[2] Born and raised in Michigan, he moved to California in 1871 and settled in the Conejo Valley after buying land there in 1874, one of the first three European Americans to do so.

[6] On May 11, 1864, Newbury joined the Union Army during the American Civil War and enlisted with a group of volunteers from Dubuque, Iowa.

After returning home to Dubuque, Newbury began to suffer a persistent cough and his throat became extremely hoarse which allowed him to barely speak above a whisper.

She went with Newbury to Santa Barbara, where she accepted a teaching position at a local boarding school, filling the place of a teacher who had resigned.

[12] He began to develop his property, often traveling for days between the Conejo Valley and Santa Barbara in order to build a wooden cottage in addition to corrals for his planned sheep.

[13] After his wife Frances gave birth to the first of their four children in May 1874, Newbury decided it was time to move to the property in Conejo Valley.

[14] Newbury wrote to his sister in Michigan on November 23, 1874: ...take wings and come to Conejo and enjoy our warm bright days all winter… be outdoors instead of confined indoors… I am out all the time and our drives now are just lovely with the country all turning green.

The birds stay around our house in flocks all the time… Our roads to the ranch are splendid and they lie through beautiful canyons and large groves of live and white oak and sycamore, then into an open valley with slopes and surrounding hills covered with evergreen oaks...[15][16]As interest increased in the Conejo Valley, Newbury served as its promoter.

[18] The few valley residents had to travel to San Buenaventura to pick up their mail, so Newbury applied to Washington, D.C., for a new local post office.

Newbury's ranch served as the local post office and polling place; voters filed their ballots at his house.