Tales You Did Not Know About—Charles Lindbergh Landed in Carleton Place

The Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
02 May 2015, Sat  •  Page 4

Someone dropped off this huge pile of aviation files/ notes in my mailbox and I can’t remember who did it. So if it was you, please tell me, so I can give due credit. This page has Duncan Rogers name printed at the bottom so I assume the information originally came from him.

” I remember working late quite often in those days and on occasion would talk with Tony Percy the caretaker. One day when we were chatting he told me that Charles Lindbergh had landed his plane in Carleton Place. Tony told me that during the 1920s Charles Lindbergh and a group of pilots came to Ottawa shortly after his historic trip across the Atlantic Ocean to help with the 1927 celebrations in Ottawa. The Silver Jubilee celebrations had been delayed because of the war”.

“At any rate, Tony told me that one of his planes developed engine problems while flying over Carleton Place so they all landed here at about where McNeely Avenue is today. One of the engines was repaired and they flew on to Ottawa. During those very celebrations in Ottawa one of Lindbergh’s pilots, Thad Johnson accidentally hit another place over Parliament Hill and he was killed”.

With only 300 feet between his doomed plane and the ground, Johnson’s parachute barely had time to open before he slammed to earth, dying instantly in front of the crowd.

On July 3, with bells tolling, Johnson’s flag-draped coffin was placed on a carriage that made its way to Ottawa’s Union Station, where the unlucky aviator was put on a train back to Michigan. Crowds lined Wellington Street as the cortege passed. At the train station, a firing party assembled for a three-volley salute as a band played The Last Post and The Star Spangled Banner. As the funeral train slowly steamed out of the station and along the Rideau Canal, an aircraft was spotted dropping out of the grey skies above. It was Lindbergh circling above the train. In tribute to his fellow flyer, Lindbergh cut the engine of the Spirit of St. Louis and quietly glided his aircraft to within a few feet of Johnson’s car. He cast an armful of flowers out of his plane before climbing back into the clouds and turning home to the U.S.

There’s a short road near the Ottawa airport that bears the curious name of Thad Johnson Private. It’s not particularly notable, save for its location by the FedEx depot, but now you know the rest of the story.

Related reading

Private Norman Turner and Leslie Owrid — The Rest of the Story

People of Lanark County –The Rest of the Story — Weitzenbauer – Maberly

Norman Cram and Ed Sibbitt –The Rest of the Story — Lots of Genealogy

The Carleton Place Affiliation to the Titanic — The Rest of the Story

Lily Roberts of Drummond The Rest of the Story

When Were Some of the Trees Planted in Riverside Park?

The Silver Jubilee Celebrations of His Majesty King George V and Her Majesty Queen Mary was held from the 6th May to 12th May 1935 .

“Why should a country regard it as a cause for rejoicing that the same sovereign has reigned for twenty-five years?”

They replied that an uninterrupted reign usually indicates a period of stability unmarked by fierce upheavals, a period during which advances have been made and victories won in various fields of national activity.

According to the newspaper archives the Silver Jubilee was celebrated in a fitting manner along with various town organizations and citizens in Canada. In Carleton Place the townsfolk joined the Parks Commission in setting out an avenue of maple trees in Riverside Park.

So in looking at some of these.. I am wondering if the trees planted in 1935 were  the row of trees along the paved path from Lake Ave West to the water treatment plant? What say you?

I remember my dad telling me that when he was a kid in the 20’s and 30’s. The beach was further up river. Just as the area known as Riverside park probably was too. The area around the present beach was an old mill. Caldwell’s I think but I’m not sure when that became the canoe club. Anyway in the upper part of the park, near the Willis’s plot there are 3 tall maples in a row with one having been cut down recently. I am a very busy guy, ha ha, but I took the time to attempt to count the rings an I came up with about 85 to 100 which would place them in the right time frame. Dan Williams

Before Riverside park, there was Caldwell’s Saw Mill. Located approximately where the beach is now, this saw mill operated from 1869 to 1891. It was later run as the Cavers Sash and Door Mill. The town purchased the property in 1904 for use as a public park. This photo was taken that same year, perhaps shortly before the building was demolished. Look across the river… nothing or barely nothing.– Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum