After attending Mount Morris College, in 1882, he was appointed to the United States Military Academy (West Point).

Newcomer's initial assignments included improvement to the harbor defenses of San Francisco Bay and assistant professor of engineering at West Point.

[1] Newcomer was raised and educated in Upton, Martinsburg, West Virginia, and Mount Morris, Illinois as his father moved the family while searching for a permanent place to locate his medical practice.

[2] In June 1882, he was appointed to the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York by U.S. Representative Robert M. A.

[5] As with most top-ranking cadets of his day, Newcomer was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers of the United States Army.

[6] More than 30 percent of Newcomer's class attained the rank of brigadier general or higher either before, during, or just after World War I.

They included: Mason Patrick, Thomas H. Rees, Lucien G. Berry, Frank McIntyre, John E. McMahon, Avery D. Andrews, Charles T. Menoher, Albert D. Kniskern, Charles C. Wulcutt Jr., John J. Pershing, Peter E. Traub, Benjamin A. Poore, Jesse McI.

Carter, Chauncey B. Baker, Malvern Hill Barnum, William H. Hay, James H. McRae, Walter H. Gordon, Arthur Johnson, Frank L. Winn, Charles C. Ballou, George B. Duncan, Lucius L. Durfee, Julius Penn and Edward M.

[7] From September 1886 to August 1889, Newcomer was posted to Fort Totten, New York's Engineer School of Application, where he was an instructor in submarine mining.

[5] From 1889 to 1892, he was an assistant to Colonel George H. Mendell, an Engineer officer who supervised construction of improvements to the coastal defenses of San Francisco Bay.

[5] From 1896 to 1898, Newcomer was in charge of the army's 3rd Engineer District, responsible for planning and supervising completion of improvements to navigation and flood control on the Mississippi River.

[5] From 1898 to 1900, Newcomer was in charge of the Little Rock Engineer District, where he oversaw navigation and flood control improvements to the Arkansas River.

[5] In retirement, Newcomer was a member of the board of directors of the Union Trust Company and the Columbia Institution for the Deaf.