Biographies N
Isaac Newman
Isaac Newman was the son of Thomas Newman and Mary (maiden name unknown at this time). Isaac was born in Botetourt County, Virginia on July 7, 1775. His father was born in England and died in Nelson County, Kentucky. It is not proven that Thomas Newman every lived in Muhlenberg County, though early census records indicate that he did. However, it must be remembered that anyone owning land in an area prior to 1800 was listed as a citizen of that area. Perhaps, Thomas, like his son, Isaac, owned Muhlenberg County land, but did not live here. Possibly, however, he did. Another possibility is that the Thomas Newman, who was listed in Muhlenberg County, was the brother of Isaac Newman.
Just prior to 1800, the great western movement swept a vast number of Virginians, North Carolinians and Pennsylvanians toward Kentucky and Tennessee. The wilderness west of the Appalachian Mountains was being tamed. The Newmans were among those who came during this historic westward movement. In 1785 the movement began in Brothers Valley, Pennsylvania and spread through Virginia and North Carolina, bringing more than 80 families into the Green River area of west Kentucky. The history of this, plus a list of the families involved is spelled out in the 1962 publication “Two Centuries of Brothers Valley” by H. Austin Cooper.
The 1799 tax list of Muhlenberg County did not list any Newmans. However, in 1800 the tax list showed both Isaac Newman and his father, Thomas Newman as paying taxes, but listing no acreage or family size. Isaac was surely a resident, and Thomas may have been. Isaac was in Logan County prior to the formation of Muhlenberg County, and paid his taxes there prior to 1800.
There seemed always, from the start, to be a close tie between the Newman family and the early Welborn family. Their lands adjoined in south Muhlenberg County and there were several marriages recorded between members of the two families.
For some reason, Otto Rothert, in his history of Muhlenberg County, does not deal heavily with the pioneer Newman and Welborn families. However, in a very detailed account, he repaints the brutal murder of Elizabeth Reid Newman, the young wife of Thomas Charles Newman, Jr., grandson of Isaac. The younger Newman is a product of one of the Newman-Welborn marriages.
For at least the first 50 years of the existence of Muhlenberg County, the only Newmans were those descended from Isaac.
In 1810, the only “Newman” listed was Isaac Numan, who with his wife, Rachel (Rhoads), had six small children. In 1820, he and Rachel had seven children. There was also a household headed by Thomas Newman, which surely was Isaac's older son. He had a wife and one child.
Another son, Jacob, joined the heads of household in 1830. Isaac was listed, with his second wife, Nancy (Unsell) and seven children. Thomas and Jacob were nearby. Each had a wife and four children. These were the sons of Isaac and Rachel.
The year 1840 was the last federal census which did not list the wives and children of the heads of households. In this, Isaac and his family, now totally 11, were still recorded. Also the son Thomas was recorded with nine in his family. A widow, Elizabeth, appeared for the first time with nine in the family. She was the widow of Isaac's son, Jacob, who died in early 1840. A new name was added, this of W.Y. Newman, who later was prominent in the tobacco industry in Greenville. He was the son of Thomas Charles Newman, Sr. and Lennie Welborn, and the grandson of Isaac.
Thus, with the coming of the more detailed 1850 census, the early Newmans were now fixtures of Muhlenberg County for more than 50 years. From their earliest in the County's southern portion, the Newman clan was now beginning to move to other areas of the County, becoming especially prominent in the Greenville area, as well as at Penrod, Belton, Beech Creek, Drakesboro and other communities already established, or just waiting to appear on a map.
As noted, Isaac Newman was born in Botetourt County, Virginia on July 7, 1775. He died September 14, 1862 at Penrod. He was buried in the old Newman family cemetery, just north of Rocky Creek, and west of US Highway 431. The cemetery has now been destroyed by man and beast. Twice married, both of his wives are buried in the same cemetery.
Much of that land lying north of Rocky Creek at Penrod, on both sides of the highway, was once Newman property. Today, many of the older residents of the area still refer to the hill overlooking Rocky Creek's bottom land as “Newman Hill.” The late Walter Murphy and the late Levi Cox later owned parts of that Newman estate.
Proving that Isaac Newman was in the Logan-Muhlenberg area prior to his tax listing in 1800, is his first marriage in 1797. Isaac's marriage to Rachel Rhoads on November 10, 1797, came at a time when Muhlenberg County was still a part of Logan, prior to its establishment in 1798. Newman probably then lived on his farm near Penrod, but at that time it was a part of the great Logan County area.
His first wife, Rachel Rhoads, was the daughter of other pioneers, Daniel and Eva Faust Rhoads. Daniel was a brother of Henry Rhoads who was instrumental in establishing Muhlenberg county as it is known today.
Rachel Rhoads was born November 17, 1780 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. The Rhoads lineage is much too involved to detail here. The continued connection between the pioneer Rhoads and Newman families is underlined in this fact. When Daniel Rhoads' first wife, Eva Faust, died in Nelson County, Kentucky, Rhoads took for his second wife, Elizabeth Newman, daughter of Thomas and Mary Newman. That marriage took place on March 10, 1794, presumably in Nelson County. Of course, that family later moved to Logan County. The part of that county in which they lived became Muhlenberg County in 1798.
Rachel Newman died on November 11, 1819. (This date is sometimes disputed, but is close, as her last child was born about 1818 and Isaac remarried in 1823.) She, as noted, is buried in the Newman Cemetery at Penrod. She was the mother of 10 children for Isaac Newman.
After her death, Isaac, then 28 years old, married young Nancy Jane Unsell, who was 18 at the time of the marriage on October 14, 1823 in Muhlenberg County. Nancy was the daughter of Abraham Unsell, Sr., and his wife, the former Anna Stovall. Nancy was born November 4, 1804 in Muhlenberg County and died at Penrod on July 31, 1865, being buried beside Isaac and Rachel. She bore eight documented children for Isaac Newman.
The farm at Penrod remained in the Newman family for at least one more generation. The Rev. Henry Green Newman, a Methodist minister and son of Isaac and Nancy, owned the land late in the century, or perhaps even into the early part of the 20th century. A granddaughter, Hattie Howes Cox (Mrs. Levi) and her husband owned a portion of that land through the middle of this century or later.
In his first marriage to Rachel Rhoads, Isaac Newman fathered ten children. As documented by several family researchers they are:
Children of Isaac Newman & Rachel Rhoads
- Sarah (1798-1868) married Henry Unsell.
- Thomas Charles (1800-1864) married Lennie C. Welborn.
- Samuel (1802-1861) married Eliza P. Dudley.
- Jacob (1804-1840) married Elizabeth Welborn.
- Jonathan (1807-1863) married (1) Elizabeth Wood; (2) Eleanor O'Hair in Edgar County, Illinois.
- Malinda (1808-1867) married and divorced James Dudley Welborn.
- William Butler (1812-1900) married Nancy G. Willis.
- Alney M. (1814-1855), drowned in Tombigbee River. Marital status unknown.
- George W. (1815-1890) married (1) Dorcas Ashmore; (2) Matilda Caroline Grisham in Clark County, Illinois.
- Mary (1818-?) married? a Stewart?
Source: Anderson, Bobby and Brenda C. Doss. “Isaac Newman & His Descendants.” The Leader-News [Greenville, KY], 19 May 1993.
Updated July 2, 2018