Crawford-Polk County IA Archives Biographies.....Newcom, James T. 1851 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 9, 2007, 2:12 am

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1893)

  J. T. Newcom was reared on a Missouri farm, and was educated in the common
schools of his county. He was noted for his pluck and energy, was a firm
believer in Southern rights, and at the breaking out of the late war espoused
the Southern side. Located as he was near the frontier, where the fierce
elements raged with fury and relentless border warfare, he was in the thickest
of the fray, and took an active part in the battles of northeast Missouri. He
had several narrow escapes, and was twice captured by the enemy, first at Macon,
Missouri, and then taken to St. Louis, Missouri, and imprisoned in the old
McDowell College, where the walls were six feet in thickness. After one month
there he was taken to the Alton (Illinois) Penitentiary, where he was confined
as a dangerous prisoner of war, but taking desperate chances, he ran the
blockade, which was an underground railroad and swam the Illinois river,
liberated sixty men and all escaped. After returning to the warfare in Missouri,
Mr. Newcom was again captured, held at Keokuk ten days, but, with one companion,
jumped from a two-story building and escaped. They encountered 500 Union men,
but got away, and the next day he read a notice posted: "$1,000 reward for James
T. Newcom, dead or alive." After the close of hostilities he was at Des Moines,
Iowa, three weeks, at Storey county, Nevada, eighteen months, and then took a
homestead of 160 acres of wild land in Crawford county, Iowa. He now owns 240
acres of rich and well improved land, and has a valuable tract in Nebraska. His
beautiful dwelling, 22x44 feet, is situated on a natural building site, and
surrounded by a fine lawn. His farm is well watered, and is principally rich
bottom land. Mr. Newcom is the owner of a maguificent horse, a dark gray,
three-fourths Percheron and one-fourth Clyde, and also has the best Missouri
jack in this part of the State.

  He was married February 3, 1861, to Miss Emma Henderson, a native of Osceola,
Clarke county, Iowa, and a daughter of Rev. John Henderson, a Baptist minister,
a zealous and active worker in the cause of his Master, a good speaker and a
popular man. He died at the age of forty-seven years. His wife, formerly M. A.
Hash, was a native of Kentucky, a member of a prominent family of that State,
and her death occurred at the age of fifty-two years. Mr. and Mrs. Henderson
were the parents of twelve children, six sons and six daughters. Two of the sons
were soldiers in the Union army, and one in the Southern army. Mr. and Mrs.
Newcom have had nine children, four now living: C. J., Jennie, Ferman and Heman.
The deceased are: Thomas D., Orma H., May, Mattie and Effie. C. J. was born in
Storey county, Iowa, and was married at Tyndall, South Dakota, August 15, 1885,
to Miss May Watson, a native of Omaha, Nebraska, and a daughter of William and
Manisha (Kykendall) Watson. They have two children; Beulah May and Russel C. One
child, Wave, is deceased. Mr. Newcom is a Democrat in his political views, and
both he and his wife are members of the reorganised church of Latter Day Saints.
Our subject is frank and jovial in his manner, honest in his business dealings,
and his home is, noted for its hospitality.


Additional Comments:
Extracted From:

BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF 
Crawford, Ida and Sac Counties, Iowa.

Containing Portraits of all the Presidents of the United States, with
accompanying Biographies; a Condensed History of Iowa, with Portraits and
Biographies of the Governors of the State; Engravings of Prominent Citizens of
the Counties, wth [sic] Personal Histories of many of the Early Settlers and
Leading Families.

"Biography is the only true history."—Emerson.

CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1893.


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