Piecing together a community history

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

Anna Osburn and Pat Kemp live in houses with old stories.

The women are looking around their community, Burlington, for more.

“People farmed, they did everything they could to get by - it was almost hardscrabble,” Osburn says of life in Burlington through the 1800s.

“People didn’t leave the mountain. Power came late, roads were hard and the school would stop class even in the 1940s to watch a car go by.”

The Valley’s agricultural prosperity and nearby Harbourville’s Fundy port created different communities, but, Kemp says, Burlington is also “just so representative of so many other places.

“There didn’t seem to be any rich people - they were all pretty much working people.”

Osburn knows her home is one of the oldest, from the early 1800s by the looks of the way beams and nails were made. She can’t find out anything more, including who built it.

Kemp, though, has traced her 1882 home back to a sea captain, who actually died before he got a chance to live in it.

Both found they were curious about other community homes - still existing or reduced to rubble in the brush - and, as “come from aways,” were at a disadvantage.

“If you grew up here, you just know,” Osburn says.

The women started interviewing some of the communities oldest residents to find out what Burlington looked like 100 years ago. Six years ago, they did a hall presentation on local schools in Burlington, Woodlawn and Viewmount.

“People - like it? They loved it! It was such a community event, and people wanted to give us more stories and pictures,” Osburn says.

In the last year, volunteers have also tackled the Burlington cemetery. A new society now looks after the grounds, but is also trying to match people’s gravestones with community homes - “who’s going to know about those people if we don’t have some history?” Osburn says.

Of course, in their researching, Osburn and Kemp have uncovered a few mysteries.

“Where do we start as Burlington?” Osburn asks. “There are lots of local ideas on what the boundaries are. If it was based on school districts, in the winters the roads weren’t good and people just went over fields to wherever they could get.”

Where does the name come from? In early days, the area known as Burlington was called Long Point for the land sticking out into the Bay of Fundy to the north. In 1904, there is a church publication that refers to a name change, as there were several Baptist churches in the area that went by number rather than names.

What happened to the “bustling” corner of Long Point Road and McNally Road, where there were once buildings on every corner? The women have seen some early pictures of the now fields and woods, and also have tracked around a few buildings moved from their original location years ago.

“There is lots of good stuff - and lots not so good,” Osburn says of family troubles, community divisions and even murder.

“You can’t gloss over all the history, but there is a huge story here yet to tell. We want to bring a real personal, humanistic touch to it.”

In the last year, Kemp and Osburn have felt a “certain amount of urgency,” as more of the community elders die and the local population changes.

“We’ve decided - we have all this information, how do we get it organized? We want more people involved, we want some advice on putting a publication together.”

Both agree long-time community members and newcomers alike are welcome to help with the project.

“We are a growing community - even people from away can feel like they have roots here. We may not all be in the same social circles, but we’re all in this community.”



Have a hand in history

A meeting is planned for Sunday, February 3 at the Burlington Community Club on Long Point Road from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. This will be an informative meeting with the purpose of establishing a direction for the eventual publication of a Burlington community history. Anyone interested in participating in this project is welcome.