One of the great mysteries to me has been how were the Indians here when the Pilgrims discovered  America?  I regret not having loved history in school.  So many things I wish I had learned.  This morning reading the bible about wisdom, the Greeks thought it very important, perhaps most important.  And should I really have regrets it would be to not have studied Bible history.  However, the way I see it, had God intended I be a history scholar then He would have instilled the desire in me to have searched for it.  Now in my old age when I cannot retain it, I seem to be fascinated by it. 

It seems logical and we know how logic responds with spiritual things that there were people here 1000 BC.  If Isaiah was written 500 years before Christ then it would seem feasible.  I wonder if they were decedents of Ham or Japeth?

January 9, 2013, was a really special day.  I took an adventure.  While Eddie slaved away on a job doing what would be normal for someone less than 50 years of age and most certainly not a man of 70, I took to the road and went to discover the town of New Bern.  North Carolina has been a rewarding experience.  As I have gone from place to place there has been physical evidence of believers in Christ here.  And more importantly there have been sounds from the speech of people that show real religious ideals in place.  Now I use that word religious, because it is true that just because religious words are spoken does not necessarily mean a relationship with the Savior.

People here are friendly.  I have been to states where that was absolutely not the standard much less the rule.  Everywhere I have gone and came in contact with them I have seen smiles that reach the eyes not just on the mouth. 

Tryon Palace was built between 1767 and 1770 by Royal Governor William Tryon, who represented the British crown and became North Carolina’s first official capitol.  In 1798 fire destroyed the original Palace, but it was never forgotten.  More than 150 years later, a new Palace rose again on its original site, reconstructed from the original architect’s drawings and extensive documentation and archaeological evidence.  Furnished with rare 18^th-centurary and American objects, the Palace stands a testament to New Bern’s important place in American history.  And now you can see I can copy a brochure. 

I was assured that there would be a book with photos published soon that would tell all about what my limited memory could even begin to retain.  So as I write it will be bits and pieces of what I saw and what appealed to me.

The man that drove the little tour cart and took me from the history center to the Palace told me that the Trent river ran into the Neuse river which was the largest river in the world and emptied into some Sound which eventually got to the Atlantic ocean.  And the ocean was actually about 40 miles from New Bern.  The part I cannot recall if it was the Trent river or the Neuse river that was noted as the largest river in the world.

I was his only rider so I sat in the front seat next to him.  And when I got to the palace was the only tourist and met the lovely tour guide which showed me the palace.  She was a young girl with black hair sprinkled with gray, now whether she was actually older than she looked or premature graying I don’t know but she had the most fascinating black eyes I have seen.  She knew what she was talking about and did her speech very well.  She had an unusual laugh.  Also had lived in London for a time and said she wanted badly to go back again. 

The palace was as you would imagine had you gone to similar places and seen things of the 1700’s.  The kitchen was a working kitchen and they had food from the gardens (which must have been hot house I did not see, because all the garden’s were scarce and young growth if not dead.)  I would have loved to have a taste of the soup and rice pudding she was cooking but I guess she feeds the other guides and the public just get to smell the wood smoke and see the pots as she stirs ingredients to pour into the pot.  I think if the tour groups were as small normally as they were that day she could get away with handing out samples.

Having been a fan of “Upstairs downstairs” the old version, I was intrigued by the servants quarters.  I could relate to the owners of the house being kind to the servants.  They actually had the best quarters because it does not get hot in the lower part or as cold as the upper floors. 

I was amazed that a house with several children still shared one bed.  Six children lying across a regular size bed would lead me to believe there were lots of quilts on the floor when mutiny arose.  However I would think they were so tired by the time they got to go to bed they just might fall asleep pretty quickly.  I doubt they sat around doing nothing all day, playing video games and watching TV.  Even the wealthy, Governor Tryon’s children.

The gardens were a promise of beauty come Spring.  The evergreens kept them inviting for one to sit on the large concrete benches and look at the statues and the 50 squirrels that scurried up the trees across the limbs and past where you were standing if you watched closely.

 

It really makes thing more familiar if you have visited Europe.  The gates reminded me of the gates to the Palace in London.  Small replica’s but yet one would remember.  Kensington gardens was one place my mind returns and visualizes the gates. 

I am not as impressed with the Palace as I was with the homes we visited.  It was grand and the history could have kept me there for a while with my notebook but my head spun with information knowing I could never share it with anyone as much as I would like.  Sharing is the fun of the journey, more especially than ever when your journey is alone.  The maid just came in and I took her picture with my phone so I could her with you, however, Eddie has the little download devise so I will insert it later.  Just to tell about the funny incident that happened while she was here.  She too was so friendly.  She and two other maids were in the hall and one was on a CB speaking to a man on the floor below asking him to come take away all the trash.  She didn’t know I was in here and could hear the conversation.  He as well as told her that he would be here when he got here.  She said thank you Mr. Chuck.  And got off the CB and said, “I wanted to tell him he could jolly well get ready because the hall was full.  I laughed out loud and she looked in and said, “oh! I didn’t know anyone was in there.”  We all laughed and I told her I thought she handled it amazingly.  Probably a good thing we didn’t know what was whirling through her brain.  She said it was the Neuse river that was the largest one.

The Hampton Inn will be one of my favorite memories.  They have been in process of remodeling and I know it has been a headache with all the plastic on the floors and walls with painters spray painting the ceiling and others painting the walls, while the craft men put in new granite counters and they build cabinets for the dining area to be moved and I suppose leave the old Tryon room for a meeting room.  I have gingerly walked down the hall to the car for fear of showing them what it looks like for an old lady to go feet up on the slick plastic. 

They all know me by name now, every shift, after all when you ask directions every time you go downstairs and get commode plungers, I can tell you that you soon become well known.  However, they are sweet and kind and the smile so far goes all the way up to the eyes and the eyes don’t roll upward.

Touring the John Wright Stanly house, built around 1780,  I will give the history of the house as in the brochure.  John was a wealthy businessman whose merchant ships raided British vessels to aid the American cause during the Revolutionary War.  He and his wife Ann died in a yellow fever epidemic in 1789, leaving their young children to inherit the house when they came of age.  Their eldest son, the prominent politician John Stanly Jr., moved into the house in the early 1800’s.

A third John Stanly, John Carruthers Stanley, was generally acknowledged to be the son of John Wright Stanly and an enslaved African woman of the Ebo tribe.  A barber and a slave owner himself, after he was freed, “Barber Jack” was eventually able to buy his wife, children, and brother-in-law out of slavery.  His wife, Kitty, along with the craftsman Robert Hay, was one of the founding members of New Bern’s First Presbyterian Church.

Members of the Stanly family also played significant roles on both sides of the Civil War, and John and Elizabeth Stanly’s grandson Lewis A. Armistead was born in the Stanly house.  The house was used as General Ambrose E. Burnside’s headquarters when he was in New Bern with Union-occupying forces.

The tour guide mentioned in one of the families two sons joining different forces in the Civil War and I thought maybe (Burnside was the one killed in service).  I could not help but think of the heartache and pain of the mother and father that two sons would choose different directions of loyalty.

The house was interesting and they had reproduced some of the original wall paper which was a process of letting one stamped color drying and then applying another over that.  It came from France if I recall.  Anyway I was impressed with that and the hand carved cornice (I think that is the right word) around the ceilings.  Each room was different and somebody spent a lot of time with a carving tool to do all that.  The color of paint was original to the house. 

Interesting these rich people would have expensive imported pieces of glass ware on the mantle downstairs and when one went to the drawing rooms upstairs it was the cheap stuff (which of course was not cheap), just an interesting antidote.  The large halls were always used for something and one in particular held a large bench with about 1/3 having a front short set of boards and the back boards all the way across as normal.  This was a rocking bench and it was called a Nanny bench.  The portion on one end was where the baby lied and she sat in the other portion and with her foot rocked them both and as the tour guide said her hands were free to work and they were always work to be done such as sewing, knitting etc.

Again that home was as you would expect to see lots of antique furniture with chamber pots but the last owner had put in closets and a bathroom which I understand cost a pretty penny.  They taxed homes by the number of rooms and closets were considered rooms, therefore only the rich and elite ever had them and as I recall this was the only one I saw with closets and they had them in all the bed rooms.

A thought came to me about the Tryon Palace.  He had a master bedroom built and had a built in alcove for the bed.  It became a guest room when he found it was hot in that little neat cubicle and put his room downstairs where it was open and cool.  They had mosquito nets because no screens on the windows.

The George W. Dixon house was the other house, built between 1826 and 1833.