Emelyn Smythe Newcomb

B.M. Newcomb wrote:

Story-teller, lecturer, author; graduate of Northfield Seminary; university student; wrote "Glooscap and the Great Chief and Other Stories", "Indian Legends for Camp Fire Girls", and with Dr. Partridge, "Story Telling in School and Home".

John Bearse Newcomb (1824-1897)

B.M. Newcomb wrote:

Mr. Newcomb emigrated with his parents to Illinois when he was thirteen years old, arriving 11 July 1837 at Joliet. For the next three years they resided upon a farm in what is now the town of Franklin, later called Naansay, in Kendall County, about four miles southwest of the village of Plainfield. His parents died in 1840, leaving him an orphan at the age of sixteen. He then moved to Elgin, in Kane County, which continued to be his residence, with the exception of a few short intervals.

Mr. Newcomb was a pioneer in educational work, beginning in 1844 in a brick school house which is probably still standing. From 1851 to 1853 he taught in West Elgin in a frame building, still in existence. In 1854 he opened a private school in the Methodist Church, where he taught for two years. In 1856 he became assistant principal of the Academy. In 1860 he was elected superintendent of Elgin public schools, which position he held until 1866. During this time he was examiner for the northern part of the county. By municipal election in April 1873, he became a member of the board of education, was re-elected in 1874, and served until 1877. He was secretary of the board.

On 2 March 1864, John B. Newcomb was elected a corresponding member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society at a meeting held in Boston. On 4 March 1896, he was elected a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants. He was meteorological observer for the Smithsonian Institution from 1858-1861; city sexton of Elgin cemetery from 1865-1869 and 1885-1889; member of the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents, 1881-1891. He was the author of Genealogical Memoir of the Newcomb Family, 1874. No one, unless he has during a long period of years endeavored to assemble genealogical data with very little material in hand to start with, is able to appreciate the effort of Mr. Newcomb, nor the inestimable service thus rendered to the Newcombs for all time.

David Barnaby Newcomb (1827-1889)

B.M. Newcomb wrote:

Mr. Newcomb owned the west half, one hundred and fifty acres, of the farm which was once in the possession of his father, John, and grandfather, Benjamin newcomb, the latter having built the house. He was a school teacher for several years, afterward a farmer; in 1863, 18 May, commissioned justice of the peace; 18 Sept. 1863, major of Second Regt., K.C. of Nova Scotia Militia. He was also a newspaper correspondent; wrote essays and delivered lectures; author of a serie of lectures published in pamphlet form -- "How to Win, or the Dignity of Labor". he was one of the leading men of the town and county in which he resided, Sheffield Mills, Cornwallis.

Charles Benjamin Newcomb (1845-1922)

B.M. Newcomb wrote:

Mr. Newcomb was for a time in company with his father in the commission business, Boston; in 1869 removed to St. Paul, Minn. where he was president of the Union Improvement and Elevator Co.; in 1884 resided Philadelphia; in 1892 retired from business and returned to his old home in Boston, where he became a writer and lecturer on metaphysical subjects. He wrote "All's Right With the World", "Discovery of a Lost Trail", "Principles of Psychic Philosophy". His wife, Katherine H., wrote "Helps to Right Living", "Steps Along the Path". Both Mr. and Mrs. Newcomb engaged in the work of metaphysical healing.

Arthur William Newcomb (b. 1873)

B.M. Newcomb wrote:

Mr. Newcomb attended Ripon Preparatory School and graduated, A.B., from Ripon College, 1896. He was Educational Director, Blackford School of Character Analysis, New York City. In 1904 he made a world tour as correspondent for several publications; editor of "Science of Business Building," by A.F. Sheldon, 1909-10; managing editor, "The Business Philosopher", 1910-13; editor, "The Science of Personal Efficiency", by Harrington Emerson, 1912-13; author of "The Questions of Socratic" series in Business Philosopher, 1909-13. Advertising writer and advisor from 1897 to 1914.

Jesse Smith Newcomb (1826-1907)

B.M. Newcomb wrote: Jesse S. Newcomb was educated in the public schools of Haverhill and at Atkinson NH. During his youth he made two sea voyages on his father's vessel. Upon return he devoted attention to farming on the homestead. He learned the trade of shoemaking and established a successful retail shoe business. He devoted considerable attention to and invested in real estate, later in partnership with his brother Simon, under the firm name of J.S. and S. Newcomb. He devoted much time and thought to the welfare and development of his native town; acquired a considerable fortune. He was generous and had the reputation of being a model landlord. He was a republican in politics, and a member of no church, society, or club.

Harry Turner Newcomb (1867-1944)

B.M. Newcomb wrote:

Mr. Newcomb is a lawyer; received his collegiate education at Ludington, Mich., 1873-81, after which he entered the law department at Columbian (now George Washington) University and received the degree of LL.B. in 1891, and LL.M. in 1892.

In 1882, he entered the railroad service with Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, as clerk in general offices; was with the Interstate Commerce Commission 1888-95; chief transportation section, division statistics, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1895-99; expert chief, division of Agriculture, U.S. Census, 1899-1901; editor "Railway World", 1901-02; lecturer on Statistics, Columbian University, 1896-1901; on counsel for Philadelphia and Reading Coal & Iron Co. before Anthracite Coal Strike Commission, 1902-03, and was employed by Commission on Interstate Commerce of U.S. Senate to digest testimony taken by the Commission prior to enactment of Hepburn Law and report on points not covered by testimony; senior member of law firm, Newcomb & Frey, 1907-22; General Solicitor for the Delaware and Hudson Co. 1922-; fellow A.A.A.S., Am. Statis. Assn., Royal Statis. Soc.; member Am. Soc. Internat. Law, Am. Econ. Assn., Am. Acad. Polit. and Social Science, Am. Polit. Science Assn.

Mr. Newcomb was the author of "Railway Economics", 1898, "The Postal Deficit", 1900; also many articles on legal questions, railways, trusts, public ownership, labor problems, civil service, etc., in leading magazines and reviews.

From <i>Colonial Families in the U.S.</i>:

Harry Turner Newcomb was educated at Ludington, Mich.; graduate of the Law Dept. Columbian Univ. 1891 LL.M.; with Chi. Mi. & St. Paul R.R. 1882; Interstate Commerce commission 1888-95; U.S. Dept. Agriculture 1895-99; Expert Chief Div. of Agriculture U.S. Census 1899-1901; Editor "Railway World" 1901-02; lecturer on Statistics, Columbina Univ. 1896-1901; Counsel for Phila. & Reading Coal Co. before Anthracite Coal Strike commission 1902-03; Fellow (formerly V.P. Sect. Social Econ. Science) A.A.A.S.; Fellow Am. Statist. Soc., Royal Statist. Soc.; member Council Am. Econ. Assn., Am. Acad. Polit. and Social Science.

Frank Turner Newcomb (1861-1930)

From Commemorative Biographical Record of Tolland and Windham Counties Connecticut (Chicago IL, J.H. Beers & Co., 1903):

FRANK TURNER NEWCOMB, who is a man of prominence and influence in both financial and political circles, was born Nov. 21, 1861, in Tolland, Conn., where the family had lived for several generations.

Cordial Newcomb, the great-grandfather of Frank T., was born in Tolland, and was a life-long farmer. His reputation as a man of an exacting conscience survives in the tradition that under no consideration would he accept more than twelve cents a dozen for his eggs. In 1824, 1826, and in 1835, he was a member of the General Assembly, and for many years was a selectman in the town. He married Mary Deming, and by her had the following family: William C., Eliza, Albert, Charles, Laura, Ralph, Samuel, and Henry.

William Crocker Newcomb, son of Cordial, was born in Tolland, Conn., Oct. 24, 1806, and he died there Feb. 4, 1864. In his younger days he was a school teacher, and he lived on the Willimantic river until 1838, when he removed to the Lord farm. An active and enthusiastic Democrat, he represented the town in the General Assembly in 1842 and 1843, and was senator from the old 20th district in 1859. For many years he was first selectman, and from time to time held various town offices. In 1807 [sic] he married Maria Trumbull Merrick, a daughter of Samuel and Olive (Greenslit) Merrick, of Willington. They had the following children: (1) William Burt, who became a prominent lumber and brick merchant in St. Paul, Minn., where he was associated with the firm of Griggs, Newcomb & Hills, married Emily Brown, and died in St. Paul in 1872; (2) John Mortimer, died in infancy; (3) Trumbull, born Nov. 4, 1833, died in Rockville, Sept. 5, 1881, where he was in business as a hardware merchant; he married Jane E. Keeney, a native of Rockville; (4) Loren is mentioned below.

Loren Newcomb, son of William Crocker and father of Frank Turner, was born June 5, 1836. He acquired his education in the district school, and remained on the homestead farm until the spring of 1865, when he settled on the old Paulk homestead, located about a mile and a half south of the Centre, and there he lived until the spring of 1901. The farm contained 144 acres, and Mr. Newcomb carried on in connection with his general farming, a dairy establishment, selling his milk during that time to the Vernon Creamery. Mr. Newcomb is a Democrat and cast his first vote for Stephen A. Douglas in 1860, but he is not a silver Democrat. He has served on the board of selectmen three years, and was assessor several terms. For one term he was on the board of relief, for two years held the office of constable, and he has also been justice of the peace and collector of taxes. In 1868 and again in 1883 he was a representative in the General Assembly, serving on the Prison committee in both terms. He was also a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1902. On March 5, 1857, Mr. Newcomb was married to Anna Turner, who was born Aug. 7, 1838, a daughter of Orrin and Lydia (Edgerton) Turner, of North Coventry. They were parents of three children: Frank Burt, born Aug. 18, 1858, died Feb. 7, 1860; Frank Turner and Anna T., born Sept. 10, 1867. Mr. Newcomb and his family attend the Congregational Church.

Frank Turner Newcomb was born in Tolland and received his education in the district school and in the Brookdale Academy, finishing in the Rockville high school. At the age of seventeen he began teaching in the 7th and 9th Districts, which were combined, where he was employed during the winter term of 1878. Then having opportunity to enter the Tolland County National Bank, he left the schoolroom to become the teller of the Bank. This was in 1878, and in 1884, he was made cashier of the Tolland County National Bank, and treasurer of the Savings Bank of Tolland, the two banks being conducted in the same building. Two years later the Tolland County National Bank suspended business, and since that time Mr. Newcomb has continued to be the treasurer of the Savings Bank of Tolland, which was given by the Legislature the privilege of doing a checking business, and is the only one in the State doing business on that basis. Mr. Newcomb has been an official of the bank for twenty-four years, acting first as teller and then as treasurer.

In 1887 Mr. Newcomb purchased the old Elijah Stearns homestead on Tolland Street, and here he has since made his home. The farm buildings and the family residence have been greatly improved, and the acreage increase by purchase, until now Mr. Newcomb owns 293 acres, having at his first purchase only thirty acres, but in 1902 he purchased all the real estate in Tolland formerly owned by Charles Underwood. He started a creamery in the fall of 1898, in connection with his farm, keeping about forty cows and shipping his produce to the Vernon creamery. On his farm is transacted a general farming business of considerable magnitude, and it is said that he raises more corn than any two other men in Tolland; he has the largest herd in this section of the county, having in addition to the cows above mentioned about thirty-five head of other stock. With his family he attends the Congregational Church of Tolland.

Politically Mr. Newcomb is a Democrat, and devoted to Jeffersonian principles as enunciated by that great leader. In 1884 he was appointed a notary public by Thomas M. Waller, Governor of the State. He was appointed county treasurer in 1887 by a board of Republican commissioners and has been re-appointed each time by a like board, with an exception of the year 1895, when the board was Democratic, and he is still holding that position. The same year he was appointed town clerk and treasurer to fill an unexpired term, and he has been elected to that position continuously since that time. He has also acted as school visitor and has been treasurer of the school deposit fund since 1888. He was appointed postmaster of Tolland by President Cleveland, but resigned after a three years' term on account of pressure of private business. In 1886 and 1887 he represented the town in the State Legislature, where he served on the committee on Banking. Mr. Newcomb has been chairman of the Democratic town committee since he was twenty-two years of age, or since 1883.

On Jan. 27, 1886, Mr. Newcomb was married to Addie L. Millard, a daughter of Milo and Lucy A. (Chapman) Millard, of Mansfield, Conn. They are the parents of the following children: Harry Arthur, born Dec. 8, 1886; Philip Trumbull, born July 3, 1888; Pauline Louise, born May 3, 1891; and Lilla Adelaide, born Nov. 1897.

Mr. Newcomb has been one of the most successful men of Tolland of later years, and he is in every sense self-made.

Charles Henry Newcomb (1874-1947)

Reported by B.M. Newcomb and the Trapshooting Hall of Fame:

He started competing in 1901 and became one of the most prominent clay-target shooters in the early part of the 20th century, collecting over 1,000 prizes during his career.

1907, Member of winning team at Pennsylvania state championship; 1910,  World’s Championship Cup in Atlantic City; 1914, Indoor Championship, Madison Square Garden; 1915, Clay Target title at the Grand American in Chicago; 1915 and 1918, singles championship at Pennsylvania state tournament; 1917, Canadian National Exhibition champion; 1931 and 1933, doubles championship at state tournament; 1933, Pennsylvania state champion. He held the high state singles averages six times from 1913 to 1922; his 1913 average of .9527 was second in national ranking. Newcomb also led singles averages in the Philadelphia Trapshooting League four years between 1905 and 1915. He was average leader at several tournaments and clubs, including the Pinehurst Midwinter. Eastern Handicap, Westy Hogans, Southern Handicap, Boston Athletic Club, Quaker City GC, Penn Athletic Club and two state shoots. He was active in the Pennsylvania State Sportsmen’s Association and was one of the founders of the Quaker City Gun Club of Philadelphia in 1920.

Newcomb set two world records. In 1914 he broke 494x500 during a three-day tournament in Pittsburgh; and on July 7, 1916, he was part of a record-setting squad of 497x500, one better than the previous record set in 1907.

He was inducted into the Pennsylvania Trapshooting Hall of Fame in 1991, and the National Trapshooting Hall of Fame in 1999.

Newcomb was also a talented basketball player. He was a guard on the Camden Electrics team in the National League, the first organized professional basketball league.

Charles Newcomb (1818-1899)

B.M. Newcomb wrote: Soon after his father's death, Mr. Newcomb went to live with his aunt, Joanna (Newcomb) Jones of Holden ME. He moved to Orrington in 1837; in mercantile business for twenty-five years, following successful lumber business at E. Orrington; in 1861 moved to Brewer, where in partnership with Mr. Robinson he had extensive grocery and ship chandler business under firm name Charles Newcomb and Co. He retired in 1883 and returned to E. Orrington. In 1870 he represented the towns of Orrington and Brewer in Legislature of Maine.

Thomas Newcomb (1843-1906)

B.M. Newcomb wrote:


Mr. Newcomb received his education at Punahou College, Sandwich Islands; Poultney Academy, Vermont; and at the College of California. He mastered several branches of business to qualify himself for his later position. He was a good chemist, practical assayist, and skillful telegraph operator. For a time he devoted himself to the study of law in its several departments, and made himself practically acquainted with stock operations on the Pacific coast. He became city editor of the San Francisco Morning Call, circulation 30,000, and was one of the finest writers in his special department in the state. As a caricaturist he achieved a reputation second only to Nast. He was first president of the Bohemian Club, San Francisco, organized 1872. Residents of California who were graduates from colleges and universities formerly met annually at Oakland, organized into an alumni society with historian, poet, etc. In 1872 Mr. Newcomb was named poet.


In 1880 Mr. Newcomb was made notary or appointment clerk in the executive chamber, Albany, by Governor Cornell, a position which he held through the different administrations until that of Governor Odell in 1903, when he was transferred to the Adjutant General's office. At the time of his death he was secretary to the Governor of New York. He was a member of the Fort Orange Club of Albany. "Thomas Newcomb was a man of ability and genius. Naturally of a keen intellect, his education developed him into a humorist of the most pleasing, refined type. His lyrics were models in composition and his prose was cleancut and of the purest diction. He was equally as clever at delineation with his pen as he was in composition and many excellent examples of his talent are cherished by those fortunate enough to possess them. His reputation as a newspaper writer was known from the Atlantic to the Pacific."

Joseph Warren Newcomb (1833-1866)

B.M. Newcomb wrote:

Mr. Newcomb was educated at a scientific school, Cambridge; was connected with the "Press" and "Courant" of Hartford, Conn., and the "New Haven Palladium"; he contributed largely, in prose and poetry, to the "Knickerbocker", "Atlantic", "Harper" and "Our Young Folks".

Charles King Newcomb (1820-1894)

B.M. Newcomb write:

"Graduated at Brown University, 1837; intended, when a youth, to become a minister, 'but soon found it impossible to be a sectarian;' has been engaged many years in literary pursuits; served 3 months, in 1862, in 10th R.I. Inf. Vols.; now in Europe; unmarried."

From the "Amos Bronson Alcott Network":

Charles King Newcomb was a New England Transcendentalist poet who, at Ralph Waldo Emerson’s behest, contributed to the Dial and published “The Two Dolons.”  From May 1841 until December 1845 he boarded at George Ripley’s Brook Farm at West Roxbury, Massachusetts, though he never became an official member of the commune.  In 1865 he moved to Philadelphia, where he composed over 1000 erotic poems, and he spent the last two decades of his life in Europe.

From Early Letters of G.W. Curtis:

While at Brook Farm, Curtis was on intimate terms with most of the persons there. He greatly admired Mr. and Mrs. Ripley, and he frequently wrote to Mrs. Ripley and made of her a sort of mother-confessor. He also highly appreciated the scholarly qualities of Charles Dana, and his capacity as a leader. In his letters he frequently mentions "the two Charleses," who were Charles Dana and Charles Newcomb. The latter has been described by Dr. Codman as "the mysterious and profound, with his long, dark, straight locks of hair, one of which was continually being brushed away from his forehead as it continually fell; with his gold-bowed eye-glass, his large nose and peculiar blue eyes, his spasmodic expressions of nervous horror, and his cachinnatious laugh." Newcomb was for many years a resident of Providence, afterwards finding a home in England and in Paris. He was early a member of Brook Farm--a solitary, self-involved person, preferring to associate with children rather than with older persons. He read much in the literature of the mystics, and was laughingly said to prefer paganism to Christianity. He had a feminine temperament, was full of sensibility, and of an indolent turn of mind. Emerson was attracted to him, and at one time had great expectations concerning his genius. His paper, published in The Dial, under the title of "The Two Dolons," was much admired by some of the Transcendentalists when it was printed there; and it is referred to by Hawthorne in his "Hall of Phantasy." In June, 1842, Emerson wrote to Margaret Fuller: "I wish you to know that I have 'Dolon' in black and white, and that I account Charles N. a true genius; his writing fills me with joy, so simple, so subtle, and so strong is it. There are sentences in 'Dolon' worth the printing of The Dial that they may go forth." This paper was given him for publication at Emerson's urgent request, and it is not known that Newcomb has published anything else. In 1850 Emerson said he had come to doubt Newcomb's genius, having found that he did not care for an audience.

Warren Alfred Newcomb (1894-1960)

Warren Newcombe was a set designer for 175 Hollywood films between 1925 and 1957, including "Tortilla Flat" (1942), "Easter Parade"' (1948), "An American in Paris" (1951) and "Singin' in the Rain" (1952). He received two Academy Awards for Special Effects, for Special Effects ("Green Dolphin Street" and "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo"). He was Director of Set Painting for "The Wizard of Oz".  He also produced many paintings and lithographs which are in public and private collections.

Eliza Hickey Newcomb (b. 1838)

B.M. Newcomb wrote:

While on a visit to her son at Sedro, Skagit Valley, Washington state, 1896, she established St. Elizabeth Hospital, thus meeting a great need; the first institution of the kind there. She is very versatile: artist; musician; literary; patented household conveniences; philanthropist; has collection of art objects from foreign lands.

Simon Newcomb (1835-1909)

B.M. Newcomb wrote:

Mr. Newcomb came to the United States in 1853; taught school 1854-56 in Maryland; graduated from the mathematical department of Cambridge (Mass.) Scientific School in 1858, and assisted in the preparation of the American Nautical Almanac. In 1861, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy in the United States Navy; was employed in the Naval Observatory at Washington until 1877, having been sent by the government, in 1870, to note the sun's eclipse in the Mediterranean. The degree of L.L.D. was conferred upon him by Columbia University in 1874, the same degree by Yale in 1875, and by Harvard in 1884, also by the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1891. In 1875, he received the degree of Ph.D. from the University of Leyden, Holland, and the same degree from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, in 1886. In 1892, the University of Dublin, Ireland, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Sciences.

From 1877 to 1897, Mr. Newcomb held the position of Senior Naval Professor and Superintendent of the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac Office, navy Department, Washington DC, and from 1884 to 1894 was professor mathematics and astronomy in Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. In 1869, he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences and was its Vice-President from 1883 to 1889, and in 1904 was president of the World's Congress of Scientists at the St. Louis Exposition. He belonged to the highest scientific societies of Europe and America and received gold medals and other honors from foreign governments. As a mathematician and astronomer, he had no superior, if, indeed, an equal, in America, and but few in Europe. A complete list of his scientific papers would include about fifty titles and references, the following being numbered among them: "On the Secular Variations and Mutual Relations of the Orbits of the Asteroids", "An Investigation of the Orbit of Neptune with General Tables of its Motion", "An Investigation of the Distance of the Sun". His best known books are: "Popular Astronomy (1877), "School Astronomy (1879), and a series of Mathematical text books (1881-87).

Mr. Newcomb was also a political economist and wrote "Principles of Political Economy" (1886), "ABC of Finance" (1877), and "A Plain Man's Talk on the Labor Question" (1866).

He was buried with military honors at Arlington national Cemetery in 1909.

From Biographies of Notable Americans:

NEWCOMB, Simon, astronomer, was born in Wallace, N.S., March 12, 1835; son of John Burton and Emily (Prince) Newcomb, and a descendant of Elder Brewster of the Mayflower. He attended the school kept by his father, came to the United States in 1853, and taught school in Maryland, 1854-56. He attracted the attention of Professor Henry, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and was appointed a computer on the Nautical Almanac at Cambridge, in 1857. He was graduated from the Lawrence Scientific school, Harvard, B.S., in 1858; was a graduate student there, 1858-61, and was appointed professor of mathematics in the U.S. navy and assigned to duty at the U.S. naval observatory in 1861. He was married, Aug. 4, 1863, to Mary Caroline, daughter of Dr. Charles A. Hassler, U.S.A. At the close of the Franco-Prussian war, 1870-71, he went to Paris during the time of the Commune, examined the records of the observations and brought to light many astronomical observations back through a period of 200 years. He supervised the construction of the 26-inch equatorial telescope at the U.S. naval observatory and planned the dome in which it was mounted. He was secretary of the U.S. transit of Venus commission, 1871-74; organized astronomical expeditions for the U.S. government, and visited the Saskatchewan region in 1860, and Gibraltar in 1870, for the purpose of observing eclipses of [p.55] the sun. He had charge of a party which took observations of the transit of Venus at the Cape of Good Hope in 1882. He left the observatory in 1877, and directed the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac until 1897, when, having reached the age of sixty-two, he was retired from the navy. He acted as professor of mathematics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins university, 1884-94, and for his services in mounting the great telescope ordered by the Russian government, the Pulkowa observatory in the name of the Czar presented him with a magnificent vase of jasper mounted on a marble pedestal. He also took part in planning the telescope for the Lick observatory. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Columbia, 1874, Yale, 1875, Harvard, 1884, Columbia, 1887, Edinburgb, 1891, Johns Hopkins, 1902; that of Math. and Ph. Nat. D. from Leyden, 1875; that of Ph.D. from Heidelberg, 1886; that of S.D. from Dublin, 1892, and that of Phil. Nat. D. from Padua, 1892. He was also made a member of the important scientific societies in America, and an honorary or corresponding member of most of the academies of science of Europe. He was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical society, 1874, being the second American to receive that honor; received the cross of the Legion of Honor of France, and was made an associate of the Institute of France, being the first American since Franklin thus honored. He also received the flint gold medal from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the Huygens medal, given only once in twenty years for the best astronomical work during those years, and numerous ether honors. In 1899 the University of Japan presented him with two vases of their finest workmanship. He edited the American Journal of Mathematics, 1888-94, and is the author of: A Critical Examination of our Political Policy during the Rebellion (1865); The A.B.C. of Finance (1877); Popular Astronomy (1877); a series of text books comprising Algebra (1881); Geometry (1881); Trigonometry Logarithms (1882); School Algebra (1882); Analytic Geometry (1884); Essentials of Trigonometry (1884), and Calculus (1887); A Plain Man's Talk on the Labor Question (1886); Principles of Political Economy (1886); Elements of Astronomy (1900); The Stars (1901); His Wisdom the Defender (1901), and many papers on astronomical topics.

Edgar Allen Poe Newcomb

He designed the Frank Pierce Carpenter House at 1800 Elm St, Manchester NH, which is on the National Register of Historical Places, Building  #94000168.  He and his father designed the Portland Savings Bank at 88-89 Exchange St., Portland OR.

B.M. Nedwcomb wrote:

He traveled extensively and was for several years a member of the "Artists' Colony" in Paris where he studied the works of both old and new masters of the art of designing. Among his most important architectural works were: The Carpenter Memorial Library, Manchester NH, First Baptist Church, Haverhill, Mass., the high altar in Albany Cathedral, Albany NY, besides a number of buildings in Honolulu. In addition to his architectural ability, Mr. Newcomb was a writer of some note, having written a number of poems which were set to music, and an opera, "The Maid of Marblehead", which was staged with success.

Anna Josepha Newcomb (b. 1871)

B.M. Newcomb wrote:

Mrs. Whitney [she married Edward Baldwin Whitney] received her early education in Europe, mainly at Geneva, Switzerland and Berlin, Germany, where she won several honors. In 1885, she returned to Washington and graduated from the McDonald-Ellis School at the head of her class. She also studied at the art Students' League and showed great talent in painting. After her marriage and removal to New York City, she continued her art work there at the Art Students' League.

William Crocker Newcomb

William Crocker Newcomb, son of Cordial, was born in Tolland, Conn., Oct. 24, 1806, and he died there Feb. 4, 1864. In his younger days he was a school teacher, and he lived on the Willimantic River until 1838, when he removed to the Lord farm. An active and enthusiastic Democrat, he represented the town in the General Assembly in 1842 and 1843, and was senator from the old 20th district in 1859. For many years he was first selectman, and from time to time held various town offices. He married Maria Trumbull Merrick, a daughter of Samuel and Olive (Greenslit) Merrick, of Willington. They had the following children: (1) William Burt, who became a prominent lumber and brick merchant in St. Paul, Minn., where he was associated with the firm of Griggs, Newcomb & Hills, married Emily Brown, and died in St. Paul in 1872; (2) John Mortimer, died in infancy; (3) Trumbull, born Nov. 4, 1833, died in Rockville, Sept. 5, 1881, where he was in business as a hardware merchant; he married Jane E. Keeney, a native of Rockville; (4) Loren.

Thomas Newcomb (1806-1849)

B.M. Newcomb wrote:

Mr. Newcomb became a merchant's clerk when twelve years old, continuing in that occupation until the age of twenty-two, when he went to sea. He soon became master of a West India schooner; followed the sea for several years. once, when returning from the West Indies his vessel capsized and he was fifteen days on the wreck at sea without food.

In 1832, after acquiring a good education, he commenced the study of law at Amherst N.S., and received his diploma as barrister from Judge Halliburton. in Oct. 1839, in the same vessel with his brother Simon, he moved to Texas and settled at Victoria, then a frontier settlement. Before leaving Nova Scotia, Capt. Newcomb had taken a prominent part in politics and was well known throughout the province. He arrived in what was then the Republic of Texas during hard times, at the close of the struggle with Mexico. He endured many dangers and hardships; acquired a large practice as a lawyer, standing among the first in the country; served a while as district attorney. "He died in the prime of life, with a brilliant prospect for wealth and position before him; he was in every sense one of nature's noblemen -- a man of genius, eloquence and courage."