|
Welcome to New Bern, North Carolina!
The natural beauty and charm of New Bern truly make it a treasure on the coast of North Carolina. Unique among towns of comparable size, New Bern offers its residents the opportunities and conveniences of urban life, coupled with the hospitality, comfort, and security of small-town living. A mild four-season climate, state-of-the-art medical care, award-winning schools, a new airport, a regional library, a variety of shops and restaurants, and unlimited social and cultural opportunities are a few of the amenities afforded area residents.
Your style of life in New Bern is limited only by your budget and your imagination. Home options range from the magnificent colonial styles of the downtown historic district to the brand new custom homes of one of New Bern's golf course communities. Whether you buy or rent a home, townhome, or apartment, the reasonable cost of living keeps real estate affordable for any budget.
You're invited to discover for yourself why TIME Magazine, Where to Retire, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times have featured New Bern as an outstanding place to live.
History of the Town of New Bern
New Bern History, from 1710 to today!
(This is where North Carolina begins!)
New Bern, NC is a southern town extremely rich in history. Documented history spans the American experience from pre-colonial to WW2 and beyond. Located at the confluence of two mighty rivers, New Bern was inhabited long before the Europeans began arriving in numbers about 1710.
The earliest recorded knowledge of our territory came from a cohort of Sir Walter Raleigh, who explored up the Neuse River to the New Bern area. A friendly tribe of natives were living here in a town called Chattawka In their tongue, it meant "where the fish are taken out". The Englishman called them Neusiaks. In reality they were a part of the Tuscarora nation who ruled the eastern Carolina area.
The wonders of the land were a legend that John Lawson, also an early explorer from England, exaggerated somewhat in his book about the wondrous new lands owned by the Lords Proprietors. He said that the sturgeon in the rivers here were so large that the Indians rode on their backs when caught in their fish traps. Thousands of swans and parrots filled the skies. Game was more than plentiful.
Swiss entrepreneur Christophe de Graffenreid read Lawson's book, mentioning the (non-existent silver mines here) as well as all the other natural wealth, and that helped him to decide to develop a permanent settlement here. His son arrived on the first ship with a group of Palatines from Germany. DeGraffenreid followed in the second ship with Swiss refugees.
He met the local Indian chief, whom the Europeans named King Taylor, and "bought" the land where the two rivers met along with more acreage down the Trent. DeGraffenried later complained that he'd already bought the land from the English King Charles 1 and had to buy it again.
At first the settlers had few problems with the Indians. The heat and the insects were their most serious problem, but as more whites arrived, they began to enslave the Indians to work their fields, difficulties began quickly.
To read more about New Bern history, visit these sites:
http://www.newbern.com/history/
http://www.worldlymind.org/burnside.htm
Useful Links
Helpful resources when considering whether to relocate to Newbern
|