JAMES M. NEWCOMB
James M. Newcomb came to Cass county in 1864, and located in Edna township, where he owns two hundred and forty acres of land, and intends to make stockraising a specialty. He is a native of Waldo county, Maine, and was born on July 12, 1845. When he was about eleven years of age, his parents removed to Iowa and located in Adams county, where his family were among the early settlers. In 1863 he went to Minnesota, and located in Rice county, where he remained until the fall of 1864, when he came to Cass county. He was married, in January, 1866, to Mary J., daughter of J. A. Keith, and a native of Richland county, Ohio. In 1866 he bought eighty acres of land, and lived in a small log cabin, which had previously been erected, and lived there until purchasing his land upon which he now resides. In 1875 he bought a ditching machine with a capstan, but after a short experience, he concluded to do away with the capstan, which he did successfully, and has ever since been running his ditchers, with twelve yoke of cattle to each machine. For three years he ran three or four teams. In the spring 1884, he sold out to C. S. Grinsted, who had worked in the ditching business for him the summer of 1880, and who is now running six or seven teams with cattle. Mr. Newcomb now turns his attention to stock raising, having some thirty or forty colts and mules, some cattle, sheep and hogs. In the summer of 1880 he bought some cattle and land in Washington county, Kansas, and now owns considerable of both in that region. In the year 1884 he broke about three hundred acres there. He is fitting up the place as a stock ranch and farm for his boys. Mr. and Mrs. Newcomb are the parents of seven children - Charles W., Mary A., Dexter S., Achsah M., Emma and Laura. Little Jimmy left them, aged one year and nine months.
Contributed by Lisa Varnes-Rex from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pg. 760.
