By T.J. Revell, Staff Correspondent
NEW BERN, N.C., Dec. 3—Gaunt and silent stand the 1,000 chimneys of New Bern’s 40 blocks of burned homes, bearing mute testimony of the havoc wrought by the fire of unprecedented ferocity that threatened for a time to wipe New Bern from the map.
Up and down the streets lined with debris, in many places still smoldering, wander hundreds of people. Some are looking to see where a friend’s home was, or where theirs once stood. Others come in hope that from out of the wreckage they may be able to salvage a bedstead. Others are but morbidly curious.
The Area Burned
Suppose a fire was to break out at the Citizen Lumber Company’s plant on Person street in Fayetteville, and that while the firemen were fighting this another should break out at the corner of Mumford and Winslow. Imagine now, that there is a strong wind, amounting almost to a gale, blowing from the west. That the fire swept up Mumford, taking in all that territory out as far as Mallet’s Pond. Swept on across Gillespie and burns the area between Russell street and the Cape Fear Mills, on down to Bullard’s Lumber Mill, opposite the Holt-Williamson Cotton Mills. Imagine again that this area in Fayetteville instead of being most a white residential district, as it is, that all of it except that portion along Gillespie from Russell to Holliday street on the west and Dick street on the east, was entirely a negro district with the houses, as usual, built close together. Imagine this and you have a picture of New Bern’s greatest disaster. Practically one-third of the town burned with a loss of close to $3,000,000.
Relief Work
This afternoon the local relief committee through its chairman, H.M. Jacobs, asked Carter Taylor, Field Director of the Southern Division, Red Cross, to take over the directing of the relief work. Mr. Taylor is now actively engaged directing the local workers in their efforts to relieve the suffering. Following his tentative acceptance Mr. Taylor dispatched a message to Southern headquarters advising them of the state of things and recommended the acceptance of the responsibility. Mr. Taylor also asked for additional trained workers as needed.
Homeless Fed
As the West side school, under the personal direction of Mrs. Wade Meadows, a corps of white women, assisted by many negro women, are preparing two full meals, consisting of bread, meat, potatoes and soup, daily for those who are out of house and home. Here it is that the central point of relief work is. At other places are beds maintained under the watchful eyes of negro ex-servicemen.
Good Order
Mayor Edward Clarke yesterday issued orders that all persons, whether white or black, found under the influence of whiskey should be locked up. Up to 5 o’clock this afternoon but two had been taken in by police, but these two were not fire victims. However, the general order is exceptionally good at this time; not a case of looting has been reported.
A feeling of penitence seemed to prevail among all of the 5,000 homeless, and when there is a call for help at tasks, volunteers willingly flock to the spot.
Money Not Needed
Mayor Clark this morning issued a statement that New Bern was not seeking outside financial assistance. That though he personally and officially appreciated the many offers of assistance, that after conference with other leaders it was fond that New Bernians could handle the financial situation. The fund which last evening had reached $14,000 had at 5 o’clock this afternoon grown to nearly $18,000.
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Many pathetic incidents came to light as those who saw the great blaze here Friday collect their thoughts.
One negro was talking of how he lost all that he possessed, told it his way:
“I lived on lower George street, and I seed that de fire was gwine to de Oak Grove cemetery.
“Well, de fire come on up and I thot maybe I better git a wagon from somewhere’s. Well I goes to git a wagon and when I comes back, I can’t git to it for de furniture in de street. About dat time my furniture ketched a-fire and now hit’s gone.”
Many other families, some white, lost furniture in the same way.
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When things are in such a direful condition, when conditions are so serious, places to sleep so scarce that negroes will sleep on the ground with the mount of a grave for a pillow and tombstones standing guard by their side—they truly must be hard pressed. Yet, just that thing happened Friday night at the Oakwood cemetery.
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Wandering about over the still warm ashes of what had been a home, a curly headed boy of perhaps 6 years was seen prodding at the debris with a stick.
“What are you looking for, son,” he was asked.
“Mister, can’t you help me get it,” he pleaded, and an upturned solemn face compelled assistance.
“Here it is,” he continued, and pointed with his stick toward a pile of charred timbers. Looking where the stick was pointed, one saw what had been once—a tricycle.
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Under a half burned woodshed, a policeman found her and around her was her babies—dead. She, evidently in an effort to rescue those babies, had been horribly burned, but still she stayed thee by the now cold stiff bodies.
Oh, it was only a tabby cat.
A merciful blow on her head with a blackjack ended her suffering.
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It is not only the burning of the homes but the loss of the two big warehouses, the fertilizer works and the putting out of commission the Roper Lumber Company’s big plant that hurts. For with the fire went the jobs of many a man.
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Down in the middle of the burned district stands a two room frame house of antiquated age. In it lives “Aunt Mary”—that’s what the “white folks” call her. Though her home is in the middle of a block,, surrounded by a forest of gaunt chimneys, and the ground, even in her front yard, is strewn with hot ashes, her house is not harmed.
Why, how?
As the fire raced toward her home, workers, who were doing all humanly possible to carry away to a place of safety the furnishings in the path of the flames, went to “Aunt Mary” and offered assistance.
“Chillens,” she told the workers, you all needn’t worry ‘bout me, cause de Lawn am looking after me.”
“But Aunt Mary, the fire is within a block now, and it can’t be stopped. Come! Come! They pleaded.”
“Now honey,” Aunt Mary reasoned, “don’t your all know dat Gawn, Almighty, done deliber de free chillens from de fiery furnace?”
“Bless de Lawd,” she shouted. “Bless His name. He knows I’se prayed to Him sice way for de war, dat I pray three times a day an when I wakes in de night, dat I has been praying dis mawning, Bless His name.”
The workers left her, and today—the house still stands.
From the front page of The Fayetteville Observer, Dec. 4, 1922. Three million in 1922 would be $48 million in 2022.
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