills were in abundance and connected to our source of power—The Mighty Mississippi. Without this symbiotic relationship of our origin —well who knows. The story of the woolen mills leads to the history of its people both famous and the extraordinarily ordinary. The river—from the largest to the tiniest trickles found throughout all cascade over tiers of rocks into the restful flow of the river connecting the communities of Mississippi Mills.
I can recall going to the Legion when it was located on Bridge Street (where Bennett’s Butcher Shop was on the east side, next to Dr. Johnston’s. We’d see a movie and then get a paper bag with hard candy and an apple (and/or orange) in it from Santa. That would be in the 1950s. Wendy LeBlanc —Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum
From Rob Probert: 1962 makes sense to me as that is when Eldon Henderson started the Marching Saints. And I know that the band was responsible for the parade for some time. I can’t say with any accuracy as I only moved to CP a couple of years before that. The Santa Claus float was kept in his backyard for years. The arena candy sounds about right to me. I know at some point it was in the town hall as well… for sure when I was president of the Chamber and then it moved to the Bank of Nova Scotia where crowd control was easy—in and out the back door.
The CP Board of Trade Board went silent for a long time so if they had previously sponsored a parade it would have been dormant until Eldon started it back up…likely with the help of Lawrence Donnelly.
Jeremy Stinson Dad, John Stinson mentioned that Wayne Conley and many members of the Lions were in this float and the ‘Captive’ was from the ‘Rich’ RBC float…
Dad would have to explain more…
For the record, my Dad is Little John.
I began this story last Saturday after I took pictures of homes that are now red and yellow tagged and about to slide down one of the hills in San Pablo, CA. For 21 days it has rained and anyone living on a precarious slope in the Bay Area knows the dangers. One of the homes that is red tagged was actually built on the same spot that a former residence in 1973 tumbled down to its final fate. How people can build on hills, or on fault lines, just for a view in this area boggles my mind.
As I drove by and watched neighbours help each other load belongings into U Hauls I understood the feelings that everyone had. In 1995 my home had been ravaged by fire and I too sat there looking at destruction that I did not have any control over. I cannot begin to tell you how one feels when devastation hits your inner core as you watch something you loved vanish in a few fleeting hours.
It was a cold January day and the kids were flooding the rink outside when I noticed our German shepherd, Snoopy racing in from the greenhouse with a huge plume of black smoke trailing him. If there is an emergency I am not the one to send to an EMT unit as I panic easily. I screamed for someone to call 911 and Angelo thought a hose spraying a steady stream of water into the basement window was enough to contain the fire.
Within five minutes the basement was engulfed with flames and I attempted to go into the greenhouse to save the birds and my ferret. Smoke quickly turns into a blackness that cannot be measured on a colour chart and within seconds I was trapped. A local fireman, Ab Hurdis, came in to search for me and ended up saving my life as I could no longer find my way out.
My sons and I were sent over to a neighbour’s home and we sat there, shivering and watching the firemen try to save our house. I wanted to cry but I couldn’t, and the kids kept asking me if everything was going to be alright. In my irrational mind I thought things would return to normal once the fire trucks were gone and life would go back to the way it was.
The fight for our home was not over for another 18 hours. The Ocean Wave firemen left at about 5 pm overwhelmed with the intensity of the smoke and one ended up in the hospital. They had done their best and thought the fire had been put to rest but Angelo and his father sat guard all night watching for hot spots. Sure enough at 1 am a wall in the living room went up in flames and had they not been there the house would have been a total loss.
The next day the kids and I returned to our home and I knew then and there that everything was not going to be alright. The living room hardwood floor was swollen with water and raised in many places. The charred Christmas tree and all its decorations stood against silent black walls. I stood there and realized that there was a long road ahead of us and my tears began.
My eldest son told me that he was so sorry that his stuffed monkey “Congo” had caused all of the damage. I looked at him in shock and realized he thought that the Beanie Baby he had bought at Michaels two days before was the cause of the fire. I quickly tried to change his mind but knew that he would forever blame the little stuffed monkey as the cause.
Within three days a restoration unit had been summoned by the insurance company and we were notified that because the house had been built with three foot stone walls that they were not going to tear it down. It would take an eternity of gutting the house and rebuilding the interior at a cost of $500,000.00 to make it whole again.
Watching the contents of your home that were not damaged being catalogued, wrapped and sent away in boxes by strangers is something I hope no one ever has to live through. For months I lived in the kitchen that had not been touched and baked for the 11 carpenters that worked in my home and became my surrogate family. They had smiles for me every day and helped me wipe away my tears. They became a source of laughter for my sons and the day they finally left I felt like I had lost my best friends.
No matter what has been done to your home, once it has been touched by tragedy it will never be the same. It seems to lose the original soul in the belly of its interior and because of the destruction many pieces of life are lost and will never come back.
As I sat on the floor of the restoration company looking at the items that had been salvaged and were going to be returned to my newly repaired home, I finally realized that life was not about the stuff you own.
From that day on I wanted very little and was grateful that the lives of my sons had been spared, but it was too late. Like the tree in the picture above that is fighting to remain erect against the sliding earth I had to fight too. The landslide in my mind had begun and it was slowly falling down the hill.
This image of the McDiarmid ladies (and men!) washing up after a picnic was taken about 1914. The McDiarmids lived in the big stone house at the end of McArthur Street, where they had a tennis court in the side yard.
This image from the family photo album shows Roy Brown c. 1910, with a group of friends after a tennis match. It may have been taken at the McDiarmid family’s private courts on McArthur Avenue.
Tennis match, three persons on the court. ca. 1910 -Public Archives
A photograph of the Willows family on a wagon circa 1900. Left to right, those pictured are: Alfred Willows, Catherine Willows, Ruth Halpenny, and Sara Halpenny.
Photo from Marjorie Earl.
Ivy MohrhardtAlfred is a nephew of my 2Xgrgrandmother Desdimona Flintoft (nee Willows) Catherine’s maiden name was Halpenny. Love this photo!!
1905-This picture is of Mrs. Ross who visited in the summer months to Mississippi Lake near Drummond Center and stayed in a tent with two young boys, Norman and Jack. Her maiden name could be Tysick, Caswell, Willows, Code or other. The boys were probably her grand-sons. The picture seems to be taken at the Flintoft’s farm or Mrs. Ross’ home in Carleton Place. Anyone have any more information?
The wedding ceremony was so brief, so simple, and the words uttered in such a rushed way that there was some doubt in the minds of the lovers as to whether they were really married. But Reverend Buchanan had informed them that they were married, so they were. As they got back on to their horses the husband spoke to his wife that perhaps they had better go to Carleton Place and see someone who was an ordained minister, but the young woman said no, that it was just as binding “in law and before God.” Her husband joking replied that it was his new wife’s desire to further conserve that five-dollar bill that prompted her not to acquiesce to the danger of parting with a fee to another preacher.
Those looks might strike you dead, but in the Victorian period, wallpaper could–and did–kill. In one sense, it wasn’t that unusual. Arsenic was everywhere in the Victorian period, from food colouring to baby carriages–especially in the colour green. Even though nobody was eating the paper (and people did know arsenic was deadly if eaten), it could cause people to get sick and die. wallpaper-makers, had stopped using arsenic in their papers as the result of public pressure. As newspaper reports and other media popularized the idea that arsenic was toxic, and not just when ingested, consumers finally turned away.
Jacob Bond was born February 18, 1837 and died May 1873 from accidental poisoning on Bridge Street where Joie Bonds store was. Irma Willoughby’s husband was related to the Bonds and she was working on the Bond Family tree and was able to fill in some of the blanks. She said the accidental poisoning was because of the glue in the wallpaper that was highly toxic in small-enclosed areas. It is unclear why Joseph died in July 1874.
Jacob was the first of ten children born to Joseph and Henrietta Bond. Jacob was a shoemaker and cloth finisher. It is unknown when Joseph’s tombstone was brought back to the Bond store with the intention of fixing it but how long it had been there is unclear and unknown and it remained in the basement until the building was sold.
![MIKAN 3550370 Tennis match, three persons on the court. ca. 1910 [128 KB]](https://i0.wp.com/central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item)
