Newell P. Lipsett was born on June 3, 1844, in Ohio to Edward Lipsett and Rachel M. Cowan. His father was an Irish immigrant and a farmer who owned $2,500 of real estate and $1,000 of personal property by 1860. The family lived in Ashland County, Ohio, and Lipsett attended Vermillion Institute there. He moved to Doyle, Iowa, with his brother William sometime in the 1860s, and by 1870, he was working as a farm laborer. He married a woman named Ella around 1872, and they had at least 3 children: Lora, born around 1872; Mabel, born around 1874; and Burton, born around 1887. The family moved to Union County, Iowa, sometime between 1885 and 1895, and Lipsett worked as a farmer and teamster. He died in Creston, Iowa, on July 4, 1917.