Swiss and German immigrants who settled here in the early 1890s named their settlement for Bern, Switzerland. In 1892 the newly organized St. John Lutheran Church built a sanctuary which also housed the New Bern School here on 2.5 acres donated by Daniel Murphy. The New Bern Cemetery (0.1 mi.E of this site) was established in 1895 on 3 acres acquired from Friedrich and Anna Stauffer. Though a new church building (1912) and schoolhouse (1920) were moved to the nearby community of Wuthrich Hill in 1949 the cemetery continues to serve the community.