Newman Clanton had been a slaveholder and planter in Tennessee before moving the family to Missouri. Over the next 20 years, he moved the family across the west and southwest. He tried gold mining in California before relocating the family to Dallas, Texas around 1853, where they ran a ranch for a time, and where their last two children, Ester and Alonzo were born. While in Texas, both Newman and his oldest son John enlisted in the Confederate Home Guard at the outbreak of the American Civil War. Newman was eventually released due to his age.