The Old Newbern Courthouse

One of the biggest frustrations for me as a researcher/writer is coming to a screeching halt at the appearance of a giant pothole in the middle of the road. It's not quite the same as coming to a dead end. There's more information to fill in the path...somewhere...but where...and when? 

Just as I was really getting somewhere with character development, I received an email which opened up a whole new avenue of exploration in regards to the old Newbern Courthouse.

New Bern, Newbern or New Berne?
Allow me to begin with just a brief note on historic spellings for our city. Victor T. Jones Jr., the Special Collections Librarian in the Kellenberger Room at New Bern-Craven County Public Library, says in a recent Facebook communication:

Officially they started writing New Bern as two words in the 1890s. Before the Civil War, it was mostly written as one word (Newbern), though there are some examples of it as two. During the Civil War occupation is when the "e" was added to Bern (New Berne). In the late 1890s and early 1900s there was a big debate in town about whether it was one word or two, with the e or without. It was finally settled with the the way it is currently spelled, two words without the e.

Since the time period I am focusing on is the 1850s, I will be using the antebellum spelling, Newbern.

Back to the Courthouse...
In our story, the old Newbern Couthouse is the focal point of our first scene, where the four youngest Carter children appear to be bound out as apprentices to the household of William Temple.

I have studied historical accounts and maps of the city, but not till I received copies of the following photos...all that remains of the memory of the old Newbern Courthouse...did I begin to recreate the scene from the children's point of view (POV). I had actually received the photos back in mid-May; but, a more recent email provided the stimulus to try to identify the style of the court house beyond the ruins below:

Ruins of the Craven County Court House,
destroyed by fire January 15, 1861.
The Court House stood in the intersection
of Broad and Middle streets. This view
was taken from Broad Street looking west.
The old Market House is visible
beyond the ruins.

The photos answered a question I had earlier based on a the map I had previously view which placed the court house in the intersection of Broad and Middle Streets.

In the intersection, as opposed to at the intersection, was the correct phrasing; although, it was highly unimaginable for me. How could a court house be placed in an intersection, especially one lined with trees which would have made the roadway about it quite narrow?

From these photos we can see all that remained was the corner of the building.

Ruins of the Craven County Court House.
View taken on Middle Street looking north.
A New Bern Album, by John B. Green, III
(1985), p. 26.

It appears to have been a three story structure, with perhaps three sets of windows on each floor.

This was the second court house in Newbern. The original one was to be built in 1761 by orders of Richard Spaight, Esq., Joseph Leech and John Fonville, Commissioners. It was ordered "that a Court House for the said county [Craven], not exceeding sixty feet long and forty feet wide in the clear be build on the public lots in the town of Newbern ...on the intersection of Broad street where a Court house is already begun" (Rambles about Town: Pollock Street from Queen to Middle, October 8, 1882).

John D. Whitford also noted that "This old court house gave place to the brick one build on the same site about forty years afterwards, which was destroyed by fire just before the war. We have a photograph (above) of the walls with the houses then around them, taken immediately after the fire."

Of the second court house, Mr. Whitford states:

The clock on the cupola of the court house belonged to the town, was purchased in 1826, and no better was ever made and set up. The bell was the property of the county, and not only gave us the hours through the day and night, but it was also rung for all fire company meetings, political meetings, or any kind of town or county meetings, as well as give the alarm of fires.

While Victor had encouraged me to check the colonial architecture of the existing Chowan and Beaufort County court houses, I am now convinced that while the original courthouse may have had some of these colonial influences, this second courthouse did not. And this is how I came upon this conclusion:

Below you will find a collage I constructed of all the photos available on a Google Image search for the Old Chowan County Courthouse in Edenton, NC:

I was so excited about the detail I had discovered, especially the interior design.

The old Beaufort County Courthouse in Washington, North Carolina can be seen below:

While they both have a copula with a clock and bell, I decided to look for images of three-story southern courthouses built around the turn of the 19th century.

Jones County Courthouse, Trenton, NC

I am now somewhat convinced that the second Newbern Courthouse may have looked more like this courthouse built in nearby Jones County, North Carolina.

Whitford states that the original...

Court house is raised on brick arches so as to render the lower part a convenient market place, but the principal (sic) marketing is done with the people in their canoes and boats at the river side.

If the arches were carried over into the design of the second courthouse, perhaps it might look somewhat like the front of the U. S. Post Office and Courthouse in New Bern, seen below:

by eopederson45

Old Fairfax County Courthouse in Fairfax City, Virginia was built in 1799, close to the time the second Newbern Courthouse was erected. Notice the similarity in the use of brick arches in its design.

Courtroom Design
There are some similarities in courtroom design between Fairfax County Courthouse and those of Chowan County, North Carolina,  and James City (colonial Williamsburg) and Isle of Wight Counties in Virginia, which share the same layout.
Ultimately, what I will have to do is to use my imagination to combine elements of all of these settings to re-create the exterior and interior of the second Old Newbern Courthouse for this scene.



And now you can see how the giant pothole in the middle of the road got filled in with a little help from my friends.

Core Question #3: What personal lies hide YOUR character's vulnerability?

Lies, you say?

Courtesy of Linda Rowlands
Gravestone at Washburn Cemetery,
Scranton, Lackawanna, PA

Yes, lies. We all believe them, whether we realize they are untruths or not. For instance, when I was five years old my grandmother was killed by a drunk driver as she stepped foot onto the curb. For years I had remembered part of a conversation I overheard shortly after her funeral regarding her grave marker.  She was the first female child of David and Hannah (Rowlands) Jones to die, and she was buried in the Jones family plot.

The grave marker was engraved with the surname JONES. My grandmother's  married name, however, was NEWTON. It seemed that it had been proposed that her name be engraved on a separate stone with the surname facing the opposite direction. That is what my mother and I had always believed had happened. In fact, I thought that I had seen such a stone when we went to the cemetery for my grand aunt Hannah (Jones) Holden's interment.

In fact, no such stone ever existed. It wasn't until some years later that a cousin connection through Ancestry.com led me to this photo of the grave marker which verified that my grandmother's name had actually been engraved at the bottom of the family gravestone: Harriet S. Newton, 1906-1966. (Now if I could only find out what the initial "S." represents.) I had no idea that this was, in fact, a lie that I had believed because I did not have access to the truth and had only overheard a passing conversation and built a perceived reality around it.

What incidents of Isaac Carter's early life wounded him and caused him to believe a lie?
Wounds which distort our perceptions of reality do not have to be caused by severe traumas. They can result from issues such as the lack of strong, lasting friendships...betrayals...rigid parents who instill negativity which erodes their confidence and cripples their ability to perform...or a host of other events that many of us might take for granted, but which scare the child early in life.

While it's obvious that his youngest brother's seizure disorder, the death of his parents, his grandfather's declining health, the separation of the family resulting in the four youngest children being apprenticed to Master William Temple each would have been enough in itself to wound young Isaac, there must have been other incidents common to children in general, as well those created by living within the regional, racial and economic boundaries of that era, that could have exposed an area of vulnerability.

It is impossible to know just how these soul wounds may have affected young Isaac as he matured, but it would not be unreasonable to think that he may have developed a fear of abandonment to some degree. Many times these children mature into adults who become the mediator, one who wards off conflict, and tend to take on multiple roles within the family. They may lose themselves in some sort of industry, be it work, a hobby or other interest which serves as a distraction. They are known as the one no one has to worry about.

If this were the case, then Isaac's false front would be the mask of self-reliance which would hide an intense fear of depending on others. Once a deep attachment is formed, i.e. friends, marriage and children, he would inwardly worry excessively that the relationship might end in illness and eventual death. It might also take the form of a fear of financial hardship should he become incapable to provide for his family due to illness or death.

Now that we've gotten to the core of our protagonist, the next step is to determine how these motivators shape the plot of our story....

Core Question #2: What is YOUR character's greatest fear?

Some life application of the 3 Core Questions
Recently I presented the three core questions for character development to a Teen Sunday School class and asked them to answer these questions about themselves:

Image by STiX2000 on deviantART

1. What is YOUR core need...your motivation in life...and what would you do if you could not attain it?
2. What is YOUR greatest fear?
3. What incidents in YOUR life have wounded you and caused you to believe a lie, or have shaded your perception of life events? 

These questions are a great tool for getting to the heart of our inner truth! I believe most people are caught up in a cycle of  Greek drama, weather comedy or tragedy, hiding their true selves to cover their vulnerability. Sometimes, however, by wearing a mask people begin to believe a lie about themselves or even about the people and world around them. 

Back to young Isaac Carter

I believe that the greatest fear is linked to the core need, and acts as a negative motivator in an individual's life. While Isaac's core need following the death of his parents was to watch over and protect his younger siblings and keep their family unit intact, it was broadened in adult life to protect and free his Negro brethren from a system of enslavement. 

His greatest fear was a negative motivator striving to produce a positive outcome...and that was...

...the fear of losing his family
and being alone in a hostile world...

The next step is to revisit Isaac's life events and apply the core need and greatest fear to them in order to determine the lie he came to believe about himself and the world in which he lived....