New Bern, NC History

Founded in 1710 by Swiss and German Immigrants, New Bern is the site of many firsts:

• New Bern had the first printing press in North Carolina
• New Bern was the Colonial capital of North Carolina in 1770
• New Bern NC was the Site of the first publicly chartered school in North Carolina
• New Bern is the Birthplace of Pepsi-Cola," 1st known as "Brad's Drink."
• New Bern was the First city in North Carolina (third in the US) to celebrate Independence Day

New Bern quickly grew into a thriving seaport. New Bern was a vital port along major shipping routes. Ships traveled the Neuse and Trent rivers to bring treasures from Europe and the Orient. During those early days, New Bern's central coastal location served as a convenient meeting place for the North Carolina colonial assembly.

In 1770 Royal Governor William Tryon completed his estate which served as both a colonial assembly hall and the governor's residence. Tryon Palace was hailed by nineteenth century historians as one of the most beautiful and distinguished buildings in colonial America.

In 1775, Governor Josiah Martin refused to call a session of the North Carolina colonial assembly to elect a representative to the first Continental Congress. He was forced to flee the state, becoming the first royal governor to be exiled from any of the original 13 colonies.

The Academy Museum was built in 1809 as North Carolina's first publicly chartered school. The three-story brick Academy now charts New Bern's early history.

The Civil War

At the outset of the Civil War, New Bern was a strategic stronghold for the Confederacy and a stronghold that Union forces coveted.

Southern forces fought hard to keep New Bern from falling to Union command. During the first assault on the city, 4,000 Confederate North Carolina troops battled five hours. Despite their efforts New Bern was captured on March 14, 1862. Confederate forces launched two unsuccessful attempts to regain the city in 1863 and 1864.

Some local residents fled from Union forces. Others who stayed behind found some not-so-subtle ways to demonstrate their Southern pride: One woman made her kitchen apron from a Confederate flag. The apron is on display today in the New Bern Historical Society's Attmore-Oliver House.

Museums

Visitors can visit several museums in the New Bern area:

• the Attmore-Oliver House, a 1790 home, 510 Pollock Street
• the Tryon Palace, 610 Pollock Street
• the Fireman's Museum, 402 Hancock Street
• New Bern Civil War Museum, 301 Metcalf Street
  

New Bern has an abundance of houses from the 1700s and 1800s still in use. Three neighborhoods are designated as National Historic Districts. These include the downtown and surrounding residential areas; Riverside, a 1890's residential neighborhood; and the Ghent neighborhood, an early twentieth century residential district.

Bradham's Legacy

In 1898 a visionary pharmacist named Caleb Davis Bradham created a unique soft drink in the back room of his drugstore at the corner of Pollock and Middle Streets in New Bern. On April 30, 1983, 85 years later, a small bronze plaque was placed at the original site of Bradham's Pharmacy where Pepsi was created. Bradham's legacy will always be deeply rooted in New Bern's history.

Caleb Bradham operated two stores in downtown New Bern, in the 1900s. The second drugstore and soda fountain, constructed in 1912 for Lucinda Stanley at the corner of Broad and Middle Streets is the only standing commercial building that can be linked to Bradham . In 1913 the Bradham Drug Company leased the first floor for a retail drugstore and a soda fountain reported to be one of the handsomest in the South.

In the late 1800s the fountain drink was dominant. The corner soda fountain was usually located in a drugstore since pharmacists us ed various formulas to create different syrups. Two new ingredients, the extract of the coca leaf form Peru and the extract of the kola (cola) nut from the West Indies and Africa were added to the pharmacists list. About the time Pepsi-Cola was born, some 20 col a beverages, including Coca-Cola (1885), had registered trademarks. Bradham developed his special concoction around 1898.

Born in Duplin county in 1867, Bradham quit his studies at the University of Maryland Medical Center when his father's business fail ed. To earn a living he turned to teaching. He taught school at Mrs. Oakes- Smith Academy in New Bern until shortly after his marriage to Sarah Charity Credle when he purchased the pharmacy at Pollock and Middle Streets. As a pharmacist, he began mixing prescriptions and syrups and hired an assistant so he could spent his time creating his own formula for a flavoring syrup for soda water.

When Bradham was satisfied with his experiments he applied for a trademark, stating ....Be it known that I, Caleb Davis Bradham, a citizen of the United States of America, residing in and doing business at New Bern in the County of Craven, and state of North Carolina, have adopted for my use a trademark for beverages...My trademark consists of the arbitrary hyphenated word Pepsi-Cola as shown in the accompanying facsimile. This mark has been used in my business since August 1, 1901. Bradham received U.S. Patent Office number 40,619 and was registered again in 1906.

Bradham formed the first Pepsi-Cola Company, bought the old Bishop Factory and equipped it with the latest bottling machines. (About this time, soda fountain drinks were on the decline and bottle drinks were becoming popular with the invention of automatic glass b lowing machines which had revolutionized the bottle market.) Continued growth soon led the construction of a new three-story addition.

Unfortunately, a severe limitation on sugar during World War I contributed to his downfall. The price jumped from 9 cents per pound in 1918 to 22 1/2 cents in 1920. A matter of months after Bradham bought at 22 1/2 cents the price plummeted to 3 1/2 cents a pound.

The decline of business at the two pharmacies and shrinking liquid assets forced the company to close. The company was adjudicated as bankrupt on March 2, 1923. The Craven Holding Company purchased the assets for $30,000. In 1931 Charles G. Guth of Loft, Inc. in New York, purchased the trademark and assets for $10,500 at a second bankruptcy sale from R.C. Megargel. Guth struggled for three years. Then he began selling a case (24 bottles)of 12-ounce Pepsi-Cola to retailers for 75 cents, who sold the 12-ounce bottle for 5 cents each. The beverage became an instant success. By 1933, there were 313 franchised dealers in the U.S. and Pepsi-Cola was registered in 81 foreign countries with bottling subsidiaries in Cuba and England.

It is regrettable the two sites directly linked to Pepsi-Cola (the original drugstore and bottling company) were destroyed before revitalization efforts began in the late '70s. The original late 19th-century frame building was demolished in the '30s. The two buildings of the home office until 1923 when the company went bankrupt - the first bottling plant and first corporate office - were built at the corner of Hancock and Johnson Streets in 1902. These were demolished in the 1970s to make room for a parking lot.

Mr. Bradham worked for years as a pharmacist and in his retirement served as the Recorder for the Sudan Temple.