The "Flying Toilet Seat Salesman": Pat Johns, Algoma's #1 Screwball and RAF Fighter Pilot

Record Herald clipping

If any Algoma resident trained with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in Canada other than Newman “Pat” Johns, he didn’t get Johns’ press. Perhaps the notoriety came because Johns was the son of Joshua L. Johns, Wisconsin’s 8^th District Congressman who got so much ink that he nearly swam in it.

Serving in the House of Representatives in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Joshua Johns’ stance on neutrality was nationally known. A radio address in 1940 brought an orchestrated post card campaign. Interesting is that the pre-printed cards were sent from all over the U.S. Ironically, during World War l it was Joshua Johns’ leadership that put Kewaunee County over the top – 101% - in the Victory liberty Loan drives. Joshua was born a small town boy in Richland Center, Wisconsin and never forgot those roots.

Pat Johns was also a small town boy though he had big city experiences. Maybe a big city kid would have preferred being called Newman. Newman was Pat’s baptismal name. His mother was Esther Newman, daughter of Sam Newman who founded Plumbers Woodwork, a manufacturing force for most of 100 years in what is now Algoma. It was Esther who gave the city one of its parks, one called Newman Park. Joshua ran the Plumbers. He was an attorney who also served in Congress.

Little more than a year after graduating from Algoma High School with the Class of 1932, Pat was one of about 100 in his company at the San Diego Naval Training Station during August 1933 when he was selected as the weekly man of honor, one who demonstrated a neat appearance, initiative, and excellence from instruction. A few years later –August 1936 - Johns was stationed at Pearl Harbor when the news of his wedding was announced. St. Andrew’s Cathedral in the Territory of Hawaii was the scene of the wedding uniting him with Oconto’s Marjorie Chosa. They sent greetings from “Honolulu, Crossroads of the World and Paradise of the Pacific.”  

In May 1937 it was announced that the young couple arrived in Algoma from Honolulu to make their home in the lower flat of the Johns’ home on Third Street. Pat joined the family business as Director of Sales. The marriage didn’t last long though and just before Christmas 1938 Judge Henry Grasse refused Pat's request for a divorce. At least temporarily. Johns said conflicts began soon after the marriage. Marjorie Johns protested the proceedings as the couple had a six-month old child and another on the way. Johns made news when the marriage was eventually dissolved, but there was more to come.

It was written in October 1939 that Pat Johns put Algoma in more newspapers across the country than anyone else in its history.  He achieved plenty of publicity that September when he announced both a trans-Atlantic and a trans-continental flight. At the time he had a student pilot license and flew from Chicago to Manchester, New Hampshire. The student license prohibited him from flying farther than 25 miles from the point of take-off. Just weeks later he had his solo license enabling him to go anywhere in the U.S. Filling in the blanks is not difficult.

The idea of a peace flight that brought the national press. An idea for such a flight came to him while talking with reporters. One of the newsmen jotted it down and somehow the story “got legs.” It made wire services and was blown out of proportion. By then Johns’ plane was in Chicago where mechanics were reconditioning it, enabling the 65 horsepower mator to clear the Rockies. From Chicago he planned to go west in 800 mile hops. Newspapers called Johns “bald in the head and bold in the air,”  however the papers seemed to be making sport of him when it was further said he was “Screwball #1” in the Algoma club of 200 members. Algoma probably still has a few of the charter members who paid their 10 cents to join it.

In addition to making all the necessary preparations – including that overhaul – the “Shamrock Kid” was going to do an air show in Minneapolis at what was then Wold-Chamberlain Field. After that he planned to take some time in Algoma before returning to California.  Johns was planning his transcontinental World’s Fair to World’s Fair hop – San Francisco to New York – which was thwarted when officials in Oakland, California refused to allow his take-off. Runways were 6,000’ but Johns had an incredible gas load. Then he went to Sacramento, planning a take-off on a 3,000’ runway!

When Johns talked about the transatlantic flight, he called it a peace trip. He said he wanted to do what FDR could not, and that was end the war in Europe. The plane called "Johns’ Midget" didn’t make it and the trip was scraped. Part of the problem was balking federal authorities,the  Federal Aeronautical Authority. He had dealings with them more than once.

Johns’ plane had a 34’ wing span and a cruising range of 250 miles, however he was determined that every available part of the cockpit would carry extra fuel to insure a non-stop flight. Somehow 160 gallons were crammed into his “flying gas tank,” increasing the cruising range to 3,000 miles that would, hopefully, give him that non-stop flight.  Plans were to use the Weemes System of navigation which estimated the flight would take 34-36 hours. Some thought obstacles were insurmountable and that Johns was a “screwball flier.” If the screwball came through, honors were sure to follow. It didn’t happen. Johns completely wrecked his small plane just after take-off. Those who witnessed the wreck said it was miraculous that Johns escaped with nothing more than a few bruises.

While the trans-continental and trans-Atlantic flights were tabled, Johns became a member of the Canadian Hurricane Fighter Squadron and in 1943 was promoted from fighter pilot to a flying officer.

Early in 1941 while his father was pleading for defeat of Lend-Lease, it was said Pat was away from Algoma some time and making plans for his training. Congressman Johns said 95% of the country sided with England as did he, but the U.S. had done nothing to create the war unless it was the world war, meaning World War l. He felt more than one man – FDR - should decide about going to war. In February Congressman Johns spoke before Congress saying he was saddened with a “heavy-heart” because his only child had phoned to say that he was joining the RAF. The Congressman told his House colleagues that his son had been flying for many years and would leave for Canada in a month. Following 6 months of training, Pat would leave for England. Meanwhile Pat was in Algoma and when asked, for whatever reason, he denied his enlistment.

There were rumors about Pat and exactly what was going on with him. The war in Europe was ratcheting up but the U.S. was not involved when in June 1941, Canadian papers were full of Johns. While his father believed in neutrality, Pat was training with the RAF in Canada and getting ready to go to England. It was said that Johns found a four-leaf clover while having dinner with newspaper publisher Arthur Ford. He told Ford the clover would give him good luck and he intended to fill his “quota of Heinies.” Johns was full of confidence because when he was asked to bring back Hitler, he said he couldn’t do it because the Fuhrer was already promised to one in Chicago. It was said Pat had stationery printed with a green caption in the corner: “Pat Johns, the Wild Irishman.” Whether or not that was true, Chicago friends gave him an ID bracelet engraved with “Wild Irishman.” The London Free Press felt he was going to be an ace airman. He had the enthusiasm, pluck and love of adventure. What was not written was that he was also called “the flying toilet seat salesman.”

Oct. 30, 1942

Congressman Johns was asked by the publisher of the London Free Press – the Canadian newspaper – if there were not family inconsistencies. After all, the Congressman voted against Lend-Lease and his son wanted to fight the Germans. Not so said Joshua Johns. He was all for Britain and against all Hitler stood for. His problem was President Roosevelt having too much power and becoming a dictator himself. Johns said even if Lend-Lease failed, Britain would get aid.

Sixty-three fliers began the Canadian Air Force program, 43 finished and only 11 would win the commission. In July 1942 the papers hinted that Pat would be one of 11 commissioned. In 1943 Pat was in Newfoundland flying a fighter plane for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Algoma felt it would have something to cheer about if he ever did get to England. Canadian papers felt he’d do big things.

If Algoma’s” #1 Screwball” achieved his dreams, the press didn’t follow. At his father’s death in 1947, the obituary indicated Pat was living in Toronto. A year earlier Pat was visiting in Algoma when the newspaper mentioned the former RAF officer as being there for a few days before returning to Toronto and his job as a taxi driver. Newspapers that were filling pages with the exploits of a man on either side of 25 said he graduated from Belle Easton private high school in Algoma. Possibly there was confusion about which Algoma. Was it the one in Wisconsin or perhaps someplace in the Town of Algoma in Ontario, Canada? No doubt there were errors in other stories as well.

Whatever followed World War ll, Pat Johns’ celebrity status gave Algoma something else to think about. His grandfather Sam Newman entertained Ahnapee, as the city was then called, with his race horses. Sam knew horse flesh. Pat’s father Joshua was the only city resident who served as 8^th District Congressman. Pat was the only city resident to serve in the RAF. He was also the only city resident honored as #1 Screwball and its only flier to be called “the flying toilet seat salesman.”

Sources: Algoma Record Herald; Commercial Development in Youngs and Steele Plat and Other Selected Properties in Algoma, Wisconsin, c. 2006; Here Comes the Mail: Post Offices of Kewaunee County, c. 2010;  Joshua Johns files in the Area Research Center at UW-Green Bay; Yours Truly from Kewaunee County, c. 2014.