CHARLES E. NEWMAN, of Laura, Union Township, who, in partnership with H. E. Ehler, operates a well appointed general store at the corner of Main Street and the Arcanum Pike, was born in Dayton in 1849 on April 9th and is a son of Daniel and Mary Ann (Soule) Newman.

Daniel Newman, the father, was born in Connecticut, but subsequently removing west, followed the trade of shoemaker at Dayton, Ohio, for a number of years. He later removed to Milton and still later to Laura, this county; then to Henry County, Indiana, and was in the butcher business. He was killed on the Panhandle Railway, March 19, 1880. He was a Civil War veteran, enlisting in April, 1861, in the Eleventh Ohio Regiment for the three months service. He subsequently re-entered the service for three years at Camp Denison. Again he went out in the fall of 1864 as a substitute for one year, his service lasting in all some four years and five months.

His second enlistment was also in the Eleventh Ohio Regiment and his last in the Forty-seventh Ohio. He accompanied Sherman on his march to Atlanta and the sea, and saw plenty of fighting, being once wounded. Though possessing an excellent military record, he never received a pension nor has his widow and children ever profited by Government aid. He married Mary Ann Soule and their children numbered three sons and two daughters, of whom there are three now living.

Charles E. Newman received his education in the district schools of Miami County. When he began to be self-supporting he first followed farming for a while and afterwards engaged in the butcher business in Indiana in partnership with his father. Then returning to Ohio, he went into the flour and feed business and so continued until 1904, when in company with his son-in-law, L. E. Coate, he engaged in his present business at a neighboring location. He later removed to his present more commodious quarters in the village of Laura, taking as a new partner Mr. H. E. Ehier. They carry a full line of all the usual commodities in demand in an agricultural community. They sell the J. Ellwood fence and have handled as many as twenty-five carloads of fence and posts at one time. Their stock also includes a fine line of shoes and dry goods.

Mr. Newman, our subject, married, Esther Ann Hildebran, a daughter of John H. Hildebran, of Miami County, and their family has numbered eleven children, as follows: Ollie, who became the wife of I. N. Long and resides at Stillwater, Ohio; John, who resides with his parents; Alta, who married L. E. Coate and lives in Ellwood, Nebraska; Ora, residing at home; Walter, who married a Miss Hall and lives in this township; Lillie, who is the wife of H. E. Ehler; Raymond, residing at home; Carrie, who married Warren FaSick of this county; Harley, a blind son, who lives at home with his parents; Bessie, also residing at home, and one that died in infancy.

Politically Mr. Newman is a Republican. He has served one term as justice of the peace in Newton Township, but otherwise has not devoted much time to public office. He served three years in the Third Regiment, Ohio National Guards. He is numbered among the township's best citizens, and his opinions on matters affecting the public weal are always based on sound judgment and meet with due consideration from his fellow citizens.