Charles Gordon Newman's origins are mysterious. We know that he was born in Richmond, Va., in 1840. The names of his parents can't be found. Searches of the federal census of 1840, 1850, and 1860 have turned up a few Newman families in Richmond, but no Charles or Gordon Newman. Richmond had quite a few free Newmans of color.

C.G. Newman might have left home as early as age 13. His 1911 obituary in the Pine Bluff Daily Graphic reports that he had been a citizen of Arkansas for over 50 years, which places him here before 1861. Before coming to Arkansas, the obituary says, "he spent several years on the stage and was associated with the famous Edwin Booth."

Newman settled at Fort Smith with J.M. Lucey, who later became Vicar General of the Catholic church in Arkansas. Newman set type for a Fort Smith newspaper and enlisted in the Confederate Army when the war broke out.

The obituary gives no information about Newman's service. It says that he went to Monticello, lived there several years, and married Marianna Coleman. She was the daughter of Rebecca Worsham Coleman and Alfred George Armistead Coleman, a school teacher from Amelia County, Va., who settled in Drew County sometime between December 1857 and his death in Pine Bluff in December 1860.

Marianna's sister Octavia married an Isaac Newman, born in Richmond in 1839. She named her oldest child Charles Gordon Newman, which suggests that Octavia and Marianna Coleman married brothers.

Goodspeed's history of Jefferson County (published in 1890) indicates that at least 13 different newspapers were published in Pine Bluff from 1847 through 1869. (Some were quite short-lived and one changed names--from the Orthopolitan to the Southern Vindicator.)

W.C. Thomas founded the Pine Bluff Press in January 1869. Major Charles Gordon Newman soon associated with him, taking over completely after the death of Thomas in February 1874. Newman changed the paper to a daily in 1878 and suspended its publication in 1879.

S.C. Ryan took over the Pine Bluff Press. Charles Gordon Newman founded the Pine Bluff Commercial in 1881. Edmond Wroe Freeman III (Newman's great-grandson and fourth-generation publisher of the Commercial) told Scott Lunsford of the Pryor Center that for many years, the family believed that the Press and the Commercial were the same paper; after a clarification in the 1960s, the Commercial got 12 years younger.

C.G. Newman and Marianna Coleman had two children. A boy, Clarence, drowned at age 13 in 1881. Daughter Blanche married Edmond Wroe Freeman, who eventually took over operation of the Pine Bluff Commercial.

Blanche Coleman and Edmond Wroe Freeman headed a four-generation household at 1220 Main Street in Pine Bluff. (The house has since been torn down and replaced by a McDonald's.) Marianna Coleman (1846-1941) lived in the household, a black-clad but cheerful widow. Edmond Wroe Freeman Jr. (called "Wroe") and his wife Elizabeth Evelyn Councill lived in the house as well with their three children.

Ed Freeman recalled in his Pryor Center interview that his great-grandmother was available to him any time he needed a "deep and personal friend." She would reach into a hanging cabinet for a bottle of peppermint pills, give him one, and then the great-grandmother and her descendant would talk. Back in Amelia County, Marianna Coleman had been a student in her father's school. He taught Greek and Latin. Ed recalled seeing one of Marianna's report cards; she did quite well.

Ed did not recall hearing any stories of battle, just that Marianna said that she would have followed C.G. Newman anywhere, and that he had been in one or two duels. (When young, both Ed and his brother Armistead were shown Newman's brace of dueling pistols.)

Wroe Freeman once recalled that he was sitting in his grandfather Newman's lap when Newman pointed out a fly on the wall and told the boy, "I can shoot that with a pistol."

Newman was a founding member of the Arkansas Press Association and a member of the Arkansas Capitol Commission. (Construction of the "new" state capitol was completed the year of his death.) He was also the oldest non-active member of the Jefferson County Bar. His Daily Graphic obituary concludes thus:

"As a writer he was known throughout this and adjoining states. He was an editor of intellectual strength, unusual information and learning ... Colonel Newman lived a life of usefulness and he was a man of high sense of honor and integrity. He was possessed of a most jovial disposition and his happy nature won him friends who always admired him and were happy in his company. He was a gentleman of the old school, high toned and refined, and in business and social circles he maintained that same high standard of honor that characterized his career of usefulness. He was a loving husband and dutiful father and his love for his grandsons was often most favorably commented upon."

A kind friend has just shared an article about C.G. Newman from the Jefferson County Historical Quarterly. Bob Lancaster wrote it while working at the Pine Bluff Commercial in the 1960s. Lancaster's research is extensive, his prose is beautiful, and the stories are fantastic, but the copy of the article at my disposal does not have footnotes, so I have not drawn from it.

Archivist James Wethington will give a talk about Paul Greenberg from 4-6 p.m. Tuesday at the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Library System's Main Library. Wethington processed Greenberg's papers for the Center for Arkansas History and Culture; the finished collection contains over 150 boxes.

Brooke Greenberg lives in Little Rock. Email brooke@restorationmapping.com.

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