 Newman city Founded by Simon Newman in 1888, the City of Newman is the jewel of the West Side of California's central valley. Known for its annual Fall Festival and small town charm, the City of Newman retains its rural flavor while keeping up with larger more-urbanized communities.
Officially incorporated in 1908, with the official slogan of "The Cream Pitcher of the Pacific", Newman has grown into a bright upstanding community and adopted an updated slogan during its Centennial Celebration in 1988; "Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Present, Building for the Future." This slogan accurately describes Newman's viewpoint; not only does the city have authentic historical value, it is also known for having California's first school bus - a converted 1916 Ford Model T; as well as being voted one of the San Joaquin Valley's "Livable Places" in the late 1990's. The City of Newman looks forward towards progress and has positive goals for the future while keeping its historical roots in place. The city has recently crafted its vision of the future by successfully completing a general plan update.
Today, Newman is the home to approximately 10,000 people and continues to thrive. Thirty miles southwest of Modesto in Stanislaus County, Newman is situated in a great central location to many of the state's attractions. A two hour drive in any given direction can take you anywhere from the capitol to the ocean or the mountains.
The first permanent residents in what would become Newton settled near the Brighton line in the 1630s. Gradually others joined them and by the 1650s about fifteen families were living in an area that was still part of Cambridge. Because of this, transacting town business, going to school or attending religious services involved a journey (probably on foot) to the vicinity of Harvard Square.
In 1654, most of the families living south of the river started holding religious meetings locally, and as a means of prodding the General Court to relieve them of taxes to support the minister in Cambridge, John Jackson gave an acre of land to be used as a burying place and for a meeting house. This acre remains the core of the burying ground and the site of the first meeting house is marked by a monument erected in 1852 by the descendants of the first settlers. The twenty names inscribed on the west face of the marble obelisk are now all but obliterated, but attached to schools, streets, brooks and ponds, they are familiar to modern residents.
The markers on the graves of at least six of these early inhabitants are still standing, the carvings, for the most part, as clear as on the day they were cut. Much the same can be said for the majority of the markers commemorating those who followed them: teachers, selectmen and other town officials, weavers, soldiers, millers, yeomen, and their wives and families, each of whom made some contribution to the development of the town. The sum of their activities is the history of pre-suburban Newton.
Jackson’s acre was added to three times: once (by his son) in the eighteenth century and twice in the nineteenth. Because it was the only burying place in Newton until 1781, and because it was used continuously until near the end of the 1800s, the old cemetery is an ideal place for tracing the stylistic changes that characterize the work of the seventeenth-and eighteenth-century Boston area stone carvers.
With a beautiful view of the foothills leading to the coastal ranges, the City of Newman is located in an agriculturally rich and naturally beautiful geographical area. Located directly on California's Highway 33 and a mere five miles from Interstate 5; local attractions include the West Side Theatre in the heart of downtown, George Hatfield State Park three miles southeast of town and the San Luis Reservoir approximately twenty minutes to the south.
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