December 1, 1922 started out in anticipatory fashion as over 400 people from New Bern left for Raleigh to attend the Eastern Carolina Football Championship between New Bern and Sanford. By the end of the day, New Bern would suffer from the worst fire in North Carolina history, leaving 3,200 — one fourth of the population — homeless, a thousand buildings destroyed, hundreds of jobs lost and an area of forty blocks totally destroyed at an estimated loss of two and a half million dollars. It would hence forth be known as “The Great Fire.”

The morning of December 1 was cold and overcast with gale-like winds. At 8:00 a.m. a fire broke out at the Rowland Lumber Company, the largest sawmill in North Carolina. Every fireman and piece of equipment was sent to fight the blaze, but they had difficulty in controlling the flames sweeping through the dry lumber in the yard and were hampered by insufficient manpower due to the number of people who had left town for the game. At 10:45 a.m. a fire started in the chimney of a small house on Kilmarnock Street near the Five Point intersection in New Bern. By the time the firefighters responded, three more houses were burning out of control. The 70 miles per hour winds moved east towards the Neuse River. As the fire spread rapidly down to George Street the wind then spread the fire North and West. By midday, Fire Chief James K. Bryan, put out frantic calls to neighboring towns for help, and fearing that the entire town would be destroyed, decided to use dynamite to level the houses in the path of the inferno and to create a firebreak. Shortly before dusk, the wind shifted and died down and the fire was finally brought under control. Unbelievably, there was only one casualty, an elderly African American woman who was too crippled to escape her home.

That night, fire victims sought refuge in Cedar Grove and Greenwood Cemeteries and many had escaped with only the clothes on their back. Fort Bragg responded to a call for help by sending eight freight cars loaded with tents, cots, mattresses, and other needed equipment and officers and men arrived to oversee the erection of the tents which later became known as “Tent City.” Cots, blankets and clothing were sent by the Navy base at Norfolk and nearby towns immediately began collecting used clothing and money to help the homeless. The Red Cross moved in and was placed in full charge of the relief effort. West Street School, which miraculously escaped the fire, was opened to feed thousands of meals for the African Americans who were homeless. Local businesses and townspeople assisted in these endeavors.

The City decided to condemn about twenty acres of the burned area to widen and straighten the streets, to extend Cedar Grove Cemetery and to create a city park. There was much protest over this decision because most of the houses that had stood in the condemned area were owned by the African American families who had resided there. Today, Kafer Park, the cemetery extension, and the George Street Senior Center building are on this property.

In case you wanted to know, New Bern won the championship game, 6-0.

Photo of the Great Fire of 1922 Courtesy of the New Bern Fire Museum

On November 26, 1787, in New Bern, a judicial milestone was set in the landmark case of Bayard vs. Singleton. The case is significant not just for the judicial precedent set in this case, but also for the number of attorneys and judges who played major roles in the history and development of our new nation.

Samuel Cornell was a wealthy merchant in New Bern and one of the richest men in the state. During the Revolutionary War, he remained loyal to the King. He refused to sign an oath of allegiance to the revolutionary cause and fled to England in August of 1775. He returned in 1777 to his family’s home in New York. Meanwhile, the NC General Assembly confiscated his land and home and sold it to help finance the war. A local New Bern merchant, Spyers Singleton, purchased Cornell’s home. The Cornell family resided in Flushing, NY where one of his daughters, Elizabeth Cornell, married William Bayard Jr. In 1787, Elizabeth Cornell Bayard returned to New Bern to file a lawsuit against the state to recover the property that had been deeded to her by her father. A lawsuit was filed on her behalf by her attorney Samuel Johnston (who later became Governor of NC). William R. Davie (who also became Governor and was known as the “Father” of the University of N.C.) assisted Johnston. James Iredell, a legal scholar, was also retained by Mrs. Bayard and he later became a US Supreme Court Justice. Spyers Singleton, the defendant, hired another future Governor, Abner Nash, as his attorney along with Alfred Moore (who would later serve on the US Supreme Court).

The essence of Bayard’s argument was that North Carolina’s Constitution of 1776 guaranteed a citizen the right to a jury trial in a case involving the loss of property rights. After the war ended, the 1783 Treaty of Paris stipulated that confiscated property would be returned to its original owners. However, in 1785 the NC legislature barred state courts from hearing lawsuits by former Loyalists trying to recover their property, contrary to the Treaty of Paris. The court, consisting of Judges Samuel Ashe, Samuel Spenser and John Williams heard the case but delayed a decision, hoping that either a settlement would be reached or the legislature would repeal the confiscation laws. After the parties could not come to an agreement, the court concluded that it could not enforce the 1785 NC statute as it was inconsistent with the Constitution. The decision was highly controversial. Richard Dobbs Spaight, one of the signers of the US Constitution, questioned whether the court had a right to overturn legislation as unconstitutional.

The court eventually ruled against Bayard, citing the fact that when her father left for England, he did not return before the General Assembly confiscated his lands. Therefore, he was not actually a citizen of the US. The court ruled that Mrs. Bayard, as a citizen in 1787 had a right to a trial, but Cornell did not have the right to deed his property to her in 1777 in the first place. As possibly the first legal decision in the new United States in which a court nullified a law because it was found to be unconstitutional, this ruling was an early example of the system of checks and balances vital to the new American democracy. Bayard vs. Singleton served as a precedent and precursor to Marbury vs. Madison, the 1803 US Supreme Court decision that established judicial review.

On September 1, 1870, Abraham Galloway — slave, abolitionist, spy, recruiter, and political leader — died in Wilmington, NC. He was only thirty-three years old when he succumbed to fever and jaundice. He was born to a white father and a black mother, who was a slave in Smithville, NC. His owner allowed him to seek masonry jobs, but when he could not earn the required $15 per month, Galloway decided to escape. At the age of 20, he hid on a ship loaded with turpentine and fled from Wilmington, NC to Philadelphia, PA. In Philadelphia, he became an abolitionist and began working with the Underground Railroad to help people escape to Canada. In 1860 Galloway traveled to Haiti to help recruit to prepare for a military invasion of the American south.

In 1861, Galloway returned to the US and began work as a spy for the Union under Major General Benjamin Butler. Galloway was captured at Vicksburg, and after his release or escape he made his way to New Bern. In 1863 he married Martha Ann Dixon in Beaufort. That same year he was able to free his mother from enslavement in Wilmington, and brought her to Union-held New Bern.

The Union Army needed troops and General Order No 143 of the US War Department, dated May 22, 1863, established the Bureau of Colored Troops to recruit and train freedmen and emancipated slaves to fight. Galloway began recruiting African Americans to enlist in the Union Army, but Galloway had four conditions that must be met before blacks in New Bern would enlist. They were to receive equal pay to that of the Massachusetts Regiments, the Army had to provide for their families who were mainly refugees, the Freedmen’s Bureau had to set up schools to teach their children to read and write, and the US government had to agree that if they were captured, they would have the rights as legitimate military prisoners of war. These conditions were ultimately agreed to, and within days of that, hundreds of recruits arrived. The new regiment was designated the First North Carolina Volunteers (later becoming the 35th US Colored Troops).

Galloway soon became an important and influential political leader. In May of 1864, he was part of a delegation of five black leaders who met with Abraham Lincoln advocating for suffrage for African Americans. He was one of 144 black leaders who attended the National Convention of Colored Citizens of the US, the most important gathering of African American leaders during the Civil War. By 1865 Galloway had organized a state chapter and five local chapters of the National Equal Rights League. He also helped to lead a freed people’s convention. In 1868, despite threats from the Ku Klux Klan, Galloway ran for the state senate in the first election in which Blacks were eligible to hold state office. He was one of three Black senators and seventeen Black representatives in the NC General Assembly. Galloway was able to vote for the 14th and 15th Amendments during his tenure.

Abraham Galloway was an advocate for African Americans, not only in New Bern, but throughout the north and south. As a testimony to his influence, six thousand people attended his funeral.

Samuel J. Battle, born January 16, 1883 in New Bern, was recorded as the largest baby born in NC at 16 pounds. He would grow to be 6”3” tall and over 280 pounds. By the time he died in New York City on August 7, 1966, he was a legend in the NYC Police Department.

Samuel Battle’s parents were born into slavery, and he was one of nine siblings. As a teenager, he was caught stealing money from the safe of his boss, R.H. Smith. His boss did not press charges because of his friendship with Battle’s father, a Methodist Minister. Smith predicted Battle would be in prison within a year, but Samuel decided to do everything in his power to prove him wrong.

Samuel Battle went north and had several jobs, including as a $32/month red cap at Grand Central Terminal. Battle was influenced by his brother in law, Moses Cobb, who was hired as a police officer for the City of Brooklyn. Samuel also decided that he wanted to become a police officer as it would provide him the ability to support his young family. Samuel J Battle became the first African American to be appointed to the 10,000 member force after the police forces merged in 1898. He was originally turned down because a police surgeon declared he had a heart murmur, but after several prominent blacks protested to city officials, he was given another medical exam which he passed. He officially joined the force on June 28, 1911 at the age of 28. He was assigned to the West 68th Street station house, but suffered years of silent treatment from his fellow officers. He was not allowed to bunk with the other officers at the station house, so a mattress was moved to the second floor where the American flag was stored. While in that room, he studied for the Sergeant’s exam. Although he was passed over three times, he would later become the first African American police sergeant (1926), lieutenant (1936) and the first African American parole commissioner (1941). Mr. Battle served on that commission for ten years, retiring in 1951.

While on his first beat in the San Juan Hill section of the city (where Lincoln Center is today), tourist buses would stop and point him out. He was soon moved to Harlem, where he lived. In 1919, Battle rescued a white police officer during a battle with rioters at 135th and Lenox Avenue. In 1935 Battle helped to quell a riot in Harlem which was started by the arrest of a 16 year old shoplifter.

Samuel Battle retired from the New York City Police Force in 1951 at 68. He was the highest-ranking African American on the force at that time. In 2009, the corner of West 135th Street and Lenox Avenue in New York was renamed Samuel J. Battle Plaza in honor of his achievements. That street corner marked the location where Battle saved the white officer’s life during a racial skirmish in 1919.

Photo of Samuel J. Battle and his granddaughter Yvonne at Parole Commission swearing in 1941

Another New Bern First

In 1749, the North Carolina Assembly voted to create the office of public printer so that a printing of revised colony laws could be completed. They chose James Davis, who was originally from Williamsburg, and had apprenticed under William Parks, the first printer in Virginia. Davis brought his press and type with him from Williamsburg and set up shop initially on Pollock Street, but later moved to the southwest corner of Broad and East Front Street. His first official job was the printing of currency. Then, on June 24, 1749, in New Bern, James Davis printed the first official publication for the colony of North Carolina entitled The Journal of the House of Burgesses of the Province of North Carolina. James Davis served as public printer for almost thirty-three years and published over one hundred documents. In 1751 Davis completed the revisal of the laws of the colony and in August of the same year, Davis began publishing the first newspaper in the colony, The North Carolina Gazette. He published this paper over two separate periods. It was first published from 1751-1760. He started another newspaper in 1764, called The North Carolina Magazine, or Universal Intelligencer, but it only lasted four years. In 1768, he resumed publication of The North-Carolina Gazette, which continued to be printed until 1778. In 1753, he published a book, A Collection of Many Christian Experiences, Sentences, and Several Places of Scripture Improved, written by Reverend Clement Hall. This book was a first in several categories. It was the first book written by a native of North Carolina and it was the first privately printed, non-legal book published in the colony.

Upon his arrival in 1749, James Davis became involved in almost every aspect of life in New Bern. He purchased land and married a local woman, Prudence Hobbs, widow of Christopher Gregory Hobbs and daughter of William Carruthers. They had four sons and three daughters. He 1753 he became a member of the county court, an office he held for over twenty-five years. In 1754 he was elected sheriff of Craven County although he only kept that position for ten months. He was elected to the Assembly and later was appointed postmaster of New Bern. In 1778 he served as a Justice of the Peace. Davis was a supporter of the American Revolution and was appointed to numerous political positions during this period representing New Bern and Craven County.

James Davis died in New Bern in 1785 and is buried at Christ Episcopal Church. Inscribed on his gravestone is the following:

Established the art of printing in the Colony of North Carolina, 1749
Public printer to the Colony and the State
Published first book, first newspaper and first magazine in North Carolina.
Member of the Council of State
Of the General Assembly
Of the Provincial Convention
Of the Provincial Congress
And of the Committee of Safety for the County of Craven and Town of New Bern
Judge of the Admiralty Court
Justice of the County Court
Sheriff of Craven County
Postmaster and Contractor to convey the public mails from Suffolk to Wilmington
Printed currency for the colony

The afternoon of May 26, 1864 seemed like any other day for the Union soldiers in camp near Bachelor’s Creek. Soldiers and civilians alike began to assemble near the railroad tracks to await the train that would arrive at 4 pm from New Bern. Some were hoping for letters or packages, and some just wanted to relieve the monotony of the day by mingling with fellow soldiers. It would be a day, however, that would end in horror.

The Union forces knew that the Confederates were building an ironclad gunboat upriver from New Bern, the CSS Neuse. The CSS Albemarle had already captured a Union garrison at Plymouth and the Union army devised a plan to prevent any further incursions by these gunboats. Lt. William R. King was a Union army engineer and in charge of setting nautical mines, or “torpedoes” in the Neuse River, near Bachelor’s Creek. Nine torpedoes had already been installed and they were waiting for four more. The torpedoes were made in New Bern and contained 250 lbs. of gunpowder encased in large barrels. The barrels were heaved onto wagons like ordinary freight, prior to leaving the station. Unfortunately, there were no warning markers or labels on the barrels and Lieutenant King was not on hand when the train arrived at Bachelor’s Creek. With no warnings posted or instructions given, workers on the train and ground thought the barrels were to be delivered to the nearby commissary. The first, second and third barrels were rolled off the train without incident. When the fourth barrel was rolled out of the freight car, the detonator was stuck and the gunpowder exploded instantly. The devastation was quick and lethal. Thirty-five men were killed instantly and thirty others were fatally injured. Of those, twenty to twenty-five were “contrabands,” Negroes who had obtained jobs from the Union.

A signal tower that was built across the railroad track and the commissary building were thrown into the air at least eight hundred feet. The blast was heard twenty miles away and described “like the crash of a thousand pieces of artillery.” Preparations were made in New Bern to defend the city in case the noise signified a Confederate attack was coming. Colonel Claussen telegraphed to New Bern requesting medical help as well as coffins. Three wooden hard tack boxes were filled with fragments of men. Most of the victims were killed instantly but the few who were spared were so greatly mutilated as to be past all assistance.

One of those killed was Lt. William Ennever of the 158th NY. He was born in England in 1842 but came to Philadelphia with his parents in 1852. He was one of ten children. Prior to enlisting in the 158th in Brooklyn, NY he had been a druggist in NYC. After the explosion he was taken to Foster General Hospital in New Bern where he succumbed two days later due to a “general shock to his system.” William was a commissary Sergeant and held in high esteem by his fellow soldiers. The New York Herald (Wednesday, June 8, 1864) described his funeral as follows:

“Yesterday at 4 pm the remains of Commissary Sergeant Ennever of the One Hundred Fifty Eighth New York Volunteers-one of the victims of the late tragedy at Bachelor’s Creek, were interred with high military honors. The corpse was borne to the grave on a caisson drawn by six horses, a suitable and emblematic bier for the gallant soldier. The entire regiment followed a cortege of mourners. Lieutenant Colonel McNary and all the officers likewise attended the ceremony being conducted according to the prescribed form. This honor is an unusual one-in a non-commissioned officer, the law providing such grade a simple escort of sixteen men commanded by a Sergeant. In this instance, rank was ignored and the merits of the deceased commanded a spontaneous tribute and acknowledgement…”

It is unclear why William was buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery in the family vault of Elijah Ellis. Mr. Ellis was a prominent merchant in New Bern having made a fortune as a turpentine dealer. The final irony however, is that Elijah Ellis, along with his son-in-law, Thomas S. Howard, provided financial backing for the building of the CSS Neuse. The bodies of many of the other victims are interred at the National Cemetery, reflected by the date, May 26, 1864.