DUFFY, CHARLES TIMOTHY (1848-1927)

DUFFY, CHARLES TIMOTHY, blacksmith, hotel proprietor, and sportsman; b. Boiestown, 14 May 1848, (bap. 10 Aug 1848, 3 mos.) s/o John Duffy and Joanna Donovan; m. 1st, 1883, Catherine Lynch, of Stanley, N.B., and 2nd, 1891, Julia Blanche Rowan, a native of Burton, N.B.; d. Boiestown, 5 Feb 1927.

Charles Duffy was the son of a blacksmith from Co. Londonderry, Ireland. He learned the blacksmithing trade from him as a boy and continued to work at it for much of his life. His shop was known for the "Duffy Casting," a fitting for bobsleds which was invented by an employee, Ellis Pond, and became widely used in the lumber industry. His older brother William Duffy and his younger brother Frederick Duffy were associated with him at different times in the business.

When the railway came to Boiestown in the late 1880s, and the William Richards Co. began lumbering and milling operations there, the community experienced an unprecedented boom, which lasted until the first decade of the 20th century. Duffy and his brothers capitalized on this in 1887 by building a hotel in the center of the village, directly across the road from the railway station. The establishment became legendary largely because an anonymous resident was inspired to compose the song, "Duffy's Hotel," with its memorable opening lines:

If you're longing for fun and enjoyment

Or inclined to go out on a spree,

Come along with me over to Boiestown

On the banks of the Miramichi...

The singer's boss stays at the hotel:

I'm employed with a man, Edmund Kenney,

A gentleman who you know well;

J. P. for the parish of Stanley,

And he put up at Duffy's Hotel.

There have been riotous goings-on in Boiestown:

One night I went out on a party;

'T was held in the Mansion below,

A row was kicked up in the kitchen,

I tell you it wasn't too slow.

We upset the chairs and the tables,

The windows and stove, too, they fell,

The row was kicked up by Delaney,

A boarder at Duffy's Hotel.

(The Fredericton Gleaner of 18 April 1891 reported the marriage of Nicholas Delaney, of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and Lucy Long, of Ludlow, at the hotel.)

The Fredericton Herald stated in August 1893 that Duffy's Hotel was "alive with agents, fishermen, tourists, and lumbermen." The sports hunting and fishing industry was getting underway in the 1890s, and Duffy, a renowned salmon fisherman, often escorted hotel guests out to the woods and streams around Boiestown. His brother William did so as well.

For a number of years after the railway was completed, train excursions from Fredericton to Boiestown and beyond were popular with all classes. Among the busiest days for the hotel was one in mid August 1901, when a special train carrying "a thousand excursionists" arrived in the village.

In 1905 "the Duffy brothers" renovated and expanded the hotel, and it was still in operation in 1919. By then, however, the Boiestown boom was over, and Duffy soon retired from the business. He was survived in 1927 by his second wife, Julia B. Rowan, and six children from his two marriages.