Churchill Newcomb

Newcomb was born to Herman Danforth Newcomb and Matilda Churchill Newcomb in Jefferson County, Kentucky on December 3, 1899. Herman Newcomb served in the Kentucky General Assembly as a member of the Kentucky House (1904–1909) and Senate (1909–1913).{{cite book | title=Legislative history and Capitol souvenir of Kentucky; portraits and sketches of senators, representatives and officials and attaches of the various state departments | year=1910 | first1=William E. | last1=Bidwell | first2=Ella Hutchinson | last2=Ellwanger | page=74}} After growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, Newcomb graduated from the Morristown School (now Morristown-Beard School) in Morristown, New Jersey in 1918.

Newcomb's classmates at the Morristown School included theatre critic John Mason Brown (a second cousin of Newcomb). Newcomb, Brown, and other family members regularly performed together in attic plays during summers at the Newcomb family farm.{{cite book | title=Speaking for Yourself, John: The Life of John Mason Brown | year=1974 | pages=14–19 | last1=Stevens | first1=George Cooper | last2=Brown | first2=John Mason}} In 1913, Newcomb mailed a photograph to St. Nicholas magazine, a children's magazine, that made the Roll of Honor.{{cite journal | journal=St. Nicholas | year=1913 | title=Roll of Honor | page=1051 | volume=41 | issue=September}} A year later, the magazine published his letter to the editor in its "Because We Want To Know" section. The letter asked the magazine editors whether fires burned more brightly in cold weather than warm weather.{{cite journal | journal=St. Nicholas | year=1914 | volume=42 | issue=November | page=78 | title=Because We Want to Know}} After graduating from high school, Newcomb completed training with the Harvard Officer's Training Corps in 1918.{{cite book | title=Andrew Newcomb, 1618-1686, And His Descendants; A Revised Edition Of Genealogical Memoir Of The Newcomb Family, Published In 1874 By John Bearse Newcomb | url=https://archive.org/details/andrewnewcomb16100newc | year=1923 | first=Bethuel Merritt | last=Newcomb| publisher=New Haven, Conn., Priv. print. for the author by the Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor co. }}

He later completed a bachelor's degree in journalism at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1923. During his studies at the university, Newcomb served on the Editorial Board of The Harvard Lampoon,{{cite news | newspaper=The Harvard Crimson | title=Lampy Acquires Ten New Editors | date=March 8, 1921 | url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1921/3/8/lampy-acquires-ten-new-editors-pthe/}} a humor magazine, and on the entertainment committee for his class committee.{{cite news | newspaper=The Harvard Crimson | title=Two Sophomore Class Committees Announced | date=November 10, 1920 | url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1920/11/10/two-sophomore-class-committees-announced-pthe/}} Newcomb served as the 1923 crew team's assistant manager, and he served as the Morristown Club's secretary-treasurer. He also participated in the Hasty Pudding Club.

Newcomb's mother Matilda belonged to the Churchill family in Kentucky connected to horse racing. Newcomb was the great-grandnephew of John Churchill and William Henry Churchill who donated the land for Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby. Engaging in the family pastime, Newcomb attended horse shows. In 1928, he attended a breakfast of notables at the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden that featured Governor Al Smith as the guest of honor.{{cite news | newspaper=The New York Times | title=Horse Show Opens at Garden Today; Governor Smith Guest of Honor at Preliminary Breakfast Attended by Notables | date=November 7, 1927}}

Newcomb also owned a chestnut mare named Friskie{{cite news | title=Women and Boy Riders Crash at Horse Show; Two Accidents Mark Opening Day at Orange; Entry Lists Set Record; Friskie Brilliant Winner | date=July 26, 1928 | newspaper=The Washington Post}} that he raced in horse racing events in Kentucky and Virginia. In 1928, Friskie won the hunter trophy at the Orange Horse Show in Orange, Virginia. Friskie also captured the first leg on a challenge cup race in Charlottesville, Virginia that year.{{cite news | newspaper=The New York Times | title=Steeplechase Card Swept by Dr. Jones | date=November 16, 1928}} In 1931, Friskie rode to victory in a mile and a half steeplechase event in Lexington, Kentucky.{{cite news | newspaper=The New York Times | title=CHASE TROPHY WON BY WORD OF HONOR; Harbison Fencer Beats Barleycorn in Prince of Wales Gold Cup at Hamburg Place; MacCARTHY MORE IS THIRD; Friskie Annexes Mile and a Half Race for Hunters, Being Only Horse to Finish | date=November 13, 1931}}

After graduating college, Newcomb lived on the family farm in Greenwood, Albemarle County, Virginia. He later acquired land to run a farm near Purcellville, Virginia in Loudoun County. Newcomb raised shorthorn cattle at the farm. In 1949, an animal scientist named A. H. Frank studied Newcomb's herd in a larger study of cattle breeding activities. The study sought to determine reasons why some cattle breed more regularly than others.{{cite news | newspaper=The News | location=Frederick, Maryland | title=Shy Breeders Being Studied | date=April 16, 1949 | page=9}}

Newcomb served as sporting editor of The Field Illustrated, a magazine dedicated to agriculture and rural sports.{{cite journal | journal=The Field Illustrated: A Journal of Advanced Agriculture, Scientific Breeding and Rural Sports | volume=39 | issue=1 | year=1929 | page=6}} He also served as editor-in-chief of Chase Magazine, which focused on hunting,{{cite book | title=Free-lance Writer's Handbook | year=1926 | page=272 | editor1=William Dorsey | editor2=Margaret Kennedy}} and he wrote articles on horse racing for The Wall Street Journal.{{cite book | title=Life and sport in Aiken and those who made it | year=1935 | last=Smith | first=Harry Worcester | page=161}}

Newcomb married Margaret Zolny on February 25, 1937. After they divorced four years later, he married Edith Carlisle (daughter of James Mandeville Carlisle Esq. of Washington, D.C.) on May 16, 1941.{{cite news | newspaper=The New York Times | title=Troth Announced of Edith Carlise; Washington Girl, Who Studied at St. Timothy's, Engaged to John C. Newcomb | date=May 3, 1941}} They had two children together: Penelope and Katherine. In 1953, Edith Newcomb co-founded the Loudoun Country Day School in Leesburg, Virginia after a meeting at Purcellville Library.{{cite news | newspaper=Leesburg Today | title=Loudoun Country Day School Celebrates New Campus Opening | last=Morton | first=Margaret | date=April 20, 2009}} After the school opened in 1955, she then served as its headmistress until 1963.{{cite book | title=Virginia Lives: The Old Dominion Who's who | year=1964 | page=731 | chapter=Newcomb, Edith | editor=Richard Lee Morton}}

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Category:Writers from Louisville, Kentucky

Category:Sportspeople from Louisville, Kentucky

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:The Wall Street Journal people

Category:Farmers from Virginia

Category:People from Purcellville, Virginia

Category:1899 births

Category:1962 deaths

Category:Journalists from Virginia

Category:Morristown-Beard School alumni

Category:People from Albemarle County, Virginia

Category:20th-century American journalists

Category:American male journalists