Quincy Museum | Newcomb-Stillwell History

Newcomb-Stillwell History

Richard Newcomb was born at Bernardston, Massachusetts on September 20, 1837 to Zebina Curtis Newcomb and Maria Lydia Goodale Newcomb. He was their ninth and last child.

  Richard secured his primary education in the common schools of Bernardston and later attended Williston preparatory at East Hampton Massachusetts, with the intention of attending college. He did not graduate and circumstances brought him into active commercial life in Boston at the age of sixteen. Here he was an employee for 4 years to Benjamin Callender at the head of a large hardware house in that city. Later he returned home where he took charge of his father's store which was engaged in merchandising. They also farmed and operated a sawmill.

  In 1860 he married Eliza Ann Bowman. They lived in Bernardaston and Richard left there in 1862 when he answered Lincoln's call for volunteers on September 9. He was a member of Company A, 52nd Massachusetts Infantry. As a sergeant he saw service with the expedition of General Banks in Louisiana and later served as a member of the brigade staff. After serving nine months, his health prompted him to receive an honorable discharge and return home to again work with his father, this time merchandising in the east. His wife Eliza died at Astoria, Long Island in 1864. They had one child, a daughter, May Foote Newcomb who was born June 2, 1861 and married Joseph Welsh Emery, April 26, 1893.

  In 1866 Newcomb investigated the conditions of the Mississippi Valley and resolved to become a factor in business life in that portion of the country. He first settled in Beloit, Wisconsin where he engaged in the manufacture of wrapping paper in one of their mills. He acquired a practical knowledge that, coupled with his executive ability and commercial knowledge brought him an interest in the business as a partner.

  In 1867, The Northwest Paper company was organized, with Newcomb as vice-president, and an extensive wholesale paper house was established in Beloit and Chicago. Newcomb was joined in this business by his brother John C. and brother-in-law T.L. Wright. The business was practically the nucleus of the American Strawboard Company.

  Richard married Anna (Annie) Marie Ritchie September 22, 1869 in Beloit. She was born in Lexington, Kentucky, May 24, 1843.

  The Northwest Paper Company lost heavily during the great Chicago fire of 1871 and Newcomb decided to go to Quincy, Illinois with his brother and, once there, purchased the Gem City Paper Mill property on South Front Street from James Woodruff and Frederick Boyd. Richard was made vice-president and superintendent and the company was renamed Newcomb Brothers.

  Richard and his second wife Anna had 4 children. Elizabeth Maria Newcomb, born August 15 1870 in Beloit, Wisconsin married John Stillwell, December 21, 1892. John A. Stillwell came to Quincy in 1888 from Hannibal, Missouri, where his family had lived for several generations. John and Elizabeth had three sons: Richard Newcomb, John Brison, and Alan Duncan.

  In 1890 John Stillwell joined several other men in founding the Electric Wheel Company, which manufactured wheels and mountings for agricultural implements wagons, and other equipment. He served as president until his death in 1935. Richard Newcomb married Lilian Pierson and was blessed with two children, John A. II and Jane. John A Stillwell II married Gay Miller and Had three sons, Richard Newcomb II, John Brison II and Charles Miller. Jane married John Winters and has one daughter, Kathryn Newcomb Winters.

  In addition to the Stillwell family, mentioned above, the other children of the Newcombs were Sarah Ritchie Newcomb, born May 10, 1873. She married Frank H. Whitney, April 20, 1897 in Quincy. The Newcomb's third child was Florence, born October 26, 1876. She married Egbert Hosford Castle, in Quincy, on October 29, 1902. The last child was a son, Richard Bernard Newcomb born August 7, 1880. He died in Ontario, California June 15, 1911. He was married to Aurielia Percie Wellman. Today the descendants of Richard Foote Newcomb and Anna Marie Ritchie help support many projects and charities in Quincy through the Stillwell Foundation, created in 1959 by John Brison Stillwell.

  In 1874 Newcomb sold his Beloit interests to his brother and became sole proprietor of the Quincy Plant. In 1880 he was instrumental in organizing the Quincy Paper company, of which he was made president. It rapidly became the second largest strawboard mill in the country. In 1890 he began construction on the home at 16th and Maine Street in Quincy,. Built in 1890 - 91, the home had 33 rooms and 13 fireplaces. The cost of construction was $50,000.00.

  He retired from the strawboard business in 1889. At the time of his death in 1904, he was one of four millionaires in Quincy. Newcomb was president of the company organized to build the Quincy, Beardstown and Havana Railroad and was a member of the planning committee for the Park and Boulevard Association of Quincy. He also owned majority stock in the "Newcomb Hotel" named after him and also owned the building across from it. He owned other properties at the Northeast corner of 8th and Maine, a 500 foot frontage on State Street east of 16th and his mansion on Maine was the largest in Quincy.

  In Chicago he had title to considerable properties on Michigan Avenue (152-153 Michigan Avenue) and on the industrial west side, valued at $300,000 in 1904.

  Mr. Newcomb made the public library possible by purchasing the ground it was built on and turning it over to the building committee at a price of less than cost.