Encyclopedia Of Detroit
Newberry, Truman Handy
U.S. Senator Truman Handy Newberry was born on November 5, 1864 in Detroit, Michigan, son of industrialist John Stoughton Newberry. He graduated from Yale College in 1885. After college, he took a variety of jobs - working as superintendent of construction, paymaster, general freight and passenger agent, and finally manager of the Detroit, Bay City & Alpena Railway for two years from 1885 to 1887. He was also the treasurer and president of the Detroit Steel & Spring Co. from 1887 to 1901. In 1902 he was enlisted, along with others, by his brother-in-law, Henry Bourne Joy, to invest in the Packard Motor Car Company.
Newberry was active in the Navy. He served during the Spanish-American War and eventually became Secretary of the Navy in President Theodore Roosevelt’s cabinet from 1908 to 1909. During his naval career, he also held the positions of Lieutenant Commander United States Navy Fleet reserve in 1917, Assistant to the Commandant, third naval district of New York until 1919, and Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1905 to 1908.
In 1918, Newberry was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate, in a controversial campaign against Henry Ford. Ford spent little on the campaign because of his huge name recognition, but Newberry’s campaign exceeded financial limits set by law (Newberry said none of the money was his own), and in 1920 he was found guilty of election “irregularities.” Though the conviction was later reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, Newberry resigned on November 18, 1922. Henry Ford threatened to continue challenging the election results, and the Senate, despite exonerating him, still frowned upon the huge sums spent on his election. One result of his excessive campaign spending was the passage of a beefed up Federal Corrupt Practices Act in 1925.
Still successful as a businessman, Newberry returned to Detroit. He died in 1945 on October 3rd in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and is interred in the Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan.
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