New Bern, North Carolina

Varying complex cultures of indigenous peoples had lived along the waterways of North Carolina for thousands of years before Europeans arrived in the area. The Tuscarora, an Iroquoian-speaking people, had migrated south from the Great Lakes area at some ancient time and occupied the area for several hundred years before the first Europeans arrived. They had a village called Chattoka at the confluence of the rivers. They resisted encroachment by the Europeans, resorting to war in 1712.[11]

New Bern was settled in 1710 by Bernese and Palatine immigrants under the auspices of Christoph von Graffenried, 1st Baron of Bernberg.[12][13] The new colonists named their settlement after the Canton of Bern, Switzerland, home state of their patron. Graffenried had the original plat of the town laid out in the shape of a cross, though later development and additional streets have obscured this pattern within the regular street grid. This became the first permanent seat of the colonial government of North Carolina.

Tryon Palace (2008)

The Governor's Palace, New Bern (also known as Tryon Palace), served as the capitol of North Carolina from 1770 until the state government relocated to Raleigh in 1792, after a fire had destroyed much of the capitol.

Baron de Graffenried Marker (2007)

During the 19th-century Federal period, New Bern became the largest city in North Carolina, developed on the trade of goods and slaves associated with plantation agriculture.[14] After Raleigh was named the state capital, New Bern rebuilt its economy by expanding on trade via shipping routes to the Caribbean and New England.[14] It was part of the Triangle Trade in sugar, slaves, and desired goods. It reached a population of 3,600 in 1815.[14]

In 1862 during the early stages of the American Civil War, the area was the site of the Battle of New Bern. Federal forces captured and occupied the town until the end of the war in 1865. Nearly 10,000 enslaved blacks escaped during this period in the region and went to the Union camps for protection and freedom. The Union Army set up the Trent River contraband camp at New Bern to house the refugees. It organized the adults for work. Missionaries came to teach literacy to both adults and children.

After the January 1863 Emancipation Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, slaves in the Confederate states were declared free, but not those in the United States. His order carefully limited the Proclamation to those areas in insurrection, where civil government was not respected and his military authority, therefore, applied. Because of this proclamation, more freedmen came to the Trent River camp for protection. The Army appointed Horace James, a Congregational chaplain from Massachusetts, as the "Superintendent of Negro Affairs for the North Carolina District"[15] on behalf of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands. In addition to the Trent River camp, James supervised development of the offshore Roanoke Island Freedmen's Colony, which was intended to be self-supporting.[16] Beginning in 1863, a total of nearly 4,000 freedmen from North Carolina enlisted in the United States Colored Troops to fight with the Union for their permanent freedom, including 150 men from the colony on Roanoke Island.[15]

Bear Plaza (2013)

Journal of Luis Michel (1702)

Due to the continuous occupation by the Union troops, New Bern avoided some of the destruction of the war years. There was much social disruption because of the occupation and the thousands of freedmen camped near the city. Still, it recovered more quickly than many cities after the war.

By the 1870s the lumber industry was developing as the chief part of New Bern's economy. Timber harvested could be sent downriver by the two nearby rivers. The city continued to be a center for freedmen, who created communities independent of white supervision: thriving churches, fraternal associations, and their own businesses. By 1877 the city had a majority-black population.

The state legislature defined the city and county as part of North Carolina's 2nd congressional district which, as former plantation territory, held a concentration of the state's black residents. They elected four blacks to the US Congress in the late 19th century. The state's passage of a constitutional suffrage amendment in 1900 used various devices to disenfranchise black citizens. As a result, they were totally closed out of the political process, including participation on juries and in local offices; white Democrats maintained this suppression mostly, until after passage of federal civil rights legislation, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which provided for federal enforcement of constitutional rights.

By 1890 New Bern had become the largest lumber center in North Carolina and one of the largest in all of the South. During this time, as many as 16 lumber mills were running and employing hundreds of men from New Bern and the area. The competitive nature of the lumber barons, the abundance of lumber and craftsmen, led to the construction in New Bern of some of the finest homes in the South, many of which have survived. The lumber boom lasted until the 1920s. One by one the lumber mills went out of business. Today only Weyerhaeuser manufactures lumber in the area.

New Bern, N. C. (1864)

The city has four National Historic Districts and two local ones, which have helped preserve the character of the architecture. The Downtown Local Historic District is 368.64 acres (149.18 ha) or 0.576 square miles (1.49 km²); the Riverside Local Historic District covers 51.94 acres (21.02 ha) or 0.081 square miles (0.21 km²).

Union Point Park borders the Neuse and Trent rivers. It is the site of the city's major celebrations, such as Neuse River Days and the Fourth of July. Since 1979 the Swiss Bear Downtown Revitalization Corporation has worked to redevelop downtown; it has stimulated the creation of art galleries, specialty shops, antiques stores, restaurants and inns. This area has become a social and cultural hub. James Reed Lane is a downtown mini-park and pedestrian walk-through on Pollock Street across from historic Christ Church. Private restoration efforts have returned many of the downtown buildings to their turn-of-the-twentieth-century elegance.

In 2005, a segment of NBC's The Today Show noted that New Bern was one of the best places in the United States to retire. Retirees from the northern states have added to its population.

New Bern's location near the Atlantic coast makes it subject to the effects of Atlantic hurricane seasons. For example, in the 18th century the town suffered severe damage in the Great Chesapeake Bay Hurricane of 1769.[17] Other hurricanes such as Hurricane Ione in 1955 and Hurricane Floyd in 1999 (just as examples) have also caused significant flooding and damage.[18]

In September 2018, Hurricane Florence made landfall in the United States just south of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, 88.4 miles southwest of New Bern. A storm surge up to 13.5 feet in addition to days of heavy rains severely flooded various parts of the town. [National Hurricane Center Storm Surge Inundation Map, Sept 13, 2018]

The following are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[19][20]

Aerial view of New Bern (center left) showing the confluence of the Trent (bottom center) and Neuse (left to right) rivers. East is up. The two larger bridges carry U.S. 70, U.S. 17, and NC 55, bypassing New Bern to the south through the unincorporated community of James City. The smaller bridge crossing the mouth of the Trent River is Front Street, while the smaller bridge crossing the Neuse is a railroad bridge.

The United States Census Bureau considers New Bern to be centered at 35°6′33″N 77°4′9″W (35.109070, −77.069111).[21] It is sited at the junction of the Trent and Neuse rivers, two tidal waterways.

U.S. Route 70 and U.S. Route 17 pass through the city, merging briefly as a four-lane expressway passing south of the city center. US 70 leads west 33 miles (53 km) to Kinston and southeast 35 miles (56 km) to Morehead City near the Atlantic Ocean. Raleigh, the state capital, is 112 miles (180 km) west via US 70. US 17 leads southwest 37 miles (60 km) to Jacksonville, North Carolina, and crosses the Neuse River on a new bridge to lead north 36 miles (58 km) to Washington, North Carolina.

New Bern is located in North Carolina's Inner Banks region. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 29.7 square miles (76.9 km²), of which 28.2 square miles (73.1 km²) is land and 1.4 square miles (3.7 km²), or 4.87%, is water.[7]

Coastal Carolina Regional Airport is a public airport located 3 miles (5 km) south of the central business district of New Bern. The airport offers connecting flights to the Atlanta and Charlotte airports daily.

The New Bern Transport Corporation, a business entity owned by PepsiCo to manage its fleet of delivery trucks and other motor vehicles, is located in White Plains, New York, but was named after the town where Pepsi-Cola was first developed.

The population of the area was 30,291 (95% urban, 5% rural) people in 2014, a 31% increase in growth since 2000. Gender distribution is 47.5% male and 52.5% female with a median resident age of 38.8. The percentage of residents under the age of 18 was 24.2%. The 2012 racial breakdown includes White alone – 16,304 (54%), Black alone – 9,634 (31.9%), Asian alone – 1,844 (6.1%), Hispanic – 1,626 (5.4%), Two or more races – 747 (2.5%), American Indian alone – 50 (0.2%) and Other race alone – 13 (0.04%). The median income for a household in the city in 2015 was $41,285.[25]

The City of New Bern 2010 Census information shows the population of the area was approximately 29,524 people. From 2000 to 2010, the New Bern city population growth percentage was 27.7% (or from 23,128 people to 29,524 people). 22.8% of the New Bern city residents were under 18 years of age. Census 2010 race data for New Bern city include the racial breakdown percentages of 57.0 white, 32.8% black, 3.6% Asian, 5.8% Hispanic and less than 1% Native American, Also, there were 14,471 housing units in the City of New Bern, 88.2% of which were occupied housing units.

• 1450 AM / 104.3 FM WNOS – News/Talk/Sports
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• 88.5 FM WZNB - Public Radio East – Classical Music
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• 92.7 FM WBNK - K-Love - Christian Contemporary
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• 93.3 FM WERO - Bob 93.3 - Top 40
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• 97.9 FM WNBB – Classic Country
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• 99.5 FM WXNR – Hot FM – Top 40
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• 105.5 FM WXQR – Pure Rock
• 107.9 FM WNCT – Classic Hits
• 106.5 FM WSFL – Classic Rock
• 107.1 FM WTKF-FM – The Talk Station

• Jules Verne's 1896 novel Face au Drapeau (Facing the Flag) featured New Bern as the place where one of that story's main characters is committed to an asylum by the U.S. government.[26]
• Nicholas Sparks set three of his novels, The Notebook and A Bend in the Road, in the city.

• Charles Laban Abernethy (1872–1955), US Congressman from North Carolina between 1922 and 1935[27]
• Lewis Addison Armistead (1817–1863), brigadier general in the Confederate Army[28]
• Shawn Armstrong (born 1990), MLB pitcher
• George Edmund Badger (1795–1866), US Senator from 1846 to 1855
• Graham Arthur Barden (1896–1967), 13-term US congressman from 1935 to 1961
• Cullen A. Battle (1829–1905), postbellum mayor of New Bern
• Samuel J. Battle (1883–1966), first African-American policeman in New York City
• Walt Bellamy (1939–2013), NBA Hall of Fame basketball player
• Caleb Bradham (1867–1934), pharmacist, best known as inventor of Pepsi
• John Heritage Bryan (1798–1870), US congressman from 1825 to 1829
• Chase Crawford (born 1996), actor and producer
• Gary Downs (born 1972), NFL player for the New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons, Denver Broncos; current college football coach
• Davon Drew (born 1985), NFL tight end
• Elwood Edwards (born 1949), voice of AOL's "You've got mail"
• William Gaston (1778–1834), jurist and US congressman from 1813 to 1817
• Christoph von Graffenried, 1st Baron of Bernberg (1661–1743), British peer from Canton of Bern, who founded New Bern in 1710[9]
• Montario Hardesty (born 1987), NFL running back for Cleveland Browns
• Nathan Healy (born 1990), professional basketball player[29]
• William J. Hutchins (1813–1884), mercantilist, railroad owner, and Mayor of Houston from 1861 to 1862[30]
• Donna Hutchinson (born 1949), former member of Arkansas House of Representatives, born in New Bern[31]
• Jumpin Jackie Jackson 1940-2019, Harlem Globetrotter basketball player
• George Koonce (born 1968), NFL player for Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks; Athletic Director of University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
• Valentina Lisitsa (born 1973), concert pianist
• Peter Loftin (1958–2019), entrepreneur
• Bob Mann (1924–2006), NFL player; first African American to play for Detroit Lions and later Green Bay Packers
• Aaron Martin (born 1941), former NFL player for Los Angeles Rams, Philadelphia Eagles, and Washington Redskins
• Eliza Jane McKissack (1828–1900), director and founding member of Conservatory of Music at University of North Texas
• Linda McMahon (born 1948), 25th administrator of the Small Business Administration and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment
• Michael R. Morgan (born 1955), African American justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina
• Dan Neil (born 1960), Pulitzer Prize-winning automotive journalist
• Bob Perry (1934–2017), MLB outfielder[32]
• James E.C. Perry (born 1944), justice of Supreme Court of Florida
• Teddy Shapou (1919–1985), Flying Tiger during World War II
• Brian Simmons (born 1975), NFL player for Cincinnati Bengals and New Orleans Saints
• William Henry Singleton (1843–1938), former slave who became noted American Civil War soldier
• Furnifold Simmons (1854–1940), former U.S. senator
• Richard Dobbs Spaight (1758–1802), 8th Governor of North Carolina from 1792 to 1795, and Congressman for the 10th District from 1798 to 1801
• Edward Stanly (1810–1872), son of John Stanly, congressman 1837–1843, appointed military governor of North Carolina in 1862
• Fabius Maximus Stanly (1815–1882), rear admiral of U.S. Navy, namesake of WWII destroyer USS Stanly (DD-478)
• John Stanly (1774–1834), father of Edward Stanly, congressman (1801–1803 and 1809–1811)
• Sean Strickland (born 1991), MMA fighter
• Adam Warren (born 1987), MLB pitcher
• George Henry White (1852–1918), attorney, banker, last of four African-American congressmen from North Carolina in the 19th century; next was not elected until 1992
• Kevin Meade Williamson (born 1966), screenwriter, involved with I Know What You Did Last Summer and television series Dawson's Creek
• Bayard Wootten (1875–1959), photographer and suffragette

• Browning, Judkin. Shifting Loyalties: The Union Occupation of Eastern North Carolina (Univ of North Carolina Press, 2011). focus on Craven County
• Farmer, Vina Hutchinson. New Bern (Arcadia Publishing, 2007).
• Kinsey, Marissa N. "Beyond the Vale: Visualizing Slavery in Craven County, North Carolina." (2017). online
• Todd, Vincent H., ed. (1920). Christoph von Graffenried's Account of the Founding of New Bern. Publications of the North Carolina Historical Commission. Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton Printing Co. LCCN 21027196. OCLC 1107613. OL 6640211M – via Internet Archive.
• Watson, Alan D. A History of New Bern and Craven County (Tryon Palace Commission, 1987).

Government

• Official website

General information

• Geographic data related to New Bern, North Carolina at OpenStreetMap
• New Bern Convention and Visitors Bureau
• New Bern-Craven County Public Library
• New Bern Sun Journal, daily newspaper
• Works by or about New Bern, North Carolina at Internet Archive
• Works by or about New Bern, North Carolina in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • "Newbern". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.
  • "Newbern". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
  • "Newbern". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
  • "Newbern, N. C.". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.
  • "New Berne". The American Cyclopædia. 1879.