BIOGRAPHIES:  Wm. Boyd NEWCOMB, Pepin, Pepin Co., WI

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Submitted by Nance Sampson, Pepin Co. Archives File Manager on 19 November 2004
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**Posted for informational purposes only - submitter is not related to the
subject of this biography and has no further information.

Wm. Boyd Newcomb (deceased) was born at Perry, Jefferson county, Pa.,
November 24, 1822, and there received a good common-school education. 
he came west to Fort Madison, Iowa, in 1843, and taught school near
there.  He afterward went to Dubuque, where he taught during the winter
of 1845-46.  In 1846 he came to Pepin with his sister, Nancy F., who
returned to Fort Madison the following year.  Mr. Newcomb went to
Menomonie, Wis., in 1847, and worked as a lumberman and pilot.  June
19, 1849, he married Hester Foster, a daughter of Abner and Mary
(Waninsford) Foster.  Mrs. Newcomb still lives at Pepin, residing with
her sons, William and Frank.  She was born in Adams county, Ohio,
January 18, 1825, and is the mother of the following children:  Orrin
J.; Mary E. (Mrs. L. O. Fuller), born November 5, 1851; John F.,
November 22, 1853; Isaac M., May 9, 1855; William B.; Samuel H., born
August 18, 1858, died January 22, 1860; and Frank, born December 4,
1867, now mate of a steamboat, in which business he has been engaged
since eighteen years of age.  Mr. Newcomb came to Pepin township to
live in 1850, and in 1851 made a claim to the southwest quarter of
section twenty-five, township twenty-three, range fifteen, and built a
house n what is now lot two, block nine, which was the first house in
the village.  He received a patent of the land from the United states
government, October 2, 1854.  On this land the village was platted by
A. W. Miller, county surveyor.  Mr. Newcomb spent most of his time as
pilot on the Mississippi river, until obliged by failing health to
retire.  He always took an active interest in public enterprises.  At
one time Mr. Newcomb purchased the outfit of the Pepin "Independent,"
which was afterward sold to Capt. Wilson, when he removed to Menomonie,
Wis.  In politics he was an active republican, and held various public
positions, such as justice of the peace, postmaster, town treasurer,
county treasurer, and was the first county recorder.  At the breaking
out of the Rebellion he helped to form a company of troops, with whom
he marched to Madison, and while with them received a lieutenant's
commission, but was obliged to return home on account of poor health. 
He was a member of the Methodist church from his youth, and a licensed
exhorter.  He also belonged to the Masonic lodge and the I. O. G. T. 
By his death, which occurred June 10, 1882, Pepin lost one of her most
useful and honored citizens.

Wm. B. Newcomb Jr., the fifth of the children of Wm. B. and Hester
(Foster) Newcomb, was born at Pepin, November 6, 1856, and is now
engaged in the poultry and small fruit business.  He attended the Pepin
high school, and began teaching in 1879, which profession he followed
for several seasons.  He removed to Dakota in 1882, remaining there
about two years, when he returned to Pepin, where he has since resided.
In 1888 he removed to his present residence on section thirty-one,
township twenty-three, range fourteen, and devotes his time chiefly to
the cultivation of small fruits and breeding poultry. In politics he
has always been a republican, and has held the office of town clerk
since 1888.

-Transcribed from the "Historical & Biographical Album of the Chippewa
Valley Wisconsin, 1891-2," pages 662-663.


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