When New Bern got sidewalks

 with a little help from Thomas Edison

Sidewalk construction, 200 block Middle Street, looking north, Summer 1908.

by John B. Green III

Sidewalks of some sort, made of various materials, had existed in parts of New Bern at different times in the town's history. Whether made of hard-packed earth, planks, or bricks, they were haphazard affairs which seldom lasted long. The town commissioners were occasionally involved in their construction or maintenance, but they were just as likely to represent the efforts of individual property owners. No uniform, durable sidewalk system for the entire town existed.

Bronze plaque set in sidewalk, northeast corner of New and Metcalf streets.  Photograph taken in 1986 by the author

All this changed in  1908.  The New Bern Board of Aldermen, at their meeting of April 7, accepted bids for the construction of concrete sidewalks with granite curbing for most of downtown New Bern.  Alsop & Peirce, Contractors of Newport News, Virginia, would construct the concrete sidewalks, and Peeler Bane Fisher Company of Faith, North Carolina,  would supply the granite curbing. The project would be supervised by the firm of Colvin and Henry, Civil Engineers.

The photograph seen at the top is of the 200 block of Middle Street looking north and shows the construction of sidewalks in summer of 1908.  The number of signs for Alsop &  Peirce, Contractors and New Bern Building Supply Company indicate that the scene is a slightly posed publicity photograph.  New Bern Building Supply Company proudly supplied the cement used in the sidewalk construction, and that cement was Edison Cement, as the numerous signs proclaim.  This brings us to Thomas Edison and his role, however distant, in the construction of New Bern's sidewalks.

Detail showing Edison Cement signs.

Thomas Alva Edison was one of the United States' most energetic inventors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is chiefly remembered for his work with electricity and sound recording but he also dabbled in many areas of science and industry as the mood struck him.  Edison was involved in improving the milling of iron ore in the 1880s.  His company's process produced, as a byproduct, a fine sand which found a market with the makers of cement.  Edison decided to form his own cement business and improve the manufacturing process. The Edison Portland Cement Company was established in 1899, and by 1908 its product was successful enough to be known and used in New Bern.

Traces of the Occupation

 

Not all Civil War relics are buttons or bayonets.

Root Hog or Die. No. 5. (excerpt). New York: H. De Marsan, c.1862.

by John B. Green III

The Union Army, in its more than four-year-long occupation of New Bern, created tens of thousands of printed documents.  These documents were almost exclusively military in nature: printed orders, reports, and forms for every conceivable purpose. There was another category of printed items, however, which were privately produced: programs for plays and concerts put on by the soldiers, handbills of humorous or patriotic poetry, and memorial volumes for individual soldiers who had died in the line of duty.  What follows is a selection of such items from the collections of the Kellenberger Room.

Root Hog or Die. No. 5. New York: H. De Marsan, c.1862.  Comic poem, "By a Blue-Jacket," concerning the capture of eastern North Carolina.

Root Hog or Die (enlargment)

Genl. Burnside's Victory March, Boston: Oliver Ditson & Co., 1862.  Sheet music celebrating Burnside's victory at New Bern.

Vincent Colyer, Report of the Services rendered by the Freed People to the United States Army, in North Carolina, in the Spring of 1862.  New York: author, 1864.  Account by Vincent Colyer, Superintendent of the Poor, concerning his work with the freed slaves of New Bern and vicinity.

G.H. Sutherland, There is no Place like Home, n.p., 1862.  Sentimental poem about the author's home in the North.

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William A. Stearns, Adjutant Stearns, Boston: Massachusetts Sabbath School Society, 1862. Memorial volume for First Lieutenant Frazar A. Stearns, Company I, Twenty-first Massachusetts Infantry. Stearns, the son of the president of Amherst College,  was killed during the Battle of New Bern, March 14, 1862.

Rufus Morgan, New Bern photographer

 

The recent acquisition of three early stereographs of New Bern provides an opportunity to remember an artist whose career was tragically cut short.

Stereograph of Christ Episcopal Church, New Bern, by Rufus Morgan, c.1869-1870.

by John B. Green III

Of all the photographers who have called  New Bern home since the 1850s, one of the more interesting and unusual, was a young Virginian named Rufus Morgan.  Just twenty-three years old when he opened his gallery in New Bern, he soon came to specialize in stereographs of local scenery.  Stereographs were made by a camera with two lenses  which simultaneously took two photographs of the subject from slightly different angles.  The resulting double image, when observed through a special viewer called a stereoscope, caused the observer's left and right eyes to resolve the double image into a single image which appeared to be three-dimensional.  Stereographs were extremely popular from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, with many homes having sets of stereo cards depicting world events, exotic locales, and natural wonders.

Rufus Morgan produced a set of thirteen views of New Bern and traveled about the state producing sets for Raleigh, Wilmington, Goldsboro, and western North Carolina. He also photographed in Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, and California.

Rufus Morgan advertisement, The Republic and Courier, New Bern, NC, 8 November 1873.

Morgan married Mary D. Clarke, daughter of Mary Devereux Clarke and W.J. Clarke of New Bern, in 1873.  With a daughter born in 1875 and a son in 1879, Morgan apparently came to the conclusion that his photography did not provide sufficient income for his growing family.  He determined to go west to California and operate an apiary, a long time interest of his and a business in which he had previously engaged.  Morgan planned to send for his wife and children once he was established in California.  Unfortunately, on April 3, 1880, he prepared a meal of wild mushrooms, some of which were thought to have been poisonous, became very ill, and died two days later.

Rufus Morgan's five-year old daughter, Mary Bayard Morgan, would grow up to pursue her own career in photography.  As Bayard Wootten, she would become one of North Carolina's most talented photographers of the 20th century.

The largest collection of Rufus Morgan's photographs survives at the North Carolina Collection of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  We at the Kellenberger Room are pleased to add three of his New Bern views to our collection.

Stereograph of entrance gate to Cedar Grove Cemetery, New Bern, by Rufus Morgan, c. 1869-1870.

Stereograph of the main avenue, Cedar Grove Cemetery, New Bern, by Rufus Morgan, c.1869-1870.

Reverse of stereograph listing New Bern views available, c.1869-1870.