Hi,

I am related to several German Twp. families and the Newcomers come in somewhere with my Johnson's, Honsaker's and Emery's. I would have to do some digging through records to see if Jacob Newcomer or his son, Jacob, are directly related. I checked the 1850 census and found these Jacob's listed as farmers. I have been told that many times, farm families would also operate a store or another sideline. I would imagine that this family who
had 10 children could have done this quite easily. Farming may have been listed as the main occupation of the head of the house with the women actually keeping the store. I live near the Ohio Amish/Mennonite area and have seen quite a few small shops sitting on the road in front of large farms. The German Twp.area was heavily populated with Mennonite families and I do know that my Johnson's were of this denomination.

I didn't follow along in the census years after 1850 but did check the 1920/1930 returns because I know of a possible connection. My mother lived on Morgantown Street in Uniontown. She always talked about sitting on the porch as a child and watched other children coming out of "Jake
Newcomer's Store" with bottles of pop. Her widowed mother rarely had extra change to give her three children for such a treat. She also said that her father was going to go into business with Jake Newcomer (who was related to his wife) to open this store. He had purchased the lot to build a house across the street but, when he found he was dying, pushed forward to have the house completed so that his widow would be able to move from the family farm and have a nice house for she and the children. Sadly, he died before the business plan could be completed.

From what I can tell from the census returns the store would have been located at the corner of Morgantown Steet and Lawn Avenue in Uniontown. Also there were several families of Newcomer's who lived on Lawn who were, in some way, employed in stores. It must have been in the blood!

Are you related to the Newcomer's? What a valuable piece of history to have the journal pages. Are names of
customer's mentioned?

If you would like to see the 1850 census pages I found you can email me at pagenie@suddenlink.net. I might be able to help you further.

Carol in WV