The N£W BERN
PUBLISHED WEEKLY
IN THE HEART OF
EASTERN NORTH
CAROLINA
5^ Per Copy
VOLUME 2
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 1959
NUMBER 22
It’s hard to believe that almost
25 years have passed since George
Isaac Hughes, a 94-year-old Confedj,
erate veteran, fathered a son here.
The lad arrived on December 23,
1934, and on June 3, 1936, a baby
sister showed up to keep him com
pany.
Hughes was the object of smirks
and wisecracks, but. it didn’t get
his dander up, or chill his enthusi
asm. He took a good gander at
both younguns, allowed as how
they were chips off the old block,
and cuter than any of his other 16
children by a previous marriage.
George Isaac named the boy
Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As soon
as FDR got wind of it, he wrote
young Ft’ankie a warm personal
letter in his own handwriting. Not
content with this unusual gesture,
the President sent along a hand
some, tinted photograph for good
measure.
The miracle baby’s brothers and
sisters joined their pappy and his
28-year-old wife as prejudiced ad
mirers. The eldest of the lot was
Benjamin Hughes, 59 years older
than the new arrival.
Ben was born in 1875. He wasn’t
the first of the Hughes brood, but
those born before him died with
the passing of the years. The chil
dren still living had quite a time
of it pampering Frankie.
The birth caused quite a com
motion among medical authorities,
and numerous inquiries came to
Dr. Charles Duffy, the Hughes fam
ily physician. Dr. Duffy didn’t have
any doubts about the authenticity
of George Isaac’s parenthood.
As for the Confederate veteran,
he suggested that he be given a
thorough physical examination by
some outstanding specialist, to dis
pel once and for all the under
standable skepticism that was ram
pant here in New Bern and else
where.
Dr. Frances Seymour of Pitts
burgh jumped at the chance to
stage the exhaustive tests, and Dr.
Duffy was equally eager to assist
this noted authority. It developed
that Hughes was completely capa
ble of parenthood.
Facts revealed by this study were
the basis for an authoritative re
port in the Journal of the Ameri
can Medical Association. Dr. Duf
fy took head measurement of the
father and son for Johns Hopkins
hospital in Baltimore and the blood
types and hair of the two were
compared.
Nothing came out of the any of
these studies to refute the fact that
a 94-year-old man had become a
father. Verification was no revela
tion to George Isadc. It was just
what he expected when he suggest
ed that a thorough examination be
made.
When Mary Gertrude arrived, it
caused even more excitement than
Franklin did when he arrived on
the scene. This time, however, most
folks at long last were willing to
give George Isaac the benefit of
the doubt. Medical science was on
the old gentleman’s side, and they
knew it.
Photographers flocked to the
Hughes dwelling on upper Pollock
street. Newsreel cameramen show
ed up too. George Isaac and his
wife, the former Libby Hill Dixon,
took it in stride.
Eighteen months later, Mary Ger
trude contracted pneumonia and
died. Hughes himself died on No
vember 18, 1939. Had he lived un
til January 1, 1940, he would have
been 100 years old.
Franklin Delano, as he grew
from infancy to young boyhood,
developed unmistakable manner
isms of his Confederate veteran
father. He had George Isaac’s same'
shuffling walk, for example.
Hughes had been right, Frankie
was a chip off the old block.
Science would have welcomed
OUT OF THE PAST—So much interest hat been disfilayed
in two photographs previously published of old^ime classes
at Central school that we’ve dug us another. Maybe you
can identify someone in the picture. If so, pass the word
along to us. Who knows, you might be in this very dignified
group of youngsters yourself.
That Day Is Here at Last for
A Host of City's 6-Year-Olds
There’ll never be a bigger day
than this for the 431 first graders
who showed up at New Bern’s pub
lic schools this morning.
It wasn’t visions of sugar plums
dancing in their heads that made
them restless last night, and got
them out of bed at the bust of
dawn. Instead it was visions of an
honest to goodness classroom, with
individual desks and a blackboard,
and books and tablets and pencils.
Most of them were too excited to
eat, but Mom wasn’t very hungry
cither. Not until their wedding day
many years hence will she have
the same gnawing feeling—the
same consciousness of losing for
ever a part of your life that has
been near and dear to you.
Dad was quieter than usual, too,
as he shaved amid all the noisy
confusion that had the house in a
last-minute uproar. “Time really
flies,’’ he thought as he gazed into
the mirror. And he noted that the
wrinkles on hiS face looked deeper,
and the gray in his thinning locks
more predominant.
Like Mom, he was aware that the
era of babyhood had come to a
close. From here on out the six-
year-old he almost hated to see
the opportunity to check on the boy
from infancy to manhood, but it
was not to be. When the youngster
was 13 years old. He fell on a
Scout knife while imitating Tarzan,
and punctured his intestines. He
died of peritonitis five days later.
Was Hughes realy as old as he
claimed to be? His birth date in
1840 was an unchallenged fact,
backed up by his Civil War records
as a member of Co. A, North Caro
lina Regulars.
grow up will be monopolized by
others. An outside world will claim
its own.
^ Try though parents may, they
can never tear down the barrier, or
hark back to the toddling days
when they reigned supreme in a
kingdom bound by the four walls
of a child-blessed home.
Failure to accept the inevitable
avails nothing, but it isn’t easy to
be philosophical. Not when you
know that, to a considerable ex
tent, you’re being relegated to a
back seat and reduced to secondary
importance.
Of course, even a six-year-old
has moments of joy and heartbreak
when most of all it’s Mon and Dad
they want to turn to. But by the
veiy nature of things their class
mates and their teachers have a
FIRST GRADE BOUND
priority that no parent can com
pete with.
You need not be told that moder
ate or excessive grieving over the
growing up of our young is one of
the things that distinguishes us
from God’s lowlier creatures.
Few of us would deny that the
animal kingdom, at least as far as
mothers are concerned, displays a
devotion to its helpless offspring
that equals human devotion. But
when weaning time comes, there’s
a drastic change.
No longer does the mother robin
hover over her nest, and fly hither
and yon to fetch worms for her
hungry brood. Impatient to com
plete her mission in the miracle of
creation, she forces her timid fledg
lings to fly, and_^eek sustenance
for themselves.
It’s that way everywhere, below
man’s station and wisdom. If there
are regrets or backward looks, they
aren’t detected. Humans never
have, in our civilization, reacted
in any such manner.
Looking at the brighter side.
New Bern’s current crop of first
graders will have unequaled oppor
tunities |or learning. Junior and
little Jane, if the race doesn’t de
stroy itself, will live to see wonders
that today’s adults can’t visualize
in their wildest imagination.
In fact, one of the problems fac
ing school officials is keeping text
books abreast of the times. The
world and what is in it changes so
fast that most volumes are apt to
be obsolete before the ink is dry on
their pages.
Meanwhile, the uneasiness exist
ing in international relations in
this year of 1959 will in all likeli-
(Continuad on back page)