NEWMAN, ALEXANDER, who is not only a native son of Cass County, but is also one of its progressive men and successful agriculturalists, owns one of the best developed farms in his precinct. He was born May 29, 1857, a son of Robert and Mary (Mangus) Newman. Robert Newman was born in what later became West Virginia, in 1834, while his wife was born in Franklin County, Va., in 1831. They were married in Carroll County, Va., March 11, 1853. They came to Illinois in the same year, landing at Beardstown on October 16, from whence they went into the country and located at Oregon Point. There Robert Newman began working by the month, and so continued for nine years at the same time carefully saving his money and at the expiration of that period entered eighty acres of land, and at that time he only had to pay twenty-five cents per acre for it. It was all wild brush land, and required much hard work to bring it into a proper state of cultivation. From time to time he has added to his acreage until there are now 146 acres of land in his homestead. He has been thrice married and survives all his wives.

Alexander Newman lived with his father and a step-mother until he was twenty years old, during that time securing a public school education. He then located on a farm of 160 acres which his father had bought for $2,250, and rented it for twenty-three years, but in 1900, he bought the place, on which he carries on general farming and stock raising, being one of the most successful men in his line at this time, in the town. When he took charge of the property, only thirty-five acres were cleared, the remainder being in wild brush, but now all but thirty acres have been cleared, this being in timber.

On October 29, 1878, Mr. Newman married Ellen A. Cunningham, born near Virginia, Ill., a daughter of Thomas and Euphemia (Wilkie) Cunningham. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Newman are as follows: Mary E., who resides at Virginia; Florence, who is Mrs. Charles Russell of Cass County; Grace, who is Mrs. Silas White of Pleasant Plains, Ill.; Edith, who is Mrs. William Drake of Cass County; Harry, who resides in Cass County, married May Haxton; and Arthur, Jennie, Roy and Charles, all of whom reside at home. Mr. Newman is a Republican, but is not an office seeker, confining his energy to the management of his private affairs.