James Pearson Newcomb (August 31, 1837 – October 16, 1907) was a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and

Secretary of State of Texas The Secretary of State of Texas is one of the six members of the executive department of the State of Texas in the United States. Under the Constitution of Texas, the appointment is made by the governor of Texas, with confirmation by the Texas S ...

. He was a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

. Appointed by Governor

Edmund J. Davis Edmund Jackson Davis (October 2, 1827 – February 24, 1883) was an American lawyer, soldier, and politician. Davis was a Southern Unionist and a general in the Union Army in the American Civil War. He also served as the 14th Governor of T ...

, he served between January 1, 1870 and January 17, 1874. Newcomb was born in

Amherst, Nova Scotia Amherst ( ) is a town in northwestern Nova Scotia, Canada, located at the northeast end of the Cumberland Basin, an arm of the Bay of Fundy, and south of the Northumberland Strait. The town sits on a height of land at the eastern boundary of th ...

and with his parents and a brother, in 1839 he emigrated to

Victoria, Texas Victoria is a small city in South Texas and county seat of Victoria County, Texas. The population was 65,534 as of the 2020 census. The three counties of the Victoria Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 111,163 as of the 2000 censu ...

. His mother died in 1841 and the family relocated to

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

. James Newcomb was 12 when his father, who was a lawyer, died of cholera in 1849. He was then

apprenticed Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

to a publisher. As a young man he became a journalist and later publisher and editor of newspapers in Texas and California. One of his first publishing ventures was the ''Alamo Express''. It was a pro-Union newspaper, and in 1861 it was mobbed by anti-union supporters, the

Knights of the Golden Circle The Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) was a secret society founded in 1854 by American George W. L. Bickley, the objective of which was to create a new country, known as the Golden Circle ( es, Círculo Dorado), where slavery would be legal. T ...

. Newcomb was forced to flee, traveling first to Mexico and then to California where he remained until 1867. In California, in 1862 he acted as a scout for

James Henry Carleton James Henry Carleton (December 27, 1814 – January 7, 1873) was an officer in the US Army and a Union general during the American Civil War. Carleton is best known as an Indian fighter in the Southwestern United States. Biography Carleton was ...

California Column The California Column was a force of Union volunteers sent to Arizona and New Mexico during the American Civil War. The command marched over from California through Arizona and New Mexico Territory to the Rio Grande and as far east as El Paso, ...

, the longest trek through desert terrain ever attempted by the U.S. military.Ernest B. Speck
"Biography of James Pearson Newcomb"
''Handbook of Texas Online'' Following that campaign, in 1863 he returned to San Francisco where he published ''Sketch of Secession Times in Texas and Journal of Travel from Texas through Mexico to California'' in which he provided his theory of the secession movement that led to the American Civil War, blaming it on conspirators. After editing a handful of newspapers in California and starting one, the San Jose ''Times'', which failed, he returned to Texas. There, he purchased an interest in the ''

San Antonio Express The ''San Antonio Express-News'' is a daily newspaper in San Antonio, Texas. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation and has offices in San Antonio and Austin, Texas. The ''Express-News'' is the third largest newspaper in the state of Texas, with ...

'', which proved to be highly successful. His positive articles attracted the interest of Governor Davis who appointed him Secretary of State in 1870. After leaving government, he studied law, though he practiced little. In January 1881, with A. W. Gifford he began publishing the ''Evening Light'', a competitor to the ''Express''. The ''Light'' was a popular newspaper for several decades, though Newcomb left it in 1883. In the ensuing years, he ran for public office several times and launched other newspapers. He was appointed postmaster of San Antonio in 1883.The University of Texas at Austin
A Guide to the James Pearson Newcomb, Sr. Papers, 1835-1941
/ref> He retired to a farm outside San Antonio where he died in 1907. He was married twice. Children survived him from his second marriage.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Newcomb, James Pearson 1837 births 1907 deaths American male journalists People from Amherst, Nova Scotia Secretaries of State of Texas Texas Republicans 19th-century American newspaper founders 19th-century American newspaper publishers (people) American conspiracy theorists

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