This Month

On May 26, 1864, a deadly torpedo explosion occurred at Batchelor’s Creek, about eight miles west of New Bern. For the Union forces stationed there, the losses were devastating. Initial reports claimed that 40 soldiers were killed in an accident while unloading the last four of 13 torpedoes from a train car. The torpedoes were intended […]

On April 20, 1791, George Washington visited Tryon Palace in New Bern during his Southern Tour. Washington’s visit was warmly received by New Bernians. During his two-day stay, the president dined at Tryon Palace and  also visited many of New Bern’s well-known citizens including John Wright Stanly, John Sitgreaves and Richard Dobbs Spaight. Read More . . .

On February 2, 1864, Commander John Taylor Wood of the Confederate Navy, led a raid involving 14 boats and carrying 250 sailors from Kinston to the Neuse River at New Bern. The 325-ton federal steamer USS Underwriter was captured at New Bern in a well-executed pre-dawn raid. Read more . . . Courtesy of This Day in North Carolina History.

George Henry White (December 18, 1852 – December 28, 1918) was an American attorney and politician, elected as a Republican U.S. Congressman from North Carolina and serving between 1897 and 1901. He is considered the last African-American Congressman of the Jim Crow era, one of twenty to be elected in the late nineteenth century from

On December 1, 1922, the Rowland Lumber Company in New Bern caught fire. While firefighters were still battling the Rowland blaze, a second fire started in a residence on Kilmarnock Street. It was reported that the flames “spread out like a giant fan” until they reached the Neuse River. Altogether about 1,000 homes, businesses and

Photographer Ignatius Brock of Asheville On November 8, 1950, internationally-renowned photographer and painter Ignatius Brock died at age 83. Born in Jones County in 1866, Brock got his start in photography as an apprentice at the Gerock Studio in New Bern. He moved to New York to study art at the Cooper Union Institute before returning

Baron von Graffenreid and the Swiss Colony of New Bern An image of von Graffenreid from Tryon Palace On October 23, 1711, Baron Christoph von Graffenreid, founder of the Swiss colony of New Bern, penned a lengthy description of his capture by the Tuscarora Indians. In mid-September of that year, von Graffenreid and John Lawson led a

Signers in Philadelphia Endorse Federal Constitution On September 17, 1787, a majority of delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia approved the U.S. Constitution, with North Carolina representatives William Blount, Richard Dobbs Spaight and Hugh Williamson signing on behalf of the state. Despite advocacy for its adoption by Federalists Spaight and Williamson, the North Carolina Convention

“Brad’s Drink” Becomes Pepsi-Cola, 1898 On August 28, 1898, “Pepsi-Cola” got its name. Beginning in 1893, New Bern pharmacist Caleb Bradham developed and began serving a carbonated drink he called “Brad’s Drink.” He served the beverage from the soda fountain in his pharmacy at the corner of Pollock and Middle Streets. As a pharmacist who had