Tulare County Biographies

Robert Oscar Newman

Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn

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

 
     In North Carolina was born Jacob Newman, a son of a patriot of the war of 
1812. He settled at Booneville, Mo., in 1821, and was a farmer and distiller, 
his distillery having stood a mile from the Missouri river. He went to Texas in 
1854, and lived out his days at Port Sullivan. His son Jesse G. Newman was born 
at Booneville, Mo., grew up there, married and went to work as a farmer. In 1849 
he turned his back on Booneville and, crossing the plains with ox-team, mined on 
Feather river, Cal. In 1852 he went back to Booneville, where he died, aged 
fifty-two years. A man of ability, he was judge of Cooper county, Mo., eight 
years and was for a time captain of a company of Missouri Home Guards in the 
Federal service in the Civil war. He was well known as an Odd Fellow. He married 
Elizabeth Hill, a native of Kentucky, daughter of James Hill, a Mississippian by 
birth, and an early settler and pioneer farmer at Booneville. Mr. Hill was 
sheriff of Cooper county and died there, after a life of activity and 
usefulness. Mrs. Newman survived her husband and eventually passed away in 
Tulare county. Of their twelve children, six are living: Robert Oscar, whose 
name is above; Jesse H.; Harry Hill; Frank; Fannie, wife of George P. Robinson 
of Nevada; and Maggie, widow of the late Marion Grove of Visalia. 
 
     The birth of Robert Oscar Newman occurred July 4, 1848, in Booneville, Mo. 
There he was brought up to the life of a farmer�s boy, and educated in a 
district school, the Booneville school and Allison�s Academy for Boys in that 
town. In the Civil War he served as a member of his father�s company, which was 
called out during Shelby�s raid in 1863 and Price�s raid in 1864. Price came to 
Booneville with thirty thousand men, and as there were only a hundred and fifty 
men in the Home Guards, the latter was forced to surrender, but its men were 
paroled three days later. After the war Mr. Newman farmed on the Newman place, 
near Booneville, till he was twenty-three years old. Then, in 1871, he went to 
Elko, Nev., where for two years he teamed in the mountains. After the death of 
his father he returned to Missouri and conducted the home farm for his mother 
till in 1882, when he purchased an adjoining farm, which he sold two years later 
in order to come to Tulare county, Cal. Soon after his arrival he rented land on 
the Cottonwood and went into wheat growing, having in charge four thousand acres 
of the Fielding Bacon holdings, running a big farming outfit which included 
seven eight-mule teams. By 1892 he had accumulated $25,000, but the financial 
stringency of 1893 and the reverses of several dry seasons made him as poor as 
he had been at the beginning of these extensive operations. 
 
     In 1898 Mr. Newman settled on his present home property, then known as the 
old Morgan Beard ranch. His property now includes three hundred acres devoted to 
grain and alfalfa and six hundred and forty acres of the Fielding Bacon land. 
His specialty is the raising of fine trotting stock, and he is conspicuous as 
the dealer in Tulare county who invariably offers regular Standard bred horses. 
He has produced more record horses than any other man in the San Joaquin valley, 
among which have been the following: Robert Basler, 2.20, by Antebolo, 2.19 son 
of Electioneer, his dam being Elizabeth Basler;  De Bernardi Basler, 2.16 �, by 
Robert Basler; Ida May, by Grosvenor, the dam of Homeward, 2.13 �, by Strathway, 
sired George G., 2.05 �; Dr. W., 2.18 �, by Robert Basler; Jonesa Basler, 2.05 
�, by Robert Basler; Stoneway, 2.22, by Strathway, 2.19, whose dam was Elizabeth 
Basler; sired Myway, 2.15 �; Stoneletta, 2.15 � at two years old. He owns at 
present Robert Direct, ten years old, by Direct, 2.05 �, dam Daisy Basler, by 
Robert Basler, one of the finest bred horses in the United States; Dew Drop 
Basler, by Robert Basler; Ida May, by Grosvenor; Daisy Basler, by Robert Basler; 
Wedding Bells, by Robert Basler; all fine Standard bred mares. Mr. Newman is 
reputed to be one of the best judges of horses in America. For a time he dealt 
also in cattle and was the owner of a splendid herd of Jersey cows. 
 
     At Booneville, Mo., Mr. Newman married Frances Ziegel, daughter of Andrew 
Ziegel, an early settler, farmer and tanner in Missouri, and they have seven 
children: Grace, wife of Henry J. Lyman, Hilo, Hawaii; Walter, a graduate of the 
University of California; Tracy, a merchant at Portland, Oregon; Elizabeth, a 
trained nurse at Honolulu; Nellie a graduate of the Visalia high school; Robert 
O., Jr., who was educated at the University of California; Lola, a graduate of 
the Visalia high school. Mr. Newman is a Democrat and has been useful to his 
party in Tulare county by his long service as a member of the county central 
committee. He advocates all measures which, in his opinion, promise to benefit 
any considerable number of his worthy fellow citizens, and, taken all in all, is 
one of the most prominent, substantial and useful citizens of his part of the 
state. 
 
SOURCE:  History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical 
Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, Pp 478, 479, 
480