From Landmarks of Monroe County, NY
by William F. Peck (1895)
Part III, p. 16 - 17

Newman, William M., senior member of the firm of Newman & Son, one of the leading manufacturers of Fairport, was born at Enfield, Tompkins County, September 1, 1826. He is the elder of five sons of the late Nathaniel and Hannah (Davenport) Newman. The family is of English nativity and among the earlier settlers of Pawling, Dutchess county. James, the father of Nathaniel, was a captain in the Revolution. William is the builder of his own fortune. Beyond a single term at the Ithaca Academy, his education was acquired in the common schools of his native town. His business life began at Byron, Genesee County, where he was for five years engaged in mercantile business, coming in 1856 to Fairport as an employee of the late D. B; De Land, in whose employ he remained for twelve years. In 1874 he established the business now operated by Newman & Son, manufacturers and dealers in baking powder, soda and saleratus, spices and extracts, which has grown into one of the important industries of Fairport. Mr. Newman is a citizen of character and influence. He has filled many positions of local trust and responsibility, and took an active part in the prohibition movement in Fairport. A prominent member of the Baptist church, he was in 1892 their historian, and prepared an exhaustive and masterely resume of its temporal and spiritual affairs, dating from 1842. His first wife was Permelia E. Nelson, a daughter of Rev. C. Nelson, who died after twelve years of married life. Her children were Willard D., Ida, and Lena P., the latter alone surviving, and is a teacher in the Deaf and Dumb Institute of Rochester. Mr. Newman married as second wife Mrs. Susan Leonard, a sister of his first wife, and they have had two children, Arthur B. and Mary D., wife of Prof. Carey De W. Brown, of the High School at Erie, Pa.