New Bern, North Carolina
Dec 11, 2023 by Jim Gulledge
Linda and I "discovered" the beautiful city of New Bern on a trip to the North Carolina coast many years ago. One of our evenings there was spent having a great dinner at a waterfront restaurant and then taking a pleasant stroll through the park on the point at the confluence of the Neuse and Trent rivers.
A few years ago, I discovered that the park that we had enjoyed so much had also been the site of the execution of my 6th great uncle, Dr. Joseph Gaston. Like so many of my Scots Irish ancestors, Dr. Gaston had fallen afoul of the British by 1781. As the doctor attempted to flee New Bern by boat, a unit of Tory soldiers led by Major James H. Craig caught up with him and shot him to death on the waterfront in sight of his wife and two small children.
Perhaps what does not kill us does indeed make us stronger. The younger of the two children, William Joseph Gaston, grew up to become:
A U.S. Congressman
Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives
Member of the North Carolina State Supreme Court
and the author of the N.C. state song, "The Old North State"
( photograph by Allen Fairbanks )
