In 1807, the German botanist Frederick Pursh traveled the land that was to become Newfield  in a wagon and noted, "a very romantic valley, the mountains very high.  A town in Tompkins County, Newfield was so-named because much of the land was still unclaimed. A covered bridge was built in 1851-1853 that crosses the West Branch of the Cayuga inlet and is the last of the three original covered bridges erected in Tompkins County. The village was incorporated in 1895.