Anne Watts Baker collected the Newcomb diaries and other material pertaining to the Reynolds and Matthews families of Shackelford County, Texas.Born in Mansfield, Connecticut, Samuel Pierce Newcomb (1839-1870) moved to Missouri in 1855 and then Texas the next year. As an organizer of Stephens County in 1860, Samuel served as the first county clerk. In 1862 he married Susan Emily Reynolds (b. 1848), with whom he had one child. Samuel fought for the Confederate Army during the Civil War and in 1864 he joined the state militia to protect the frontier from Native Americans raids. The Newcombs moved to Fort Davis in Stephens County, Texas, where Samuel helped establish the school at which he taught in 1865. Following the war, the family built a ...