Plane crash in Johnny Eddie's field

     Wilbert Jeffery recalls he and his brother Stirling going out to see the plane crash at Johnny Eddie Mountains on the Centerline Road - it was during wartime ( WWII 1939-1945 ) in late spring or fall, some 70 years ago.  The plane crash landed in Johnny Eddie's big field.  It was a training plane that ran out of fuel - Blanche (Mountain) Bowness recalls the plane model being a "Wellington".  Wilbert said it had two engines.  He said there were alot of people out to see what happened.
     There were two RCAF training stations in Western Prince Edward Island during WWII- one at Mount Pleasant and the other near Tignish.
     Here's an image of a Wellington aircraft...

Image cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vickers_Wellington.jpg

     Bob Gordon recalls the incident well - he was a young boy.  He said the plane hit a block of sheep huddled together in the field as the plane approached - all the sheep were killed.  Bob also remembers the pilot letting them sit in the plane.

Meeting the Train in Alma - 1940's

     I was quizzing my father, Wilbert Jeffery, about who was responsible for the Alma Train Station in Alma.  In those days at the small, whistle stop stations, like Alma, had no Station Agents like some of the bigger stations like Alberton - so there was a local person who, "met the train", in the morning and in evening.  Wilbert recalls the person in Alma was Tommy Henderson who lived on the Western Road in the hollow below the Anglican Church, next to the Curries, in the house where in the latter part of the 1900's Keith and Blanche Bowness lived.

     Tommy Henderson met the train to get the mail and would take it over to Wallace and Annie Donalds who had the post office in their home (Desmond & Hazel Gallants today) on the Western Road near Alma Corner.

     Above: Carter's photo of the old Alma Train Station -see upper right where

the Alma sign used to be - most recently owned by James *Jim* MacNeill.

     Wilbert said when he was young, in the mid-1940's, he and other local fellows use to go out to the station mostly on Saturday evenings (there wasn't much else to do) to hang out and wait for the train with Tommy and when he got the mail would go with him to the Donalds.  The train came up from central PEI every evening, ending in Tignish, then leave the next morning to the middle of the Island again.

     Wilbert couldn't recall who met the train after Tommy.

Above image, by Massey F. Jones, cf.

http://yourrailwaypictures.com/OldDiesels/indexCN-Diesels.html

Centerline Road (Rte.151) Alma

     The Centerline Road in Alma goes east and west from the Western Raod (Rte. 2) taking the district of Alma to the east to Montrose and to the west to Lauretta and St. Lawrence.  Wilbert Jeffery recalls  in the summer of 1956 the government improved the Centerline Road from the Western Road down to the Klondike Rd. (today the McLellan Rd).  Wilbert Jeffery was asked by road-overseer Stanford Greene (he took over from Roy Burns) if he'd like a job working on the road.  The equipment was fairly basic, shovels and a bulldozer.  Wilbert recalls the dozer operator was Alfred Cormier (d. Sept.2011) of Waterford.  Wilbert's job was to move away the stray rocks and brush that came put on the road from ditching so cars passing wouldn't be damaged by the debris.
     The following year, 1957, the power poles and lines were brought into Alma and Lauretta - from the Western Road in to the Klondike Road.  About half of the residents on the road connected.  Wilbert recalls a neighbour saying, "I couldn't afford to buy the kerosene last year, so I don't think I'll be able to wire the house and connect to the electricity."  At the time Wilbert also recalls Premier Matheson saying, "we're paying 90% of the cost to put the electricity through the countryside."   Wilbert & Verna Jeffery got power to the Stephen/David Jeffery Homestead in 1964.     

 

     The Centerline Line Road was the road cut through the middle of Lot-3 from St. Lawrence to Montrose - it was the "center line of Lot-3".  In the 1863 Lake Map above you can see that it was first known as the "proposed road".  Click on map to enlarge.