Fresno County Biographies

JOSEPH EMERY NEWMAN

Submitted by Craig A Hahn

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


JOSEPH EMERY NEWMAN, of Madera, Fresno County, is a native of Maryland, born in 
Baltimore, February 13, 1857. His father, J. E. Newman, was a member of the firm 
of Newman Bros. & Sons, prominent piano-manufacturers of Baltimore. The business 
was broken up at the opening of the civil war in 1861, and the father died in 
1867. The education of young Emery was commenced in Baltimore, attending St. 
Timothy�s Military Academy, Cantonsville, Maryland, for two years; but on the 
death of his father he went to live with his uncle, Thomas H. Fitzgerald, at 
Princess Anne, Somerset County, Maryland, and there studied at home under a 
highly educated governess. At the age of fifteen years our subject began 
assisting his uncle upon his farm, and remained with him until twenty-one years 
of age. After teaching a district school a term of nine months, he took the 
course at the Bryant & Stratton Business College at Baltimore, and graduated in 
1880 with high honors. He then secured a position in the auditing department of 
the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, and subsequently went to Wilkes Barre, 
Pennsylvania, as a salesman and bookkeeper in the business of musical 
instruments. In 1882 he went to Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, and secured a position 
in the office of Hildreth & Co., general merchants, who conducted a very 
extensive business, and remained in their employ for seven years. Mr. Newman, 
with a few friends, organized the Nanticoke fire department, and was foreman of 
the first company. The department now has four hose companies, one hook and 
ladder company, and numbers about 200 men. Through friends in Madera, Mr. Newman 
has become interested in the colonization of lands, and in December, 1889, he 
came to Madera to identify himself with the John Brown colony, and also the 
organization of the Bank of Madera. He was appointed assistant cashier and 
director, and secretary of the colony, the double duties keeping him very 
closely occupied. He is a stockholder in both bank and colony, and has an 
interest in a large number of town lots in Hughes� addition. 
 	Mr. Newman was married in Nanticoke, September 21, 1887, to Miss Cora C. 
Fellows, a native of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and they have one child, Carl 
Emery, born August 31, 1888. Mr. Newman is a member of the Nanticoke Lodge, No. 
541, F. & A. M., and of Patriotic Order, Sons of America, Lodge No. 271. 
 
Memorial and Biographical History of the counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern, California
Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892 p. 493-494