Arthur C. Newby

By Sigur Whitaker
 

Arthur Newby, one of the four founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was born near Monrovia, Indiana, in 1865. His family moved from Indiana to Kansas City and later to California. When he was 14, he returned to Indiana and lived on a farm near Mooresville. In 1881, he moved to Indianapolis where he first worked for the A. Dickson & Co. Dry Goods Store which sold items such as jeans, cottonades used for work clothes, cheviot shirtings, and muslins earning $1.50 per week. He quickly changed employers and worked for Vance Hunter & Co. a jewelry store. Newby subsequently worked for Nordyke and Marmon where he started as an office boy, and assistant bookkeeper. He was promoted to head bookkeeper, a position he held for eight years.
 
Newby was passionate about riding his bicycle and was one of the founders of the Zig-Zag Cycling Club. Originally called the Indianapolis Cycling Club, it offered its members an opportunity to socialize, and take Century Runs of 100 miles. They also arranged racing events initially held at the Indiana State Fairgrounds which drew up to 1000 participants. The Zig-Zag Cycling Club membership peaked at around 200 cyclists. The group disbanded in 1896 in part because of the members’ reputation for rowdiness.  
 
On Christmas Eve 1890, Newby, Edward Fletcher, and Glenn. C. Howe formed Indianapolis Chain and Stamping Company which made bicycle chains. They were soon joined by Charles Test. By the end of the 1890s, the company was supplying about 60% of American-made bicycle chains. The company was sold and was later renamed Diamond Chain & Manufacturing Company focusing on industrial and automotive chains.
 
Between 1894 and 1899, Newby was also affiliated with the Hay and Willits Manufacturing Company, makers of the Outing bicycles from 1894 to 1899. Hay and Willits was founded by Tom Hay and Van Burton “Burt” Willits. The Outing bicycle was sold nationwide and was a favorite of bicycle racers.
 
In preparation for the 1898 League of American Wheelmen’s annual meet, Newby, Carl Fisher and James Allison constructed the Newby Oval, a quarter-mile wooden track constructed on 15 acres near Central Ave. and 30th Street. Zig-Zag club member Herbert Foltz was the architect and worked with the athlete who planned the velodrome at Madison Square Gardens. The Newby Oval featured banked curves, a grandstand, two amphitheaters and could hold 8000 spectators. It was one of the fastest tracks in the nation and was managed by Tom Hay. The track hosted some of the most famous bicycles of the era including Barney Oldfield, Tom Cooper, and Eddie Bald.
 
After selling the Indianapolis Chain and Stamping Company to the American Bicycle Company in 1899, Newby was one of the founders of the National Motor Vehicle Company which first built electric and then gasoline driven cars. A National Motor Vehicle Company racer piloted by Joe Dawson won the 1912 Indianapolis 500. With failing health, he sold National Motor Vehicle Company in 1916 to a New York corporation.
 
In 1909, Fisher, Allison, Newby and Frank Wheeler established the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Newby was the company’s 1st Vice President, a position he held until the track was sold to Eddie Rickenbacker in 1927. he joined Fisher, Allison, and Robert H. Hassler in establishing the Empire Automobile Company, to manufacture a four-cylinder runabout called “the Little Aristocrat.”
 
The same year, he joined Fisher, Allison, and Robert H. Hassler in establishing the Empire Automobile Company, to manufacture a four-cylinder runabout called “the Little Aristocrat.” Without time to properly manage the company, it failed to meet the founders expectations and was soon sold to another ownership group.
 
Newby was known as the “Quiet Philanthropist. He made the largest donation, $100,000, to the establishment of a children’s hospital in Indianapolis as a memorial to Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley, who died in 1916. The hospital would be open to any child from Indiana and would be free to those who could not afford to pay. At a meeting in 1917, James Allison attended the organizing meeting while Fisher, Newby, and Wheeler all sent telegrams pledging support for the hospital. Riley Hospital opened in 1924. A tile on the floor recognizing Newby’s gift is in the atrium lobby of the hospital. There remains a strong connection between the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Riley Hospital which sponsors the Turn 2 suites at the Speedway. Additionally, drivers visit patients at the hospital during the Month of May.
 
In 1920, he gave a 140-acre farm and other property to Mooresville, Indiana. He instructed that the property be sold with the proceeds to be used to construct a new elementary school named in memory of his uncles, William and Milton Newby. Newby, who died in September 1933, did not see the school completed. Construction began in January 1936 on eight acres of rolling land. Built at a cost of $93,000, the building included ten classrooms, a recreation room, cafeteria and kitchen, four dressing rooms, a principal’s office, and other facilities. The school opened in March 1937. Today more than 340 students from kindergarten through six grades attend Newby Elementary.
 
Newby also provided $50,000 to Butler University to aid in the construction of its current site and $50,000 to Earlham College.
 
When he heard that commercial interests were buying land near the new Turkey Run State Park threatening the possible expansion of the park, Newby worked with Richard Lieber and bought 283 acres  which he donated to the park. The $10,000 was to be repaid in part by the sale of lumber and gravel from the park. Earlier, he had donated $5,000 to the park.
 
He also made gifts to multiple individuals with the proviso that they were not to reveal the source. He provided funds for the education of several hundred Indiana students and bought residences for those without homes. The extent of his personal outreach is unknown but is believed to be substantial.
 
Unlike the other three founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he did not build a home on Riverside Drive (now Cold Springs Road). Instead, he purchased a home on North Meridian Street at 40th Street which included six acres of land. In 1928, he divided the property into two parcels and donated the west half of the land to the Hoosier Motor Club. The Hoosier Motor Club grew out of the Flat Tire group which promoted a system of paved roads throughout the state.

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