Tony Percy told a story that he remembered as a boy in 1930 ( July 1930) the British R101 Airship flew over Carleton Place on its way from Ottawa to Toronto. The airship was a on a tour of Canada and the United States. Tony remembered the airship sailing over Carleton Place in the early evening and he could see the lights of the passenger compartment.
Not long after Tony told Gary Strike this story he had a man visit him from Ottawa one day. He told me as a young man he grew up in Carleton Place and then his family moved to Ottawa. He remembered his father coming home after a local Carleton Place and that our council had been in favour of the Royal Canadian Air Force constructing an airfield near Carleton Place for the war effort. The reason given was because there was concern that young service men would be roaming the streets of Carleton Place at night.
He never heard anything more about it but a couple of years ago I found an article in a 1940s Ottawa newspaper stating that surveyors had been out to Carleton Place to survey land for Carleton Place. It turned out the Air Force relocated to Arnprior and we lost the opportunity for an airfield here in Carleton Place. During World War II, the airport hosted No. 3 Flying Instructor School for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Arnprior/South Renfrew Municipal Airport was the original location of the National Research Council of Canada Flight Research Laboratory until 1954 when it moved to its current location at the Ottawa International Airport in Ottawa.
On October 5, 1930, the British airship R.101 crashed on a hill in Beauvais, France. The impact was gentle and survivable but the ship was inflated with hydrogen, and the resulting fire incinerated 46 of the passengers and crew. Two additional crew members died of their injuries soon after. Read the here…
This year, July 1st., marks the 150 Birthday of Canada. To mark this important time in our history we are creating a special Commemorative Unity Signature Flag at Mitchell’s Independent, in Carleton Place.
Why? Where?
You are invited to come and sign or print your name with a red sharpie on a white flag, inside the outline of the maple leaf and two bars, thus creating a truly Canadian Unity Signature Flag. There is a possibility of this flag or a second flag, that may be created on Parliament Hill on Canada Day, presented to Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. Several emails have went back and forth to Rideau Hall and Canadian Heritage, since April 18th. when the request was sent in.
The flag signing will occur from 10:00 am. until 7:00 pm., Mon. June 26th. to Fri. June 30th. Donations will be collected for the Salvation Army. Volunteers are needed to oversee the flag signing for three hour shifts. If you can volunteer for at least one shift, please call or email, Gary Strike at 613-257-8120, or email, garystrike@rogers.com
Gary Strike sent me this memory and I thought we should jog everyone’s memories– especially for Canada’s 150th. Anniversary.
“A number of years ago I was driving Lyle Dillabough up to my cottage. Before we left I asked Lyle to write a song called Proud Canadians. Lyle agreed and began the whole thought process and started to piece it together. By the time we got to my cottage, which was an hour and a half drive, he had half the song written. Lyle is such a great music composer that at 9:00 pm. he had the song completed.
Within a week we had the song recorded and the song got plenty of media coverage on CJOH, The New RO and other station. To our surprise the song was featured on the news on Canada Day. I just realized that the song is a very good depiction for our 150th. Anniversary.”-Gary Strike
As a footnote Valerie and Gary are planning on going to “the Hill” on Canada Day and create a Canadian Unity Signature Flag which is a special Commemorative 150th. Anniversary Flag. I agree with Gary and this is a “blast from the past” Lanark County memory
Everything that Bill Bagg collected and sold had a story, and chances are if you were fortunate you heard that very same story at least two or three times. I am one of the lucky ones to have one of his pieces in my home, and although not to the extent of Bill’s passion; I sometimes feel I run a rescue for all things Lanark County. They might not be priceless antiques, but like Bill, each one has a local story- and to me that is more important than owning a Faberge egg.
According to Gary Strike, Bill Bagg had a couple of deer heads hanging on the wall at his place,and if you didn’t know where Bill lived, well you missed a real treat. Home for Bill for the past 34 years was the Gillies and Beyer’s Canadian machine shop built in 1875 located right on the Mississippi Gorge. These were not any ordinary mounted deer that Bill had–in fact they would be about 111 years-old right now. He acquired them from Scott and Jennifer Wallace, and after hearing the story Bill realized their importance to the town of Carleton Place.
According to local history one of the Natives had been following a deer closely and was extremely disappointed when he suddenly lost his game to one of the founders of the town. The Native told Carleton Place settler Edmond Morphy in limited English: Read-The Natives of Carleton Place — Violins and Deer
“No meat in wigwam for Wife and Papoose!”
Edmund and the native quickly settled the matter justly for both and established a rule to govern in like cases. Later the Stagg’s head became the Town of Carleton Place’s logo as it represented fair play and sharing. Ironically, the artist just happened to use those two deer heads as his model for the logo.
So what is the origin of these deer? The story goes that Mr. Muirhead, Rosamond and Gillies went out hunting at Christmas in 1901. Arriving at the “Patterson Bush” where the Beer Store on Townline is located now, the men each shot one deer. Deciding to immortalize their kill, the deer went to the taxidermist and were soon hung in the dining room of the Rosamond House at 37 Bell Street.
Town clerk, Duncan Roger’s late mother purchased the Bell Street property from Ida and Ken Muirhead in October of 1957.The Muirheads had left several items in the house one being the three deer heads. Two hung in the Roger’s dining room, and one hung in the east exterior porch for many years.
Rogers remembers his mother telling him that Ken Muirhead had told her that a Mr. Muirhead ( Ken Muirhead’s father he believed ) and one of his sons had shot the deer and had them mounted and hung in the home. Bill became very good friends with Arnold Muirhead, the son of Ida and Ken Muirhead, (married to a Gillies) and they lived in Arnprior. Gary Strike’s father was the head supervisor of the Gillies Bros. Lumber Company in Braeside and ironically Mr. Muirhead was his boss, so this story was slowly coming 360.
When asked, Duncan didn’t know anything about the story of the Muirhead, Rosamond and Gillies hunting expedition. The deer heads remained at Duncan’s former home until he sold it in 2003 to Mr. and Mrs. Wallace. Like most women, Duncan’s wife did not express any interest in them and he left them as he felt that they were part of the history of the home. After all, they had hung in the house for 102 years.
I don’t think any collector knows his true motivation but Bill had the knack of sniffing out history. Bill called some of his things primitives, some called them junk, but everything he bought and collected was an experience. Good or bad they are priceless to anyone that loves history and hopefully these deer heads will get their proper historical homes.
With files from Gary Strike
Duncan Rogers still has a picture of the deer heads as they were originally hung in the dining room at the Bell Street home.
They are impressive, at least five point bucks and the biggest set of racks that I have seen-Gary Strike
TONIGHT!!—Friends and family are welcome to celebrate Bill in the hall at St. James Anglican Church (225 Edmund Street, Carleton Place) on Monday, May 1st from 5-7pm. A funeral service will be held at 7:00pm.
I never wear any Canadian flags on my being. It’s not that I’m not proud to be a Canadian, but I feel people will understand the second I open my mouth. But tonight at the celebration of Bill Bagg at St. James Anglican I will proudly wear a Canadian flag on my hat. It’s not a fashion statement of any kind– I’m doing it in memory of Bill Bagg.
Bill Bagg told me lots of stories, and when you saw him you knew it just wasn’t going to be a short conversation. After all, everything is a lengthy conversation here in Lanark County; that’s the first thing I warned Steve about when he emigrated here last year. Over a year ago I stood in front of Walmart with Gary Strike and Bill for so long that I was almost gassed to death by the fumes of passing cars.
If it wasn’t local politics with Bill it was history or something else that irritated him and just like me, a lot of things irritated him. But sometimes you wondered if he really listened to you when you were in deep discussion with him — or did he just file it away for future reference.
In 1991, one of Bill’s best friends, Gary Strike, was watching a story about an old sailing boat on Mike Duffy’s show, Sunday Edition. The boat was said to be the oldest registered sailboat named “The Canada”, and was built in 1896, or 1897. It raced and sailed out of St. Johns, New Brunswick for 68 consecutive years, winning many races and when I told Bill The Dorothy was the oldest Canadian ship he argued up and down with me.
The story as it was told: in 1968, The Canada needed extensive repairs and was sold to Major William Gamblin. Well, Gamblin moved it, along with his family, lock stock and barrel to Carleton Place by rail. According to Google Earth The Canada and what was left of it was just on Dixon’s Landing on a private road off highway 7.
According to an article in the Ottawa Journal, Gamblin was an excellent craftsman and had refinished many a piece of maritime furniture. But Gamblin never got around to The Canada and the boat sat exposed to the elements of Lanark County for nearly 20 years.
In 1984 he and his wife retired on another sailboat (one that was intact) in the Caribbean. He gave the “The Canada” to the Lanark branch of the Navy League, they tried to raise $150,000 to restore her but they were unable, so they traded her to a boat builder in Kemptville, Ont. for repairs to their other boat called the “LANARK”. Jeremy Stinson added ‘The Canada” boat kept in half of the former armoury and drill hall John Street basement when he was a child.
When Gary Strike saw it in 1991 it was in a sorry state, badly needing to be rebuilt and the project and story received all kinds of media attention. Well, they all lobbied, worked and they struggled for three long years but sadly another group took over. But after struggling to raise money for ten years the new group too gave up, auctioned off the parts and closed down their organization. And all this time you know that somewhere Bill Bagg has heard Gary talk about The Canada and probably filed it in his “Gary Strike file”. You can be assured we all had files in Bill Bagg’s mind. If we had forgotten about something, he had a file on it and would remind you. So what happened to The Canada with her full sails that was once the pride of Canada?
One day Bill Bagg pulled up in front of the Strike’s house with his old truck. There was always stuff in the back of Bill’s truck, but when Valerie Strike looked out her window she thought Bill was on his way to the dump, because it was really full of junk. Sometimes when you sell antiques you needed a good imagination and a pile of junk and Bill was a triple threat.
Bill Bagg had gone to an auction and bought most of the parts of that sailboat named The Canada. Most of you know Bill specialized in primitives–and the truck was full of what loosely could be called primitives. There was the anchor, port holes, shelves, head, stove, hatch complete with the name The Canada on it. That was the same boat that Gary Strike tried to raise funds to rebuild. Because Bill Bagg had listened to his old friend all these years now that iconic sailboat called The Canada, or what was left of it, was sitting at the end of the Strike driveway.
Bill could have probably bought a toy model of The Canada for Gary as there were 14 inch ones available from Harbor Crafty. But Bill Bagg remembered how much the old sailboat meant to his friend Gary Strike and he brought home the real deal.
I’m going to miss driving over the back bridge this summer and not seeing Gary and Bill in their deep discussions by the side of the Mississippi River. To quote Gordon Lightfoot’s song theS. S Edmund Fitzgerald:
And all that remains today is the faces and the names Of the wives and the sons and the daughters
One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what someone has to say, and may I say I am so honoured to have been able to listen to the stories and discussions of Bill Bagg. It’s hard to forget someone who gave me so much to remember.
As Bill would say–“I am from Lanark County, God bless ya!”
May we raise our glass today to the memory of Bill Bagg.
Author’s disclaimer— There might be a fact or two out of joint a wee bit here and a wee bit there– but like Bill we wouldn’t be storytellers if we didn’t juggle the words around to make it a fine Lanark County tale.Right Bill?
The Dorothy, the oldest still-sailing vessel in Canada, built in victoria in 1897. Dorothy, a 26-foot sloop that was built in a Victoria shipyard in 1897. –
By the way, I talked to Beckwith Councillor Tim Campbell about this story and he said he has a piece of this boat too- so it would seem like a lot of people are sharing what Bill Bagg brought back to Carleton Place.
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