Newton, Israel

The following data is extracted from Biography and Genealogy of Western Massachusetts, 1639-1925.

ISRAEL NEWTON-The Newton family of Orange is one of the oldest New England families on record, the first American ancestor of whom we have positive knowledge having come to the shores of New England in the early autumn of 1639. He was one of the four men who came with Roger Ludlow, deputy governor, who had obtained a commission from the General Court of Connecticut to begin a plantation at Poquonock. Thomas Newton moved to Newton, Long Island, in 1636, and in 1645 was chosen as representative from Fairfield to the General Court.

Deacon Israel and Lois T. Newton had an only son Asa, who reached the age of manhood, and on January 23, 1777, married Lydia Worthington, a daughter of Colonel Elias Worthington, of the same town, who was born October 22, 1760. They were the parents of nine children: 1. Elias W., born November 16, 1780. 2. Asa, born October 3, 1782. 3. Rhoda, born January 28, 1785. 4 Lydia, born January 21, 1788. 5. Sally, born April 2, 1791. 6. Israel, of whom further. 7. Louisa, born January 23, 1796. 8. Joel W., born May 29, 1799. 9. Laura M., born February 15, 1802.

Israel Newton, born February 11, 1794, was a farmer and a deacon of the Congregational Church for fifty years. He was a native of Colchester, Connecticut, where he died. On January 14, 1819, he married Harriet Turner, and they had seven children: I. Abby, born October 11, 1821. 2. Asa, born July 9, 1824. 3. Maria, born August 9, 1827. 4. Matthew Turner, of whom further. 5. Lydia Louise, born November 2%, 1831. 6. Lyman, born February 27, 1836. 7. Israel, of whom further.

Matthew Turner Newton, M. D., born June 4, 1829, received his education in the district schools of Colchester, Connecticut, and after attending Bacon Academy, matriculated as a student of Yale University, where he graduated in 1851 with the degree of M. D. He began medical practice at Salem, Connecticut, and in 1853 was elected a member of the State Legislature from Salem. In July of the same year he removed to Suffield, Connecticut, where he continued the practice of medicine with considerable success and attained a wide reputation as a skillful physician. On August 15, 1856, he married Louise A. Austin, a daughter of Samuel Austin, and they were the parents of two children. 1. Charles Newton, born January 18, 1858. 2. Emma Louise Newton, born September 20, 1865. Dr. Newton died July 24, 1909.

Israel Newton, born at Colchester, Connecticut, May 6, 1839, moved to Suffield, at the age of twenty years, and here conducted for thirty years a general store. In 1881 he came to Orange, where for eighteen years he was connected with the Home Sewing Machine Company and for twenty years occupied the position of clerk of the District Court at Orange, and for twenty-five years that of justice of the peace at Orange, and also was trial justice in Connecticut. Israel Newton is a veteran of the Civil War and belonged to the Army of the Potomac, 22nd Connecticut Volunteer Regiment. He has been clerk of the First Baptist Church at Orange for seventeen years, and is Commander and Senior Vice-Commander of Orange Post, Grand Army of the Republic.

Mr. Newton married (first), July 11, 1866, at Suffield, Connecticut, Georgiana Reid, a daughter of Samuel N. and Louise M. Reid. The children of this first marriage are: 1. Lulu Maria. 2. Hattie Reid. 3. George Reid, who for twenty years has been connected with the Atlantic Coast Line Company. He married (second), October 19, 1892, Mary Dexter, a daughter of George W. Dexter, and they are the parents of one daughter, Grace (Newton) Anthony.

Source: Biography and Genealogy of Western Massachusetts, 1639-1925

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