Page 11 - Town of Newcomb Newsletter - November December 2021

Nathaniel Pendleton Daniel T. Newcomb

The Newcomb Historical Museum is doing an exhibit on Nathaniel
Pendleton who started the first settlement here, I thought it would be
interesting to delve into the past of the town of Newcomb’s namesake and
its first supervisor, Daniel Tobias Newcomb.

If things had worked out a little differently, we would not be “Newcomb”
at all but “Pendleton.” Nathaniel Pendleton, who never lived here, bought
5000 acres from the State of New York in 1808. He hired people to build
mills and clear land for him. In 1811 and again in 1814, he placed articles in
the Poughkeepsie paper looking for individuals to move here and start a
settlement. In 1808 – 1818 six families took the plunge to change their
future: Goodenow’s, Baldwins, Hewitt’s, 2-Chandler families, and Butler’s.
Abigail & Sylvester Goodenow had the first child born here in 1808, a little
girl named Anna, with her sister Sophronia following in 1813. The
settlement grew slowly over time. If it had not been for the fact that the
Town of Pendleton in Niagara County was named for Sylvester Pendleton
Clark in 1827, our newly incorporated township in 1828 would certainly
have been named for Nathaniel Pendleton rather than for Daniel T.
Newcomb.

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