William J. Newell

NEWELL, DAVIDSON, SHINNERS, ESTES, SOMERS

Posted By: Marthann Kohl-Fuhs (email)
Date: 5/13/2009 at 15:25:02

1889 BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF
SHELBY AND AUDUBON COUNTIES, IOWA
W. S. DUNBAR & CO., PUBLISHERS
113 ADAMS STREET, CHICAGO

page 812

WILLIAM J. NEWELL, an active and
successful farmer of Lincoln Town-
ship, was born in Canada, near the
city of Hamilton, May 13, 1863. He is the
oldest son of six children of William P. and
Sophia (Davidson) Newell. The father was
born in Ireland in 1831, and the mother is a
native of Canada, in which country she lived
at the time of her marriage. They con-
tinued to reside in that country, William P.
carrying on the shoemaker's trade for many
years; he afterward engaged in farming, and
in 1881 the family removed to the United
States, and settled in Audubon County, Iowa,
on a farm of 120 acres. William P. Newell
was an enterprising and prosperous farmer
up to the time of his death, which occurred
February 12, 1889. His wife died April 23,
1889. They were the parents of nine chil-
dren, six of whom are living -- Louisa J.,
wife of John Shinners; Carrie A.. wife of L.
M. Estes; William J., Edward S., Alice M.
and Charles H. George, May, and one child
unnamed died in infancy. William J. New-
ell, the subject of this notice, passed his
youth in the country of his birth, where he
received his education in the common schools.
He removed with his parents to Iowa, and
remained under the parental roof until he
was twenty-two years old, when he began
farming and stock-raising on his own account.
He was married in 1885 to Miss Jessie E.
Somers, the third daughter of William L.
and Isabelle Somers, of Vermont. One child,
a son, has been born of this marriage; his
name is George. Mr. Newell moved to his
present farm in 1885; it contains eighty
acres of good land, which has been placed
under cultivation and improved by Mr. New-
ell. He has been very successful in raising
and feeding stock, for the past three years
shipping one car-load of cattle annually be-
sides raising a large number of hogs. In
polities he affiliates with the Republican party.