Newcomerstown's Sesquicentennial received a prominent position on the front page
of The Coshocton Tribune along side some historical national and international news of the day.

Newcomerstown’s Sesquicentennial      1814 - 1964
from the OFFICIAL SOUVENIR BOOKLET

The legend tells of Mary Harris captured in Deerfield, Massachusetts in 1704 as a child and later becoming the white wife of Chief Eagle Feather whose tribe lived about half-way between Coshocton and Walhonding on what is now Route 36.  

Mary Harris apparently had quite an influence in Chief Eagle Feather’s tribe as his village became known as White Woman’s Town.  

Years later, on one of his raids into the Virginia Territory, Chief Eagle Feather captured another white woman for a second wife. What occurred between these two white women is not known but one morning Chief Eagle Feather was discovered dead with his own tomahawk buried in his skull and the "necomer," as Mary Harris supposedly called her was gone.  

The newcomer was captured on the present site of our town and returned to the village of Chief Eagle Feather and put to death.  

Chistopher Gist, a surveyor for the Ohio Land Company had talked to Mary Harris in 1750 and gave no indication, as erroneously reported by several Ohio history writers, of having seen the newcomer executed.  

David Zeisberger tells us that Newcomerstown was the village of Chief Natawatwes who later changed his name to King Necomer.  

King Newcomer had invited Zeisberger to preach to his tribe and on March 14, 1771, Zeisberger preached the first Protestant sermon west of the Alleghenies.  

Soon after this event the Delawares abandoned Newcomerstown and moved to Coshocton.  

The Revolutionary War period found wandering bands of Indians using the abandoned Delaware cabins and perhaps such men as Simon Girty, Brandt, McKee and Lewis Wetzel used them too.  

After the Revolutionary War several squatters moved into this territory and when Tuscarawas County was organized in 1808, Oxford Township became one of the four original townships.  

In 1813 Judge Nicholas Neighbor came from New Jersey and bought 1900 acres in the northwest corner of Oxford Township. He returned again in 1814 bringing a party of about 60 people with him. This group lived in the abandoned Indian cabins until their own were built.  

Judge Neighbor was later an associate judge and lived in New Philadelphia. While there, he served at the trial of John Funston for the mercenary murdering of the postboy. He returned here and in 1827 laid out the village, giving it the name Newcomerstown and served as its first postmaster.  

Judge Neighbor’s son-in-law, Jacob Miller, was the town’s first teacher starting school about 1818.  

In 1825 by an act of the Ohio Legislature, the Ohio Canal came into being. This canal played a prominent role in the history of Newcomerstown for 81 years.  

The canal was built in 1827 and the locks were about a mile apart. Over the canal in Newcomerstown there were several bridges which swung on pivots and were operated manually; one at Bridge Street, one at River Street and the railroad bridge crossing the Cleveland and Marietta tracks on Canal Street.  

John Garfield, the father of President Garfield, was one of the construction superintendents of one of the locks and young Garfield often played along the banks of the canal.  

Many local citizens worked on the canal as masons, millwrights, carpenters, boatsmen, dock loaders and lock handlers.  

The long, heavy boats hauled grains of all kinds from this vicinity to the storage bins in New Philadelphia and Dover. They also hauled coal, lumber and ores. There were specially adapted boats called packets which were used for carrying passengers.  

The canal served as a center of life for the young people of the community too. There was fishing, canoeing, and Sunday School picnic excursions to Port Washington and Orange in the summer and ice skating in the winter.  

The population expansion due to the canal led to the springing up of sawmills, grainmills, potteries and a woolen mill. The schools became overcrowded and in 1849 a regular school system was passed by a 1 vote plurality and in 1856 the Union School was built on College Street. Churches sprang up too and in 1830 the first church, the Methodist Episcopal, was organized; in 1832 the Lutheran Church, to which the Neighbors belonged, was established and in 1843 the Methodist Protestant Church (the College Street Methodist) was established.  

The canal hit its peak in the 1860’s but with the railroads expanding their lines and service and having faster freighting, the canal began to decline and although it was not officially discontinued until 1908, it then had been out of use for many years.  

One outstanding event in Newcomerstown’s railroad history was in 1861. President Abraham Lincoln spoke here from a rear platform on one of his personal appearance tours.  

After the Civil War, Newcomerstown, along with the rest of the North, boomed economically. 1876 saw the formation of the Presbyterian Church, in 1883 the Oxford Bank was founded by George Mulvane and Theodore Crater. In 1884 the Baltimore Clothing Company began and in 1887 the W.M. Brode Company began operating.  

Then came the "Gay Nineties" with its high starched collars and Newcomerstown got the Clow Plant, the Building and Loan Company and the "Opry House" located on the present site of the Municipal Building. The Opry House was lit with kerosene oil lamps and an enormous chandelier hung from the ceiling. Such plays as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Farmer’s Daughter, and many minstrels played there. The schools also used the stage for plays and graduation exercises.  

In 1900 the population growth forced the building of two new school buildings; one occupying the site of the Union School and the other was erected at the corner of State and River Streets where the Kroger Market is now located.  

Three new churches appeared around this time also; the Church of Christ in 1901, the First Baptist Church in 1902, and the United Brethren Church in 1906.  

1907 was a banner year for Newcomerstown. This year saw the advent of street lights.  

In 1913 the Sterling Faucet Company came to Newcomerstown (it was destroyed by fire in 1939) and in 1917 the Heller Brothers Company began here and the Saint Francis De Sales Roman Catholic Church was organized.  

The schools were expanded again in 1924 and the present high school building on the corner of State and River Streets was erected. The Goshen Brick Company started in that year also. It supplied brick for the Municipal Building and the Sewage Disposal Plant, among many other buildings.  

In 1927 the Ritz Theater was built and in 1932 the Foursquare Gospel Church was established and in 1935 the Church of the Nazarene was organized.  

Also in 1935, the Newcomerstown Public Library was organized. When it opened in June in the Kaden Building on Main Street, it had a collection of two thousand books bought or donated by the townspeople.  

In 1936 the school population growth led to the construction of an addition to the high school.  

1937 saw the organization of the Assembly of God Church, Cy Young voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and an earthquake scare. The new post office building went up that year also.  

Newcomerstown celebrated its 125th anniversary with a parade and a pageant in 1939.  

During the World War II, Newcomerstown did its part in the gas and meat rationing. Many local men and boys died in the Armed Forces and people back home worked in the local plants which had turned to defense work.  

Post-war expansion brought the Alchrome Products Company here in 1946 where it was built on the site of the Sterling Faucet Company. In 1947 the first parking meters were installed downtown and Route 21 was dedicated as a memorial highway. The Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Tiny Tot Corporation both began in 1948.  

The Cy Young Park with its swimming pool and picnic area was dedicated in 1950. This same year also saw a Pennsylvania Railroad flier ramming a troop train and killing 33 men, and the worst blizzard on record with 20 inches of snow.  

In a drive spearheaded by the Newcomerstown Chamber of Commerce, the Seiberling Rubber Company, Plastics Division, was brought here and began production in 1954. Since that time it has expanded twice.  

March 11, 1955 is an outstanding day in Newcomerstown history. This is the date of the tornado which damaged the East School building beyond repair, destroyed the College Street Methodist Church, damaged the Lutheran Church and spread general havoc over the whole town.  

The tornado damage led to the construction of the present East and West School buildings in 1957.  

The Goshen Brick Company’s production line was destroyed by fire in 1958 and with a monumental effort on the part of employees, employers and construction workers was soon back in production.  

The library moved into its permanent home in the bank building in 1960 and the Laundromat opened.  

In 1963 industry again expanded in our town with the Kurz-Kasch plant and the Groovfold Company and something new in the way of farming, the John’s Egg Farm which has 6000 caged hens and 1 roaming rooster in a climate controlled chicken house.