Carl Newcomer

CARL NEWCOMER. Though Carl Newcomer, cashier of the Brownell State Bank, is a very young man, he has a large amount of business experience to his credit. In fact he is one of the men whose services seem to be constantly in demand, so that his interests have often overlapped, and there has been no break in the continuity of his business career since early boyhood. Thus at one time he was a telegraph operator, and abandoned the key one day to begin teaching school the next. He was still in the schoolroom when he was elected to a county office in Rush County and had not yet completed his term there when he became identified with the organization of the Brownell State Bank.

He was born on a farm near Leon, Iowa, March 29, 1883, and his family have lived and have been well known in this section of Western Kansas since 1890. His people were of Pennsylvania German stock. His grandfather, Christopher C. Newcomer, went from Pennsylvania to Indiana in an early day, and afterwards went to Iowa with his son in the early '70s, and died in Decatur County, Iowa. On account of physical disability he was unable to serve as a soldier during the Civil war. Christopher Newcomer married Matilda Dale, who survived her hushand many years and died in Decatur County, Iowa, in 1900, at the age of ninety. Of their six children none were old enough for service during the war. These children were: Zacharia T., of Leon, Iowa; Dillard S.; Elizabeth, who married James H. Pitman and died in Iowa; Emma, who married Thomas Atkins and lives in Collins, Missouri; Louisa, who died unmarried; and Benjamin F., of Alexander, Kansas.

One of the well known citizens of Western Kansas is Mr. Dillard S. Newcomer, father of Carl. He was born near Indianapolis, Indiana, in April, 1855, and grew up on a farm with meager privileges in school. He has followed different vocations, but principally as a farmer, and he is now living retired from his farm at Alexander in Rush County, Kansas, and is now railroad agent at Alexander. He has served as township trustee of Rush County and is an uncompromising republican, and an active member and ane[sic] of the official board of the United Brethren Church. Dillard Newcomer married Mary Catherine Osborn, daughter of Samuel and Sarah E. (Harris) Osborn. Her father went from Iowa with a regiment to fight in the South during the Civil war and was killed in the battle of Shiloh. He was survived by four children: John W., of Leon, Iowa; Mattie, who died as Mrs. Moffitt Creger near Welston, Oklahoma; Mary Catherine; and William C., of Cedarvale, Kansas. Dillard Newcomer and wife have the following children: Oda L., of San Francisco, California; Ira E., of Salt Lake City, Utah; Carl; Mabel C., wife of L. M. Moran, of Nacoma, Kansas; Madge, wife of Fred W. Kueffer, of Oklahoma City; Harley O., in France as a soldier with Company F, Three Hundred and Thirteenth Ammunition Train, Eighty-Eighth Division, American Expeditionary Forces; Norma E., Lestle and Glen, who are still at the Alexander home with their parents.

Carl Newcomer was about seven years of age when his parents located in Western Kansas. He grew up on a farm, attended the country schools, and lacked only a month for completing both the normal and business courses in the Salina Normal University. As a boy he learned the operation of the telegraphic instrument, and was employed as an operator by the Santa Fe Railway Company, being stationed respectively at Alexander, Nacoma and St. John. He resigned this work to teach a country school in Rush County, and put in four years at that occupation, two of them in the Alexander schools. During his last term as a teacher he was elected register of deeds of Rush County, succeeded Jacob Depperschmidt in the office and gave a very creditable administration for two years. In the month of August, before his term expired, he began his duties as cashier of the Brownell State Bank, and looked after his county office at the same time.

The Brownell State Bank was organized in June, 1908. The organizers were E. S. Chenoweth, Thomas Ryan, Frank Edwards, J. M. Hiltebidel, Ira Butler and Carl Newcomer. The capital stock is $10,000. Mr. Chenoweth has been president of the bank from its beginning. A recent report shows the condition of this bank as exceedingly satisfactory, loans and discounts being $114,000, deposits $140,000, and surplus and undivided profits $8,500.

Besides his position as secretary in the Brownell State Bank Mr. Newcomer is a stockholder in the Alexander State Bank and in the Nacoma State Bank. He is also secretary and treasurer of the Brownell Hotel Company. He has some farm lands and is a wheat grower in Western Kansas. He has contributed as his share of improvement to Brownell a fine modern home. He is active in fraternal organizations, being affiliated with McCracken Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, with La Crosse Chapter, Hays City Commandery and Wichita Consistory, also with La Crosse Lodge of the Knights of Pythias, belongs to the Brownell Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America, and has served as a delegate to the State Camp at Parsons.

At Bunker Hill, Illinois, June 1, 1914, Mr. Newcomer married Miss Laura J. Turk. Mrs. Newcomer was born in September, 1888, a daughter of Abram L. and Mary Ellen (Muzzy) Turk. The Turk family have long been identified with the Bunker Hill community of Illinois, and her father is a substantial farmer. Mrs. Newcomer has a brother and two sisters: Howard, of Clay City, Illinois; Eva, wife of Robert Holliday, of Bunker Hill; and Mamie, wife of W. W. Wade, of La Crosse, Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Newcomer have no children.

Pages 2485-2486.