Mr. Truman keeps a promise

or, Why Harry Truman attended church in New Bern on the first Sunday after his 1948 election victory

President Truman waving to the crowd, First Baptist Church, New Bern, Sunday, 7 November 1948.

By John B. Green III

Running for an unprecedented fourth term in 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt chose Senator Harry S. Truman, Democrat from Missouri, as his running mate and prospective Vice President.  Roosevelt won reelection handily and on January 20, 1945 took the oath of office as president for the fourth, and what would prove to be, last time.  Eighty-two days later on April 12, 1945, Roosevelt died  of a cerebral hemorrhage in his cottage at Warm Springs, Georgia.  Truman became president at Roosevelt's death and was sworn in as such that evening in the White House in Washington. 

Harry Truman completed Roosevelt's term and in 1948 announced his intention to run for president in his own right.  Truman was given little chance of defeating the Republican candidate Thomas E. Dewey, especially with the Democratic electorate divided by the Dixiecrat candidacy of Strom Thurmond of South Carolina.  Undeterred, Truman conducted a vigorous campaign which included a whistle-stop tour of much of the country.  On Election Day, November 2, 1948, Truman fooled all the pundits by defeating Dewey with 49.6 per cent of the popular vote to Dewey's 45.1 per cent and with 303 Electoral College votes to Dewey's 189 votes.  

For some time, Harry Truman had maintained a "Little White House" in the Commandant's residence of the U.S. Navy base at Key West, Florida.  There Truman could exchange the pressures of Washington for the relaxing atmosphere of Key West, although these visits always proved to be working holidays.  Truman had planned just such a vacation for the week following the 1948 election, which brings us to Mr. Truman's promise.

Headline, New Bern Sun-Journal, Monday, 8 Nov 1948

Some months earlier, the Rev. Thomas W. Fryer, pastor of First Baptist Church of New Bern, had enjoyed a brief meeting with President Truman in Washington.  In the course of the meeting, Rev. Fryer invited the president to visit New Bern and First Baptist Church if he were ever in the area.  The President replied that he just might do that.   Rev. Fryer thought no more of the promise until Thursday, November 4, when a Secret Service agent arrived to inform the startled Baptist minister that the president would attend church at First Baptist in three days.  The President was flying to Key West but would stop in New Bern to fulfill his promise to Rev. Fryer

President Truman's motorcade approaching on Middle Street, New Bern, Sunday, 7 Nov 1948

On Sunday, Nov. 7th, Harry Truman's presidential plane, the Independence, touched down at Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point.  A motorcade swept the President the sixteen miles to New Bern and First Baptist Church.  Hundreds of New Bern citizens lined Middle Street as the motorcade approached. Waiting to meet the president were Rev. Fryer and his family, North Carolina Governor R. Gregg Cherry and Governor-elect W. Kerr Scott.  The president was accompanied by members of his administration, military aides, and his Chief of Staff, Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy.  An invitation-only congregation awaited Mr. Truman inside the church. 

The President pausing before entering the church, Sunday, 7 Nov 1948.

The president was escorted to his seat by Craven County Superintendent of Schools and fellow Mason, Rev. Robert L.Pugh.  Truman and his party sat on the right-hand side of the church, five rows back from the front.  After joining in the hymns and attentively listening to the sermon, President Truman declared "It was as good a sermon as I have ever heard." 

President Truman and Reverend and Mrs. Fryer, following the service.

The president posed for photographs on the front steps of the church following the service.  He was then whisked back to Cherry Point to continue his flight to Key West.

And that is how Harry Truman kept his promise.

Lost Churches

More time travel through the collections of the Kellenberger Room

First Baptist Church, northwest corner of Johnson and Metcalf streets, photographed c.1900. Built c. 1811-12 with the tower  added c. 1833, the building was replaced by the Baptists with a new church in a different location in 1848. The old church became the home of the African American St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church following the Civil War.  They replaced this building with a new church on the same site in 1910.

by John B. Green III

Continuing our time travel for the self-isolated and socially distanced, we examine photos of New Bern churches lost to time.  Either accidentally burned or in some cases demolished as the needs or tastes of their congregations changed, these fascinating buildings would be prized additions to our town today.

Tabernacle Baptist Church, northeast corner Broad and George streets, photo c. 1900. Designed by New Bern architect Herbert Woodley Simpson and completed in 1897, Tabernacle Baptist Church was enlarged in 1913 and unfortunately destroyed by fire on the evening of November 30, 1931. The congregation erected a brick building on the same site in 1943.

Centenary Methodist Church, 500 block New Street, south side, photographed c. 1901. Probably designed and erected by New Bern builder Hardy B. Lane, the church was completed by 1843. Originally designed in the Greek Revival style with a square tower topped by four corner spires, the structure was extensively remodeled in 1884 by architect J. Crawford Neilson and builder A.M. Carroll, both from Baltimore. The church was replaced by a new facility two blocks east in 1905.  The 1843 building was sold and served as a furniture warehouse until it was demolished in 1939.

Christian Church, 300 block Hancock Street, west side, photo c. 1914. Built between 1887 and 1889, the Christian Church was described at its dedication as:  The new church is a neat, attractive building.  It is 60 x 34 feet in size; the top of the steeple is 108 feet from the ground; the pitch of the ceiling is 21 feet; the walls, inside, are imitation stone; the ceiling overhead is of native woods, beautifully painted and finished with gilded trimmings; stained-glass windows; gallery in front end; very comfortable pews; handsome pulpit furniture; the room is heated by one of Mott's furnaces; well lighted at night by gas, one of I.P. Frinks' silvered corrugated glass reflectors being used, besides a gas-light on each side of the pulpit and two in the gallery.  The church was destroyed by fire on the evening of December 30, 1918 and replaced in 1926 at a new site on Broad Street.