November 24, 2009
Laura Oleniacz
Sun Journal Staff
Growing up, Edward Barnes Ellis Jr. rode his
bike all over downtown New Bern. As he cycled by
the images and statues of the bears in the city,
Ellis wondered why they all had long, red,
curled tongues hanging out of their mouths.
In the second chapter of his new book, “New Bern
History 101,” Ellis explains why the bear has an
unusual “protruding crimson tongue,” and he
answers other questions, too, that New Bern
natives or visitors to the nearly 300-year-old
city might have.
This month, Ellis released the 225-page book
that tells the stories that fascinated him as a
child about the city where he grew up. The
59-year-old former newspaperman, real estate
developer and author of the Havelock history “In
This Small Place” didn’t set out to write a
comprehensive history of New Bern starting with
day one.
Instead, he wrote about the attacks, raids,
invasions, ghost storiefs, fires, duels and bear
stories that a host might tell his
or her guests at the dining room table. In
short, he said he tried to stick to the
essentials.
“New Bern is one of the great towns of colonial
America,” Ellis said. “The people who were
residents of New Bern, and especially the
leaders of New Bern, were rubbing shoulders with
and communicating with the founders of the
country. So there are an endless number of
stories about New Bern that relate directly to
the creation of the country and its growth and
what it is today.”
One of his own favorite stories is the
“wonderful and fascinating and horrible” tale of
the duel between Richard Dobbs Spaight and John
Stanly, which he writes about in chapter six.
“Here’s the three-term governor, the first
native-born governor of North Carolina, and one
of the most eminent attorneys in the state,
having a gunfight in downtown New Bern,” Ellis
said.
Another highlight of the city’s history that is
included in the book is the Union invasion of
New Bern during the Civil War.
“I go to great lengths to help people understand
that at the beginning of the Civil War, New Bern
was one of the most important sea ports in the
United States, and that was one of the reasons
the Union wanted it,” he said.
He also wrote about Tryon Palace’s origin as the
home of the colony’s governor, how it was
“consumed by roaring flames” in 1798, and how it
became the Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens
that it is today.
And in chapter two, he explained the mystery of
the bears’ tongues, adding details such as how
the bear statue at New Bern High lost its curly
tongue.
“To stand in downtown New Bern and think that
had you been there over 300 years, you’d have
seen (American) Indians attacking, Yankees
invading, and raids during the Revolutionary
War,” Ellis said. “In a small town in Eastern
North Carolina, it’s almost unbelievable
actually, all the things that have transpired.”
Ellis said he wrote and researched the book in
about a year, drawing on his own collection of
historical materials he’s accumulated, as well
as through research in the New Bern-Craven
County Public Library’s Kellenberger Room and
elsewhere.
He said he had large blocks of time to write in
part because of the recession, which affected
business for his Raleigh-based real estate
company, Ellis Development Co.
“I had a really good time writing this book,” he
said. “If the readers enjoy it, one-tenth as
much as I’ve enjoyed the project, then we’ll
have done something.”
He said he has several other projects up his
sleeve that are driven by the same “history gene
and quirky nature” that urged him to write New
Bern’s essential history. He plans to release
the book “Historic Images of Havelock and Cherry
Point” in January. It will contain more than 200
rare historic images of the area.
“New Bern History 101” is available at
Waldenbooks, at Mitchell Hardware on Craven
Street, at the New Bern Firemens Museum, The
Boathouse of New Bern on Middle Street, and at
The Galley Stores Market & Marina on East Front
Street, and can be purchased online.