San
Joaquin County
Biographies
LEMUEL P. NEWCOMB
A very interesting chapter in the
history of pioneering in San Joaquin County is revived in the story of Lemuel
P. Newcomb, the vineyardist, and his worthy family, enviably identified with
the planting of some of the first vineyards, and long active in laying broad
and deep some of the foundations of the California commonwealth. He was born near Huntington, West Virginia,
December 2, 1869, the son of George and Louisa (Flowers) Newcomb. His mother was descended from old settlers in
West Virginia, while his father, who was one of four children, was from
Tennessee. He was a farmer, and died in
Oklahoma in 1896, survived by his devoted wife, who is still living in Montana
at the age of seventy-three. Lemuel was
one of a family of eleven children, he being the eldest. The others were named: Luella, Ambrose, Mary, Lena, Isaac, Flossy,
John, James, Dela and Andy.
Lemuel P. Newcomb lived with his
parents in West Virginia until, at the age of eighteen, he struck out for
himself. Then he went to Illinois and spent
six months in Ashley, and six months at Mount Pulaski. After that he removed to Kansas and leased a
farm in Republic County, which he operated for a year. Leaving there, he took a westward trip to the
state of Washington, but after a short time came south to California. This was in 1890, when he settled in the
Acampo district and worked for wages for a short time, first for Mrs. Foster
and then for Mrs. Northrop.
He next rented the Thorn grain ranch
of 160 acres and farmed it for a year, and then tried his hand on Roberts
Island, where he cultivated some sixty acres for nine years. For eight years he farmed the Williams
place. After that, he went back to
Washington, and at Montesano worked in a logging camp for two and one-half
years, when he returned to the Acampo section.
In 1907 he bought fifty acres, known as the Mowry Ranch, but soon after
returned it to the estate and received back his
money. This was afterwards divided among
the heirs. Mrs. Newcomb received eight
and one-third acres. Mr. Newcomb
received the same, for the amount he had paid down on the ranch, and then he
bought another eight and one-third acres, making his entire holding twenty-five
acres. He had been married at Acampo on
August 17, 1892, to Miss Etta Mowry, born at Lockeford, and the daughter of
George and Molly (Smith) Mowry. Her
father was a merchant and farmer, the son of Lazarus and Electa (Morgan)
Mowry. She was one of four girls, the eldest
of whom, Mina, is now deceased. Ollie
was the next; then came Mrs. Newcomb; and the youngest
was Ada, also deceased. Lazarus Mowry,
the grandfather, came to California on March 18, 1873, and bought fifty acres
on the Mokelumne River, where the Southern Pacific Railroad crosses, the land
lying on the north side of the river at this point. It was dense undergrowth, and Mr. Mowry
cleared it and planted the first vineyard north of the river in the vicinity of
Acampo, in the early eighties. Mrs.
Mowry died in 1906, at the age of seventy-eight, an event of more local
interest because many of the Mowry family are laid away in the family plot in
Lodi Cemetery. Lazarus Mowry was born in
Ohio January 27, 1825, and died at Lodi on October 8, 1908. The name, of German origin, was originally Mourrer, and was changed with the passage of years and the
migration of its bearers. Lazarus
enlisted in the Civil War as Lazarus Mouer, and the
change to Mowry was doubtless made in the hope that that form would be easier
to pronounce. Lazarus Mowry married Miss
Mary Louis on August 20, 1846, and she died two years later, on June 4. When he married for the second time, he chose
for his wife Miss Electa Vida Morgan, of Virginia, the ceremony taking place on
December 31, 1848. She was a direct
descendant of General Daniel Morgan, who fought in the Revolutionary War and
defeated Tarleton at Cowpens, on January 17, 1781. Miss Morgan came to Ohio with her parents,
and later, in the fall of 1855, accompanied them to Iowa, and several years
afterward moved to Illinois. Lazarus
Mowry enlisted in Company C, 118th Illinois Volunteers, but after
three months of service came home and then moved to Missouri, where he remained
until the spring of 1873 when he came to California.
Eight children were born to Mr. and
Mrs. Lazarus Mowry. Following are their
names and the dates of their birth:
Lewis C. (now deceased), February 24, 1850; George M. (the father of
Mrs. Newcomb), December 21, 1851, also now deceased; Milton J., of Stockton,
November 18, 1854, John B., Portland, Oregon, October 6, 1858; David, and William
M. (both deceased), April 16, 1860, and November 2, 1862, respectively; Ulysses
G., Arizona, May 15, 1866; and Wesley A. (also deceased), June 6, 1868.
Mr. Newcomb has a trim vineyard of
five acres on the present twenty-five which is half of the old Mowry homestead,
and an orchard of three acres, the balance being open land. The ranch is equipped with a first-class
pumping plant. Four children have made
up his family. Irma is Mrs. L. A. Kalk, of Lodi. She
is the mother of one child, Gwenelda; George P. is
with the Standard Oil Company, and has two sons, George, Jr., and Wilbur; Irwin
is at home; Alfred married Mary L. A. Garcia, and resides at Woodbridge. They have one child, Goldy
Fern. Mr. Newcomb is a member of the
Lodi Lodge, Modern Woodmen of America.
He and his wife are Democrats, and are intensely interested in
forwarding, in every way possible, the best interests of the community.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1252-1255. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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