Cameron, Missouri, resident and Civil War soldier.
Known as O. P. or Perry, Oliver Perry Newberry was born in Sangerfield, Oneida County, N.Y., in 1831. The son of Amasa Stoughton Newberry and Cornelia Perry (Pangborn) Newberry, O. P. Newberry's brother was Walter Cass Newberry and his uncle was Walter Loomis Newberry, the founder of the Newberry Library. According to a printed Newberry family genealogy, O. P. Newberry spent three years (1849-1852) in California prospecting for gold and then served as a captain in Gen. Walker's filibustering expedition (1852-1853) against Sonora, Mexico. He was wounded and left for dead on the field, but later managed to find his way back to the U.S. In 1855, Newberry settled in Cameron, Missouri, where he worked as an engineer on the construction of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad and farmed lands inherited by his wife, Lydia Elizabeth (McCorkle) Newberry, to whom he was married in 1858. They had three children, Walter Franklin (b. 1860), Ella Perry (b. 1862), and Amasa Samuel (b. 1867). During the Civil War, Oliver Perry Newberry served as a first lieutenant of Company I in the 13th Missouri Regiment of Volunteers, as captain of Company I in the 25th Missouri Regiment of Volunteers, and as major in the 5th Missouri State Militia (2nd org.). Newberry returned after the war to his family in Cameron, where according to his wife's letters, he was unable to adjust to civilian life, drinking too much and working too little. In his own correspondence Newberry reported he was in a confused state. He died in 1874. .
From the description of Oliver Perry Newberry papers, 1860-1895. (Newberry Library). WorldCat record id: 50543765
