Nicholas New and two other brothers came to this country sometime in the 1850's from Germany. They became separated in the state of Illinois and Nicholas lost track of them.
He enlisted on July 15, 1861 as a Private in Company C, 44th Regiment, Illinois Infantry Volunteers, promoted to Commissary Seargeant then to Captain (Company K, 44th Illinois Infantry) in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was wounded in the left side by a shell in the Battle of Lookout Mountain on the March to Atlanta; and in the right wrist by a gun shot in Franklin, TN. In the process of being transferred to Texas he contracted a lung infection on board ship in the Gulf of Mexico which bothered him, along with the shell wound, the rest of his life. He was discharged on September 25, 1865. After the war he farmed in Illinois until 1876 when he settled on a farm with his family in McPherson Co., KS. There were six boys and four girls born into this family.
Capt. Nicholas New died at his home, 323 E. First St., McPherson, KS, December 10, 1920, at 5:30 o'clock, aged 92 years, 7 months and 27 days.
Oliver New, 12/25/65 and Pension Records from the National Archives.
He is buried in the McPherson City Cemetery. His first wife, Mary C. Allen, and his second wife, Mary Ann Osborn-Thomas, are buried on either side of him. In the same plot is buried Katie Windross, probably his daughter, and her husband.
"The History of Madison County 1879"
Clark, Caleb, Lincoln twp., stone-mason, Sec. 1; P.O. Winterset; born in New York, February 6, 1808; after a residence in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and Missouri, he came to this county in May, 1846, and is one of the first settlers of the county; his daughter, Mrs. Tusha, was the first white child born in the county; he has worked over fifty years at his trade; he married Miss Ruth Clanton in 1834; she was born in Illinois; has eight children: Sarah E., Nancy E., Rufus, Joshua, Stephen D., Martha , Joel and Franklin.