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 that also housed the New Bern school on 2.5 acres donated by Daniel Murphy. The New Bern Cemetery, 0.1 mile east of this site, was established in 1895 on 3 acres acquired from Friedrich and Anna Stauffer. Although a new church building from 1912 and a schoolhouse from 1920 were moved to the nearby community of Wuthrich Hill in 1949, the cemetery continues to serve the community.