Collection is open for research.
Gift of Trudy Barbisan, May 2025 (RL2025-054).
Newton Dunn McCoy was born in 1855 in Iowa, but came to Oregon early in life. He studied at Tualatin Academy and Pacific University, and began practicing law in 1884. In May 1922, he won a recall election against Fred G. Buchtel for the Oregon Public Service Commission. However, he lost the 1924 general election for that office. In May 1925, he lobbied to be appointed as successor to recently deceased Judge George W. Stapleton; however, Governor Marcus M. Pierce instead appointed John H. Stevenson to the post.
In 1885, he married Mary Frances Lyman (1857-1933); the couple had four children. After retiring in 1935, Newton McCoy moved to Denver, Colorado, where he died in 1939.
Sources: Obituary for Newton McCoy in the Oregon Journal, March 8, 1939, page 2; obituary for Newton McCoy in the Oregonian, March 9, 1939, page 9; "Multnomah's Recall Vote Is Decisive One, Oregonian, May 21, 1922, page 1; "Oath Administered to New Officers," Oregonian, January 6, 1925, page 6; "M'Coy Seeks Judgeship," Oregonian, May 2, 1925, page 5; "Stevenson to Succeed Stapleton," Oregon Journal, May 4, 1925, page 1; obituary for Mary McCoy, Oregonian, January 6, 1933, page 14; vital records via Ancestry.com.
Day book used by Newton McCoy and others, Coll 1117, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
The collection consists of a leather-bound day book, the first 84 pages of which have been removed. The majority of entries on the remaining pages were made by Newton McCoy, an attorney in Portland, Oregon, from 1921 to 1923 and in 1925. These entries describe McCoy's work activities, primarily involving property or estate cases. The entry for May 1, 1925, on page 167 describes Newton learning about the death of Judge George W. Stapleton, and McCoy's subsequent efforts to be appointed as Stapleton's successor by Oregon Governor Walter M. Pierce.
Pages 176-178 consist of arithmetic, possibly for money, as well as drawings of airplanes, and the sentence "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party" written 11 times in cursive and once in print; these may have been written and drawn by a child. Pages 178 to 210 include entries recording financial transactions from 1948 to 1954, including a sheet taped to page 178 that covers drawings of planes on that page. These entries are interrupted from pages 200 to 202 by records of financial transactions made from 1892 to 1894, labeled as being for Daniel Lewis in an account with McCoy & Whaley.
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