Newby was born near Monrovia, Indiana but his family moved to Kansas City then California. Newby returned to Indiana in his late-teens and moved to Indianapolis. He took jobs working in stores around the city before he worked his way up to head bookkeeper at Nordyke Marmon &amp; Company, a milling machinery manufacturer. One of the partners of this company, Daniel W. Marmon, later founded the Marmon Motor Car Company, whose "Wasp" vehicle was driven to victory by Ray Harroun at the inaugural running of the Indianapolis 500.