Politics / Business & brands / Military
Truman Handy Newberry
1864–1945 · industrialist, secretary of the Navy, U.S. senator
Detroit-born industrialist and Packard co-founder who was secretary of the Navy (1908–1909) and beat Henry Ford for the U.S. Senate in 1918 in a race that ended in a spending scandal.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Grosse Pointe, Michigan
aged 80- Also known as
- Truman H. Newberry
- Detroit years
- 1864–1945
- Field
- Politics, Business & brands, Military
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Truman Newberry was born in Detroit in 1864, the son of Congressman John S. Newberry, attended the Michigan Military Academy and graduated from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School. He managed the Detroit, Bay City & Alpena Railway, headed the Detroit Steel & Spring Company and in 1902 helped organize the Packard Motor Car Company, later bringing it to Detroit; he also backed the Union Trust Company and the Michigan State Telephone Company. A founder of the Michigan State Naval Brigade, he served on the USS Yosemite in the Spanish–American War, then became assistant secretary and in 1908–1909 secretary of the Navy under Theodore Roosevelt. In 1918 he defeated Henry Ford for a Michigan Senate seat, but lavish campaign spending led to his conviction under federal election law; the Supreme Court overturned it in Newberry v. United States (1921), yet mounting criticism forced him to resign in 1922. He died in Grosse Pointe in 1945 and is buried at Elmwood.
Highlights
- U.S. secretary of the Navy, 1908–1909
- Co-organizer of the Packard Motor Car Company (1902)
- Defeated Henry Ford for the U.S. Senate in 1918
- Subject of the Supreme Court case Newberry v. United States (1921)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Buried here · 1945
Elmwood Cemetery
He is buried at Elmwood Cemetery.