Isaac Newman

Isaac Newman was born in Botetourt Couty, Virginia on July 7, 1775. He died September 14, 1862, at Penrod. He was buried in the old Newman family cemetery, just north of Rocky Creek, and west of US Highway 431. The cemetery has now been destroyed by man and beast. Twice married, both of his wives are buried in the same cemetery.

Much of that land lying north of Rocky Creek at Penrod, on both sides of the highway, was once Newman property. Today, many of the older residents of the area still refer to the hills overlooking Rocky Creek's bottom land as "Newman Hill". The late Walter Mucphy and the late Levi Cox later owned part of that Newman estate.

Proving that Isaac Newman was in the Logan-Muhlenberg area prior to his tax listing in 1800, is his first marriage in 1797. Isaac's marriage to Rachel Rhoads on November 10, 1797, came at a time when Muhlenberg County was still a part of Logan, prior to its establishment in 1798. Newman probably then lived on his farm near Penrod, but at that time it was a part of the greater Logan County area.

His first wife, Rachel Rhoads, was the daughter of other pioneers, Daniel and Eva Faust Rhoads. Daniel was a brother of Henry Rhoads who was instrumental in establishing Muhlenberg County as it is known today. Rachel Rhoads was born November 17, 1780 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. The Rhoads lineage is much to involved to detail here. The continued connection between the pionner Rhoads and Newman families is underlined in this fact. When Daniel Rhoads' first wife, Eva Faust, died in Nelson County, Kentucky, Rhoads took for his second wife, Elizabeth Newman, daughter of Thomas and Mary Newman. That marriage took place on March 10, 1794, presumably in Nelson County. Of course, that family later moved to Logan County. The part of that county in which they lived became Muhlenberg County in 1798.

Rachel Newman died on November 11, 1820. (This date is sometimes disputed, but is close, as her last c hild was born ca. 1818 and Isaac remarried in 1823.) She, as noted, is buried in the Newman Cemetery at Penrod. She was the mother of 10 children for Isaac Newman.

After her death, Isaac, then 48 years old, married young Nancy Jane Unsell, who was 18 at the time of the marriage on October 14, 1823 in Muhlenberg County. Nancy was the daughter of Abraham Unsell, Sr., and his wife, the former Anna Stovall. Nancy was born November 4, 1804 in Muhlenberg County and died at Penrod on July 31, 1865, being buried beside Isaac and Rachel. She bore eight documented children for Isaac Newman.

The farm at Penrod remained in the Newman family for at least one more generation. The Rev. Henry Green Newman, a Mehtodist minister and son of Isaac and Nancy, owned the land late in the century, or perhaps even into the early part of the 20th century. A granddaughter, Hattie Howes Cox (Mrs. Levi) and her husband owned a portion of that land through the middle of this century or later.