W. R. Newsom, M.D., physician of McLemoresville, Tenn., was born in Springfield, Robertson Co., Tenn., February 14, 1831, and is a son of Green B. and Malinda (Dickerson) Newsom, natives respectively of Virginia and Tennessee. The father was born in 1796, and came to Tennessee when a young man. He was in the war of 1812 and filled the position of regimental quartermaster. He was a teacher by profession, having taught in Columbia, Franklin and Lebanon, and died in 1859, after a long and well spent life. The mother was born in 1798, and died in 1845.
Our subject received the rudiments of his education in the schools near home, but subsequently attended Andrew College, Trenton, Tenn., where he graduated in 1856. He then entered the University of Nashville, and graduated from that institution in 1859. July 7, 1859, he married Mrs. M. A. Roach, a native of Jackson, Tenn., born in 1825, and the daughter of Jones Newsom; this marriage resulted in the birth of two children: W. B. and Dr. N. D. After graduating, the Doctor located at McLemoresville and began practicing medicine, which he has followed with evident success ever since. In 1858 he was elected trustee of Bethel College and held the position until 1872, when the school was removed to McKenzie. He was also school director for many years of the public schools at McLemoresville.
Dr. Newsom is a life member of the Tennessee Historical Society, from which he holds a diploma; he is also director of the Tennessee Central Railroad. The Doctor is a Democrat in politics and cast his first presidential vote for Franklin Pierce. He is a Mason. Mrs. Newsom has one daughter, Eliza J., by her former husband, Rev. J. N. Roach, who was the founder of Bethel College, its first president, and filled that position until his death, which occurred in 1852.
Transcribed by David Donahue
Source: History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Carroll, Henry and Benton Counties, Besides a Valuable Fund of Notes, Original Observations, Reminiscences, Etc., Etc. Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1978.