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“The Dufferin” and “Bed Bug Corner”
Prior to 1900 the corner diagonally opposite the Upper Burlington schoolhouse, where the Old Walton Road and Lacy Road meet, was the location of a large wooden community post office box. Pranksters had vandalized it several times, so the local blacksmith, a Mr. Harvie, was called upon to reinforce it with an iron rod or metal plate to prevent it being cut off again. This mailbox was called the Dufferin. Thwarted in further efforts to cut with saw or axe, a local prankster poured kerosene on it and set the Dufferin on fire. This is stated to be about 1907 or perhaps earlier.
Several of the young folk were blamed for the fire. It was suspected at the time, and confirmed many years later in 1990 when Harvie descendants visited from San Diego, California, that the culprit was young Judd Harvie. Judd and his several siblings would have attended the second school which was also adjacent that intersection.
The saga of the burning of the Dufferin resulted in a poem called “The Dufferin” and a longer song titled “Bed Bug Corner”, with similar stanzas naming several of the suspects and other local personalities. The name Bed Bug Corner may have derived from a “poor farm” operated adjacent to that intersection from 1830-1870 by Mr. Israel Sanford. A “poor farm” is the name for a place where the indigent and mentally ill were housed by the township or municipality. The writer of the song was a Jimmy Alfred Reynolds, a nearby resident, perhaps at Union Corner.
Many students who attended the present school prior to WWI could recite “The Dufferin” from memory, having learned it as a school exercise. That type of recitation was very common in past days. Students up to the WWII era could frequently recite hundred of lines of verse learned in school.
Alice Harvey of Scotch
Village contributed the lines of “Bed Bug Corner” in a Hants
Journal letter to the editor about 1979. She stated their
father sang it to her family. The poem Dufferin was recited
frequently by Alfred Barkhouse, a 1908-1912 pupil at the school.
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The Dufferin |
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Bedbug Corner is where I live The people how they are suffering Somebody burned the mailbox down The box they call The Dufferin |
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Della Barrett lived in a garret And she lay sick and suffering She was the first to see the flames Arising from The Dufferin |
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Dixon Brightman came along His hair is hung in curls He said he knew who burnt the box Twas those McCully girls. |
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Next there came Old Ironside (namely Robert Harvie) A sloshing through the mud He knew who burnt the mailbox Twas Isaac Harvie’s Judd |
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Next came along was George Will Fish As black as any cinder He beckons to that ere man To stick his head out that ere window |
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They saw him down by Shearer Lane Homeward he did canter He either wore a cap or hat Or else a tam o’shanter |
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Whoever burnt the mailbox It was a dirty habit He should be tried before John Dill And hung by Elisha Rabbit |
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Bed Bug Corner |
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Oh Bed Bug Corner’s where I live The people there are suffering Someone’s fired the great Hotel The place they call the Dufferin |
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Oh Jimmie’s wife is very sick She’s very ill and suffering She was the first that saw the flames That rose up from the Dufferin |
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She tried to wake up the Engineer To act upon the fire Before he got the pipes to work The flames were mounting higher |
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At last they got the Engine out The people huddled round To see the Hotel Dufferin Burning to the ground |
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The next that came was Jimmie To settle all the noise He said he knew who burnt the box Was Richard Salter’s boys |
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Oh Jimmie’s hair is very long Della’s hung in curls She said she knew who burnt the box Was those McCulloch girls |
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Old Mr Robert he came along Hobbling out the lane Like a Bed Bug with no wings But gets there just the same |
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Mr Robert he went in To bring out Della Barrett He traveled up 3 flight of stairs And fell down through the garrett |
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The next that came was Ironside A waddling thru the mud He said he knew who burnt the box Was Isaac Harvey’s Judd |
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Who ever fired the Great Hotel It was a dirty habit They ought to be tried before John Dill And hung by Liler Rabbit |
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The next that came was long Black Dixon Just like a horse that had the lampers He said he knew who burned the box Was those boys of Sanford’s |
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Now poor old Aunt Kate all that night She could not thus retire She said by gad she saw the lad Who set the house on fire |
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He either wore a hat or cap Or else a tam a shanter I saw him down by Shearer’s Lane As homeward he did scamper |
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Oh Yankee Doodle, whoop her up Harris he’s a Dandy George o'Fish has got the stuff To make molasses candy |