As a young man, Christian Newcomer learned the carpenter's trade. In time, he inherited the family farm, so took up farming instead. Throughout these early years, his friends continually urged him to preach. This troubled him greatly. In 1775, to escape the issue, he sold his farm in Lancaster County and moved to another he had bought at Beaver Creek, Maryland, seven miles south of Hagerstown in Washington County. Shortly after moving he became seriously ill. He believed he was dying and cried out for divine help. The illness subsided, he was left with a determination no longer to fight the call to preach. Shortly after his recovery he came under the itinerant preaching of Otterbein and Boehm and resolved to throw aside his inhibitions and go forth to preach. Newcomer was also influenced in ministry by a close associate of Otterbein's, George Adam Geeting. Indeed, as Koontz states ""Ere long the growing group known as" Otterbein's People "came to recognize not three great spiritual leaders" (i.e., Otterbein, Boehm and Geeting), "but four, and Newcomer was the fourth." " The probable date for the beginning of Newcomer's itinerant ministry is 1777.