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This Month in New Bern History – December 2020

· November 30, 2020

This Month in New Bern History

By Claudia Houston, New Bern Historical Society

This month marks the death 98 years ago of a distinguished New Bern native for whom a liberty ship was named. This is the story of diplomat, author, and legal scholar Hannis Taylor.

After the Union occupation of New Bern during March 1862, many local families fled the city and found themselves transplanted to other parts of the state or country. Richard Nixon Taylor, a local merchant, his wife, Susan Stevenson, and six children were one such family.

Hannis Taylor, the couples’ oldest son, was precocious and began school at the age of four. He attended New Bern Academy until his family left the city due to the Civil War. They eventually resided in Raleigh where Hannis entered the University of North Carolina in 1867. Mr. Taylor’s store failed, and financial constraints forced Hannis to withdraw nine months later. The family returned to New Bern where Hannis served as a law clerk for John N. Washington. However, during 1869 a large outbreak of tuberculosis claimed the life of his five-year-old sister Hannah as well as that of John Washington. His mother contracted tuberculosis and was advised to move to a drier climate. The Taylor family thus moved to Port Clear, Alabama where Mr. Taylor began work at a turpentine factory. With the loss of his job and his wife’s death, he was unable to function and young Hannis, at age 20, became the head of the household.

Hannis moved his father and siblings to Mobile Alabama. He worked for a local law firm and his modest salary enabled him to rent a house for all. Hannis had been raised as a Baptist in New Bern, but he began attending services at St. Mary’s Catholic Church where he was introduced to 19-year-old Leonora LeBaron who he wed in 1878.

Hannis was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Mobile from 1870-1892. He was admitted to practice at both the Alabama Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court. He became the state solicitor for Baldwin County, Alabama, and rewrote the Mobile city charter, helping to keep the city from being liable for Reconstruction debts. A prominent legal and political activist, he was named President of the Alabama State Bar, a position he held for several terms.

Taylor’s scholarship and political activity led to his appointment by President Grover Cleveland as Minister to Spain from 1893-1897. He had a keen knowledge of constitutional and international law; between 1897-1901 he completed his treatise on the Origin and Growth of the English, a study of the development of the English constitutional system and its growth to the Federal Republic of the U.S. This work was adopted by many U.S. and European universities and law schools as a text or reference book, earning Taylor a reputation in international scholarship circles. In recognition of his impressive work, he was granted the honorary degree of LLD from the University of Edinburgh, Dublin University and eight American universities.

Hannis ran unsuccessfully for the US House of Representatives from Alabama in 1898 and 1900. He then moved his family to Washington DC. where he spent five years as an attorney and professor of law at Georgetown University, served as special adviser to the Spanish Treaty Claims Commission, and as American counsel to the Alaskan Boundary Tribunal. A prodigious author, he published many scholarly articles for the North American Review and other prestigious journals.

On December 16, 1922 at the age of 71, Hannis Taylor died of Bright’s disease and was buried at Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Maryland. In 1943 a liberty ship was commissioned the SS Hannis Taylor in his honor.

Categories : Newsletter, This Month

This Month in New Bern History – November 2020

Posted by NBHS OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR

· October 23, 2020

This Month in New Bern History – November 2020

By Claudia Houston, Historian, New Bern Historical Society

Winslow Homer “Thanksgiving Day in the Army – After Dinner: The Wish-Bone” (from Harper's Weekly, Vol. VIII), courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art website

During November our thoughts often turn to family, food and home in preparation for Thanksgiving. Although we deeply associate the story of the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving with this celebration, Thanksgiving has strong roots in the Civil War.

Through the years, many of our leaders have asked that a day be set aside to express our thankfulness. The Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War asked that days be dedicated to give thanks, and in 1789 George Washington issued a proclamation of thanks during the first year of his presidency. Presidents John Adams and James Madison issued proclamations as well.

During the Civil War, the Thanksgiving holiday was a cultural tradition celebrated locally by communities in different regions of the United States. Both the Union and the Confederate Armies held periodic and separate days of thanksgiving in response to military victories. Confederate President Jefferson Davis called for a “day of fasting, humiliation and prayer” to take place on November 15, 1861. Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of a popular women’s magazine, lobbied President Abraham Lincoln to establish a national day of Thanksgiving as an attempt to unify a nation that was strongly divided along many lines. On October 3, 1863 Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving Day Proclamation that was written by Secretary of State William Seward which offered a hopeful message. On November 26, 1863, President Lincoln held the first official Thanksgiving Day celebration.

How did the troops celebrate during the war? For many southerners, this day was a day like all the rest. Many refused to celebrate as they viewed Thanksgiving as a New England abolitionist holiday. For the Union troops the response was a bit different. Many remembered past Thanksgivings surrounded by family and loved ones.

In 1862, Edward J. Bartlett of Concord, Massachusetts, age 19, enlisted in the 44th Massachusetts Infantry, Co F and was stationed at New Bern. He wrote letters home in 1862 describing his first Thanksgiving as a soldier. There were elaborate preparations, decorations, and food:

“First we had oysters then turkey and chicken pie then plum pudding then apple raisin & coffee with plenty of good soft bread & butter. After we had all eaten a little too much, people usualy [sic] do on Thanksgiving days and we who had lived so long on hard tack did our best[,] we had a fine sing.” (Massachusetts Historical Society)

The next year he wrote on 15 November 1863 from Nashville, Tennessee, stating:

“Our company Thanksgiving in the barracks last year is a day that I can never forget. Six of those boys are now dead. Poor Hopkinson, the president, in his address, [said] ‘that he hoped the next year would see us all at our own family tables.’ He died two months after.”

Bartlett spent Thanksgiving 1864 stationed at Point Lookout, Maryland, guarding Confederate prisoners-of-war. He wrote to his sister Martha about his homesickness on the evening before the holiday:

“Thanksgiving eve. I sat over the fire, thinking of what you were doing at home, and what I had done on all the Thanksgiving eve’s, that I could remember.”

In the darkest days of our history, with thousands of men dying on battlefields far from home, during wartime or peace, Americans still paused and give thanks for what we have. May we honor them by continuing to do so.

Happy Thanksgiving from the New Bern Historical Society family!

Winslow Homer “Thanksgiving in Camp” (from Harper's Weekly, Vol. VII), courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art website

Categories : Newsletter, This Month

This Month in New Bern History – September 2020

Posted by NBHS OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR

· September 1, 2020

This Month in New Bern History - September 2020

By Claudia Houston, New Bern Historical Society

Photo from Wikipedia

On September 19, 1889, a young professional, educated couple were married in New Bern. Together they were to have a profound effect in establishing an African American middle class and promoting gender and racial equality in 19^th century New Bern. This is their story.

Meet Sarah Dudley, born in New Bern in 1869, the first free woman born into a family whose members had been slaves since the Revolutionary War. After attending local schools, Sarah entered Scotia Seminary, a progressive Presbyterian women’s school in Concord, NC, where she studied classics, Latin, and other subjects traditionally reserved for male students. Sarah graduated with distinction and returned to New Bern to teach. As the daughter of a black state representative, Sarah was taught the importance of civic engagement at an early age.

Charles Pettey was born into slavery; after emancipation he learned to read, worked tirelessly at multiple crafts, and saved every penny for his education. In 1872 he walked ninety miles to Charlotte to enter Biddle Memorial Institute where he studied the classics, Latin and Greek. After graduation he quickly became an elder in the growing African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AME Zion) Church. He started a school in South Carolina as well as founding a monthly newspaper for the AME Zion Church, the Star of Zion, which soon became one of the most influential black newspapers in the country. He married Lula Pickenpack, Sarah’s roommate at Scotia, and moved to California where he established the town of Petteyville and several new AME Zion churches. Lula died in 1887, leaving Charles a widower with two young girls. Charles and Sarah reconnected in New Bern and were married in September 1889.

In New Bern, the Petteys were one of many successful middle-class black families of leaders and businessmen. Well educated professionals, they were active community volunteers who fought for racial and gender equality. While many members of AME Zion were uncomfortable with women taking on a prominent role, Charles was his wife's most steadfast supporter. He encouraged her to write a column for the Star of Zion and urged her to follow his sermons with her own. Sarah’s influential sermons included “Woman, the Equal of Man” and “Women’s Suffrage.” Among her most powerful quotes: “Some would say that a woman was good in her place. This reminds me of what some white people say about the Negro, that “’he is good in his place.’”

Charles demonstrated his belief in women’s equality when, in 1898, he allowed the ordination of a

woman as an elder in the AME Zion Church -- the first ordination of a woman in any denominational church and highly controversial at the time.

Charles became the Bishop of the Church District of Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama and the couple traveled extensively. Fueled by their ideals and hopes for a new south, they worked together to fulfill their vision of a future of racial and gender equality. Their belief in progress, however, was thwarted by the growth of the white supremacy movement, culminating in 1898 when more than ten black Wilmington city leaders were killed at the hands of white vigilantes. By 1900, the North Carolina legislature had effectively revoked the right of blacks to vote by enacting literacy tests and poll taxes. Jim Crow had come to roost in the south.

Photo from New York Public Library Digital Collection

Charles died suddenly in 1900 and Sarah, disheartened by the oppression of Jim Crow laws, moved north with her family. Six years later, at the age of 37, Sarah Dudley Pettey died. Both Charles and Sarah are buried at Greenwood Cemetery in New Bern. Ironically, it would be another 15 years before women would be allowed to vote and another 60 years before African American men and women in North Carolina would experience the freedom that Charles and Sarah had known in the progressive New Bern of the late 19^th century.

Note – you can hear Sarah Dudley Pettey tell her story in the New Bern Historical Society’s online presentation Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Deeds at www.newbernhistorical.org.

Categories : Events, Newsletter, This Month

This Month in New Bern History – August 2020

Posted by NBHS OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR

· July 16, 2020

This Month in New Bern History – August 2020

By Claudia Houston, New Bern Historical Society

North Carolina Highway Marker at Broad and Craven Street, New Bern, NC

New Bern is well known for its many significant “firsts” – North Carolina’s first capital, first printing press, first newspaper, first published book, and first postal service, among others. But one “famous first” in August of 1774 had a tremendous impact upon the future formation of the state of North Carolina as well as the United States of America. What was this historic event?

To set the stage, the colonial resistance movement against the British government culminated with the Boston Tea Party in December of 1773, which greatly angered Great Britain. By June of 1774, Parliament passed a series of punitive laws in retaliation that became known as “The Intolerable Acts”. North Carolinians joined the other colonies to support opposition to Parliament’s retaliatory measures against Massachusetts. North Carolina’s colonial leaders agreed to meet in New Bern, the colonial capital, to outline their concerns, plan further opposition to Great Britain and choose delegates to the Continental Congress to be held in Philadelphia. Several men were elected to represent Craven County: Richard Cogdell, Joseph Leech, and Lemuel Hatch. Isaac Edwards and Abner Nash were elected to represent New Bern.

On August 25, 1774, North Carolina’s First Provincial Congress met at the County Courthouse in New Bern with seventy-one delegates present at roll call. It was the first such meeting held in any of the thirteen colonies. The meeting took place near Tryon Palace, the residence of Royal Governor Josiah Martin, who was not invited to attend. Although he received daily reports about what transpired during the assembly, he made no attempt to stop the meeting. The moderator of the First Provincial Congress was John Harvey, who presided over delegates from thirty of the then thirty-six counties, as well as additional members from six towns.

The New Bern Resolves issued by the First Provincial Congress declared that, while they remained loyal to the King, they repudiated the Intolerable Acts, deeming British taxation “highly illegal and oppressive”. To protest Parliament’s actions against New England, the provincial congress approved a trade boycott of all British goods. It then endorsed a general congress for the provinces and nominated Richard Caswell, William Hooper, and Joseph Hewes to represent North Carolina in the First Continental Congress scheduled in Philadelphia for September 1774. The provincial congress also recommended the formation of local committees of safety which would better enable communication.

The First Provincial Congress was the first of five congresses held in North Carolina from 1774-1776 to create the revolutionary government structure. Among many things, they organized an army for defense and wrote a constitution and bill of rights which eventually led to the establishment of the state of North Carolina. In the fifth and final provincial congress that met in Halifax in 1776, they approved the Constitution of North Carolina and elected Richard Caswell of Kinston as the first Governor of the State of North Carolina.

These first five congresses were a testament to the North Carolina colonists’ determination to become self-governing and to their readiness to achieve that goal. The First Provincial Congress was a “first” not only for New Bern, but directly led to the formation of our current state government, the first meeting of the North Carolina state Legislature on April 7, 1777 also in New Bern, and ultimately, the establishment of the new nation.

Categories : Events, This Month

This Month in New Bern History – July 2020

Posted by NBHS OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR

· June 24, 2020

This Month in New Bern – July 2020
By Claudia Houston, New Bern Historical Society

What person from a famous New Bern family was promoted to commodore in the US Navy on 1 July 1870 and had a destroyer in WWII named after him?

Our notable person for July is Fabius Maximus Stanly, the son of John Stanly and Elizabeth Franks Stanly, born in New Bern on 15 December 1815. The Stanly family had quite an illustrious history. John Stanly was a merchant, orator, lawyer and representative to Congress. He is probably most notorious for having shot and killed ex-Governor Richard Dobbs Spaight in a duel here in New Bern. John and Elizabeth had fourteen children, five of whom died young. There were eight living sons: Alfred, Frank, Edward, Alexander Hamilton, Fabius Maximus, Marcus Cicero and James Green. The only daughter to reach adulthood was Elizabeth Mary Stanly who, against her father’s wishes, married Captain Walker Keith Armistead, who eventually served as Chief Engineer for the US Army Corps of Engineers. They had one son, Brigadier General Lewis Addison Armistead, who died at Gettysburg, famously leading a Confederate charge at Seminary Ridge.

Fabius Maximus Stanly entered the navy as a midshipman candidate in 1831 and served in naval squadrons from the Mediterranean to Brazil. He passed as a midshipman in 1837 and was commissioned a lieutenant in 1841. Fabius sailed on board the Steamer Princeton for a year and then was sent to the frigate Congress as part of the Pacific Squadron. He served in many places during the Mexican War, taking part in the capture and defense of San Francisco and assisting in the capture of Mazatlán. Stanly received the thanks of two secretaries of the Navy for his service in the Mexican War.

Ironically, Fabius Stanly got in trouble over a duel. His superior officer, Commander Zachariah F. Johnston had agreed to a duel with Stanly, but then backed out. Stanly called him a coward and unfortunately put it in writing in a newspaper. In 1851 Stanly was tried before a general court martial, found guilty and sentenced to be dismissed from the Navy. The court, however, recommended executive clemency and President Millard Fillmore reduced his sentence to twelve months suspension from service.

Stanly sailed on numerous ships in many different areas but found himself in trouble again in 1860 while commanding the steamer Wyandotte. Although he successfully prevented the capture by secessionists of Fort Taylor in Key West, Florida, the administration of James Buchanan relieved him of his command due to “excessive zeal.”

Stanly served the Federal Navy with distinction during the Civil War, and rose through the ranks as captain of the Tuscarora in 1866 in the South Pacific Squadron. He was promoted to commodore in July of 1870 and then rear admiral in February 1874, retiring in June of that year after 49 years of service. He died of heart disease in Washington DC on 5 December 1882 and is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington.

USS Stanly-US Navy

The USS Stanly, a destroyer, was completed at the Charleston Navy Yard in 1942 and named in Stanly’s honor. The Stanly earned nine battle stars and the presidential unit citation for service in WWII for "extraordinary heroism in action against enemy Japanese forces during the Solomon Islands Campaign, from 1 November 1943, to 23 February 1944."

Categories : Announcements, This Month

This Month in New Bern – March 2020

Posted by NBHS OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR

· March 1, 2020

This Month in New Bern - March 2020
Claudia Houston-New Bern Historical Society

During March of 1862 a meeting took place in New Bern which would have historical significance well after the end of the Civil War. What was this meeting about and who were the participants?

When the Civil War began in 1861, regiments were formed in villages and towns. As local and State militia were mustered into service, they were accompanied by their bands. Bands were highly valued as they not only participated in ceremonies and parades but were helpful in recruiting soldiers and raising money.

Members of the Salem Band in 1862 on furlough. Courtesy of the Moravian Music Foundation. In Salem, North Carolina, the Salem Band was composed of Moravian Pacifists, German Methodists known for their musical prowess. The Captain of the Band, Samuel Timothy Mickey, wanted to enlist with a regiment to assist the Confederate cause. The band was originally recruited by a North Carolina unit, Wheeler’s Battalion, but that unit was captured at Roanoke Island by the Union Army. In March of 1862 Captain Mickey met with Colonel Zebulon Vance at the Gaston Hotel in New Bern and requested that the band join the 26^th North Carolina Infantry. Vance agreed and the band became the 26^th North Carolina Regimental Band. There were originally eight members of the band, but they eventually became twelve. They were the smallest band in either Army.

The band departed Salem on March 5, 1862 and headed for Camp Branch at New Bern. The band was one of the best uniformed as they had non-regulation uniforms of Cadet jeans, brass buttons and capes. The first engagement for the 26^thNorth Carolina Infantry was at the Battle of New Bern on March 14, 1862. The band was drilling and almost captured during this Confederate defeat, but the band evacuated to Goldsboro, later joined by the rest of the regiment.

Band members did not fight; they served as musicians or medical aides. Their military duties included calls that announced the hours and duties of the day and transmitted orders while in camp or on the battlefield; and assisting surgeons by acting as stretcher bearers, clearing the field of wounded, acting as medics and burying the dead.

The 26^th North Carolina Infantry and band initially stayed primarily in North Carolina but as the war progressed, found themselves engaged in battles at Malvern Hill, Gettysburg, the Wilderness and the defense of Petersburg, Virginia. At Gettysburg, after the assault on Cemetery Ridge known as Pickett’s Charge, the 26^th North Carolina Infantry was decimated and suffered the greatest loss of any Confederate or Federal regiment on any day of the war. As the survivors of the assault returned, the band played “Nearer my God to Thee.”

After the evacuation of Petersburg, the band was captured near Amelia Courthouse, Virginia in the closing week of the war there. They were imprisoned at Point Lookout, Maryland for three months. They were released without their instruments and returned home to Salem on July 2, 1865. However, they returned home with their band books -the only known complete set of band books from any Civil War Regiment. This set of band books has great historical significance as a source of southern music and band history and is proudly owned by the Moravian Music Foundation, located in Winston-Salem, NC.

Categories : This Month

This Month in New Bern, February 2020

Posted by NBHS OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR

· February 1, 2020

What Happened in New Bern in February By Claudia Houston, New Bern Historical Society

In February of 1902 an elderly black man died and his obituary was posted in the local newspaper. He was born a slave and was greatly respected by blacks and whites. Who was this man?

On February 2, 1902, The Daily Journal, New Bern, page 4 announced:

Thomas C. Battle an old and respected colored citizen died here yesterday and his funeral will be held at St. Peter’s AME Zion Church, tomorrow at 9pm. Battle was one of the founders of St. Peter’s church after the war, and before the war was a member of Centenary Church of this city when whites and blacks both attended, he joining Centenary in 1848. Battle was a brick mason, and has assisted in the construction of many buildings in this city. He was about 78 years old.

Thomas Custis Battle Sr. was born into slavery in 1825. Although enslaved, he was able to earn a living as a brick layer whose skills, like many other black artisans of the time, were in constant demand. Thomas had twenty-six children from three relationships. His last wife, Anna Vashti Velmar, also born into slavery, married him in 1869 while she was 19 and he was 45 and she would bear fifteen children. As was custom among many artisans, Thomas passed many of his trade skills to his children, but he also encouraged their education.

Thomas saved his masonry income and purchased his emancipation as well as a home at 8 Primrose Street. Thomas was self-educated and devoted to his Church. In the 1800’s the majority of blacks, whether free or enslaved, attended the Methodist meeting house on Hancock Street known as Andrew Chapel. In 1843 there was a split in the church between northern and southern congregations due to the issue of slavery. The whites in New Bern constructed a new sanctuary and the blacks retained the old one. After the Union occupation of New Bern, the church was renamed Andrews Chapel. James Walker Hood was appointed missionary to North Carolina and led the movement which united Andrews Chapel with the AME Zion Church. The black congregation focused on building a new church in the early 1870’s when the whites informed the blacks they wanted to reclaim the Hancock Street building. The church was completed and dedicated in 1886 as the St. Peter’s AME Zion Church. Bricklayer Thomas C. Battle Sr. was one of a number of artisan activists who became leaders in this new church and he soon became a Minister at St. Peter’s.

Unfortunately, oppressive Jim Crow laws led many blacks to leave New Bern during the Great Migration north, including many of the Battle children. One of Thomas’ sons, Samuel Jesse Battle, broke the color barrier in New York City by becoming the first black police officer, Sergeant, Lieutenant and Parole Commissioner.

Skilled artisan, minister, respected political activist, proud father - Thomas Battle left an impressive and lasting legacy in New Bern.

Categories : Events, This Month

This Month in New Bern, January 2020

Posted by NBHS OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR

· January 1, 2020

What Happened in New Bern in January

By Claudia Houston, New Bern Historical Society

Photo 1: Early daguerreotype of two unknown soldiers courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

The month of January is significant for several reasons to an early New Bern photographer. Who is he and what was his role in New Bern’s history? On January 14 of 1858, JW Watson announced that he “renovated and refitted … for the advancement of the Photographic Art; his Daguerrean Gallery over the Store of J. Whaley, on Craven Street….” Up to that time, Mr. Watson had been a traveling Daguerrean working in Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia. He settled in New Bern in the late 1850’s and early 1860’s prior to the Union occupation of New Bern. His was one of many Daguerrean studios in New Bern during this period.

Daguerreotypes were developed during the 1830’s and introduced in America in 1839. They were made from copper plates covered with silver and after a photo was processed it had a decorative mat placed over it, usually made of copper. A plate of glass was then placed on top of the photo due to the fragility of the daguerreotype. Daguerreotypes were extremely popular through the 1860’s but were then replaced by less expensive methods of photography.

During January of 1860, Mr. Watson notified residents that he would be discontinuing his business and offered to sell or rent his six room home on Craven Street along with all of his photographic apparatus, promising to give anyone who purchased his stock and materials instruction in photography. Mr. Watson left New Bern but announced in the paper on September 28, 1860 that he had returned in good health and was refitting his Gallery on Craven Street and would be making miniatures to life-sized photographs. By September 3, 1861 he requested that customers call only between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm as he would be closing his shop at 5 pm in order to drill with a military company. In October 1861, Watson placed another notice in the paper informing the public that he had renovated and refitted his gallery and had all “improvements necessary to serve the public with Photographs, Ambrotypes and Daguerreotypes etc. in as good a style as they can be made in North or South.” He also stated he could enlarge small pictures and having them colored in oil, watercolors or India ink.

Mr. Watson joined the Confederate Army at New Bern on January 27, 1862. He joined the 2^nd Artillery 36^th NC Regiment, Company F, also known as the Cape Fear Regiment of Artillery. On January 15, 1865 he was captured by Union troops at Fort Fisher. Mr. Watson was sent to Elmira prison in New York as a prison of war but returned home in July after signing an oath of allegiance. He moved his studio to Fayetteville Street in Raleigh, NC where he remained until his death. On April 4, 1889 Mr. John W. Watson, aged 61, died in Raleigh and his obituary stated, “Mr. Watson was a photographer and was well known not only in Raleigh, but throughout the State. Mr. Watson is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh.” (Weekly State Chronicle, Raleigh, 05 Apr 1889)

Categories : Events, This Month

This Month in New Bern, December 2019

Posted by NBHS OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR

· December 1, 2019

What Happened in New Bern in December
By Claudia Houston, New Bern Historical Society 2019
On December 5, 1984 the first Coastal Carolina Celebration Tree Lighting was held in downtown New Bern. The New Bern downtown area was in decline, but many remembered bygone Christmas seasons when Santa had a little house on Middle Street, there was always a parade, and the Mollie Heath Tree was decorated with lights. The Mollie Heath Tree was named for Miss Mary Hall Heath, a revered first grade schoolteacher who was so beloved by her students and community that in the first half of the nineteenth century, a special cedar tree was planted in her honor and memory in
the Christ Episcopal Church yard.

In September of 1984 a Swiss Bear Christmas Committee was organized and granted permission by Christ Church to decorate the Mollie Heath Tree. A Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony was added to be held on the evening of December 5th. Strings of colored lights were donated and the City agreed to hang them on the tree.

Harold Talton, Chairman of Swiss Bear, agreed to be Santa Claus. The program was scheduled to begin at 5:30 pm with performances by the New Bern High School band and drill team, the Centenary Church Children’s bell choir and others. Everyone was to then parade from Middle Street to the corner of Pollock Street with all singing “Here Comes Santa Claus.” Two drill team members would pull Santa on the sleigh and when he arrived at the church corner, Reverend Ed Sharp, Rector of Christ Church, was to give a Christmas blessing and then Santa was to turn on the lights of the Mollie Heath Tree.

On the same day that the celebration was scheduled, it was learned that the City finished hanging wreaths on the light poles but had not yet turned on any of the lights contained in the wreaths. It was decided to connect the lighting of both the Christmas tree and the wreaths to a timer so that when Santa flipped a switch all the lights would go on.

At noon on December 5, the temperature began to drop, and it began to sleet. By 5 pm the children were freezing and crying and the musicians were having difficulty playing. It was decided to cut the performances and everyone paraded to the Pollock/Middle Street intersection. Reverend Sharp gave his blessing and everyone waited in anticipation but when Santa flicked the switch nothing happened. He tried again but again nothing happened. Finally someone realized that the timer had been set for the lights to go on at 6:30 pm, the intended time according to the original program. Since the initial part of the program was shortened, the lighting finale was 15 to 20 minutes early. Someone attempted to contact City Hall to move the timer ahead, but by the time this was accomplished, the freezing and disappointed crowd had dispersed. When the lights finally came on, only five people remained to see it.

The December 20, 1984 Swiss Bear Board minutes contained a brief entry… Christmas Committee-Agenda item #8…Linda Morris reported, “Our committee learned from our mistakes this year and will meet in January to plan for next year.”

As you stroll through the streets of downtown New Bern during the holidays, be sure to stop by the Christ Church grounds at the corner of Middle and Pollock Streets, where the majestic Mollie Heath Tree still stands in all its glory, conjuring warm memories of Christmas past.

(Information for this article from the History of the Revitalization of Downtown New Bern NC blog, December 18, 2013 by Susan Moffat-Thomas)

Categories : Announcements, Events, This Month

This Month in New Bern, November 2019

Posted by NBHS OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR

· November 8, 2019

By Claudia Houston, New Bern Historical Society

A young African American barber from New Bern died in France in this month, 101 years ago. His name is etched on a monument at the Craven County Courthouse. Who was he and what was his story?

Born in December 1896, Castillia Henry grew up with his parents and siblings at 90 ½ Queen Street in New Bern. His father, Castillia Henry Sr., had a variety of jobs: as a drayman (wagon driver), porter, and stevedore. His mother, Henrietta Fisher Henry, died prior to 1910 and Castillia continued to reside with his father and siblings. During this period he became a barber, working with his brother Amos.

During April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany. Castillia registered for the draft and on 1 April 1918 was inducted into the Army in New Bern. He was sent to Camp Grant, Rockford, Illinois to begin training, and within two months found himself on board the Agamemnon on his way to France, along with other members of Company A of the 365^th Infantry, 92^nd Division of the Army.

The 92nd Infantry Division consisted of approximately fifteen thousand officers and soldiers. The Division was organized in October 1917 at Camp Funston, Kansas and included African American soldiers from all parts of the United States. Units were segregated and due to prejudices of the era, most African Americans were assigned to labor companies. The 92^nd and 93^rd Divisions were the only all African American divisions allowed in combat in the United States Army during World War I. Before they left for France in 1918, the 92^nd received the name “Buffalo Soldier Division” as a tribute to the Buffalo soldier regiments that fought in the US Army on the frontier during westward expansion. Native Americans had dubbed them Buffalo soldiers due to their tenaciousness as well as their physical appearance.

Castillia’s unit was deployed to the front lines in France during August 1918 as part of the American Expeditionary Forces, which fought alongside the British and French armies in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, one of the last Allied offenses of the War. This immense military offensive began on September 26 and ended when Armistice was declared on November 11, 1918. The deadliest campaign in US history, the offensive claimed the lives of over 26,000 American soldiers. The last push took place from November 10-11 and the 92^nd Division was ordered to take the heights in Champey. During this mission, on November 10, 21-year-old Private Castillia Henry was killed in action. Sadly, it was just one day before the Armistice.

Henry was buried at the American Cemetery in St. Mihiel, France. On 13 May 1921, his remains were disinterred and sent to Antwerp to be transported aboard the Wheaton to Hoboken, New Jersey. His body was received by his father on 30 July 1921 and Private Castillia Henry was finally laid to rest at New Bern National Cemetery, Section 12, Grave 3434. His name was later engraved on the World War I monument on the grounds of the Craven County Courthouse which honors those who lost their lives in the Great War.

During this month of Thanksgiving, let us remember young Castillia Henry and all those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. Grave of Castillia Henry, killed in action in France, November 10, 1918.

Categories : Announcements, This Month

New Bern Historical Society

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