Robert King Newcomb, August 23, 1836-Feb. 6, 1927

Robert King Newcomb was born August 23, 1836, in Charlotte, Washington Co., Maine, to Robert B. Newcomb and Lydia Beals Lishness Newcomb, daughter of Lewis and Sophia Lishness of Maine. Robert’s father was a mechanic, perhaps a carpenter, and farmer living in a well-watered, forested part of Maine near the St. Croix River and Passamaquoddy Bay. Robert had eleven siblings, seven brothers and four sisters. After he left home his parents had four more children. Two of his brothers died in 1862 while he was in California.

What Robert did during the Civil War is unclear, though there exists a California voter record of him living in 1867 in Nevada City, California, working as a miner. Family records indicate he left Maine for California in 1859.

Upon returning to Maine before 1870 he married and purchased a farm in Perry Maine.  He and his newlywed Alvira Nancy Damon were living in Perry, Maine, when the 1870 federal census was taken. Perry was a town on Passamaquoddy Bay, which separated Maine from New Brunswick. Robert and Alvira owned $2500 worth of real estate. Their child Robert Eugene Newcomb was six years old, in 1875, when Alvira died. Robert King remarried Laura Ann Leach, who was sixteen years his junior. In the 1900 federal census Robert and Laura owned their land without mortgage; both were literate, as were their children. In the 1910 federal census, Robert and Laura were living with their son, Oscar, though the census made clear that they had their “own income,” hence were not financially dependent upon their son. Robert was 74 years old. In the 1920 census, Robert, now 84, once again owned his own farm, and lived there with Laura.

Robert King Newcomb died on Feb. 6, 1927, in Perry Maine, at age 90, and is buried in Leland Cemetery.

Read the account of Robert King’s daughter in law Lida Newcomb, Robert Eugene’s wife, in the new biography by Russell M. Lawson: https://www.amazon.com/Memories-Lida-Newcomb-Russell-Lawson-ebook/dp/B0FT1N91TD/ref=sr_1_2?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.J8vuhayH38hhAiGCVPI0bOHz49ZRH61Xxd-IxplouP6kWzxNr1PRLK0p_JnFy9SukVK-0Pp2lhkiUJlTbtYSV10jaDoFjfbZKdUdBON-FVAEPZ7LiPGKmtqJ4Uf58hFNz98hbxZfGHjuV5AhGjWkKVCnMcU-7w-Qo8rACpCouWjv1-MNLeisNsUtAnd7F6H4oPcqxRtFrtkUxaZRV96-cswnUzrHPID7qxP1OhmKUHY.v1zUq4Sd9m4iwTHN1E_zRIUdrgcYSHbvvfLKu-p-11w&dib_tag=se&keywords=Russell+M+Lawson&qid=1761776294&s=books&sr=1-24