The second of six children, Myer Newmark received his primary education first in New York and then in England, where he lived with his mother's parents.

[1][2] In December 1852, the family of two adults and six children followed the Gold Rush of 1849 by way of Cape Horn to California and arrived there in April 1853.

[2] He and Sophie Cahen, a "recent French emigrant,"[1] were married on June 7, 1874,[3] in the San Francisco residence of the bride's parents.

[9] A Los Angeles Herald reporter wrote in 1900 that Newmark at the age of 62 was "under medium height," with "clear, gray eyes," who "betrays nervous energy in every movement.

That he ever managed to hold himself down to the plodding drudgery of his books long enough to master the dry details of law is a mystery .

"[2] As a young adult in San Francisco, Newmark "embarked, in a boyish way, in mercantile pursuits," then sold his business for enough cash to enable him to study law independently in Los Angeles.

[1][2] Newmark next practiced law in San Francisco, with Henry J. Labatt and Robert T. Payne,[1] until 1865, "when he retired because of pressing business interests," those including a six-year stint in New York City, where he bought and sold goods for California enterprises.

[11] By 1895, Newmark had returned to Los Angeles and joined with Kaspare Cohn in a firm that handled wool and hides on commission.

[15][16] A Democrat, Newmark was appointed United States consul in Nice, France, in 1888 under the Grover Cleveland administration and remained there three years.