William P. Newman (1810/15–1866) was a fugitive slave who escaped from Virginia, moved north and obtained an education at Oberlin College.

After trying to immigrate again to Jamaica, he returned to the United States after the outbreak of the Civil War and re-established his pastorate at the Union Baptist Church.

[3][11] They lived in Chatham, Kent County, Ontario, and when Newman was not preaching and teaching, he operated a sawmill at Dawn Mills.

[2][15] Later in 1859, Newman, with his wife and six children, left Canada[note 3] and went to Haiti in an attempt to find missionaries interested in working in Africa.

In 1864 he served as a delegate to the National Black Convention in Syracuse, New York, and by the end of the year, returned to his pastorate at Union Baptist.

The church erected a monument to his memory in their new cemetery and gave $1000 to his widow to establish a home near her relatives in Appleton, Wisconsin.