THOMAS NEWELL

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Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Newell       Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Dowson       Mr. & Mrs. Robert F. Newell

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         A prominent and highly successful agriculturist of Louisa county is Thomas Newell, who in addition to the cultivation of his farm has for the past decade been acting as vice president of the Citizens Savings Bank of Letts, Iowa, and during the past three years he has also been president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Columbus Junction. A son of pioneer settlers Mr. Newell was born in Louisa county, on the same section in Concord township where he now resides, on the 7th of April, 1847. His grandfather, Thomas Newell, was a soldier of the war of 1812, and his maternal great-grandfather, James Flaharity, served for six years and seven months under General Washington in the Revolutionary war.

         Our subject’s father, Robert F. Newell, was a native of Holmes county, Ohio, while his mother, who prior to her marriage was Miss Christina Newell, was also from the Buckeye state, her birth having occurred in the vicinity of Bellefontaine, Logan county. They were married in Eddyville, Iowa, on the 31st of December, 1843. Mr. Newell subsequently rented a farm which he cultivated for eleven years, following which he purchased a homestead in Concord township, which he improved and cultivated until his death on the 12th of May, 1898. The mother, who is now ninety-three years of age, makes her home at Fredonia, Iowa, with her son Robert M. Newell. At the time of his demise the father owned four hundred acres of well improved and highly cultivated land. There were nine children in the family: Elizabeth, the widow of Dr. Cushman of Tacoma, Wash- . . .

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. . . ington, and the mother of Congressman Frank Cushman; Thomas, our subject; Cardine, the wife of L. A. Riley, of Wapello; Hugh, who died at the age of eighteen months; Mary, the wife of Ed Curtis, of Concord township; John and William, both of whom are living in Nebraska; Robert M., a resident of Fredonia, Iowa; and Hattie, who became the wife of B. F. Sidnas, of Norton county, Kansas.

         Thomas Newell acquired a good common-school education, during which time he was also qualifying himself for an agricultural career. He began farming for himself at the age of thirty, by cultivating land in Concord township which he had purchased previously. Later he disposed of this and bought seventy acres, which formed the nucleus of his present homestead. Intelligence and good judgment in the administration of his affairs, as well as energy and close application, have enabled Mr. Newell to make a success of his vocation. He now owns three hundred and sixty-five acres of land, all of which is under a high state of cultivation with the exception of forty acres. It is divided into two separate farms, both of which are highly improved, his homestead being located on section 22. He is a capable business man as well as agriculturist and has successfully directed his energies along financial lines. As a stockholder and officer of both the Citizens Savings Bank in Letts and the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Columbus Junction he has given evidence of possessing more than average skill both as an organizer and executive.

         On the 5th of April, 1877, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Newell and Miss Mary Dowson, who was born in Concord township on the 2d of November, 1853. She is a daughter of the late Thomas and Mary (Robson) Dowson, who were born, reared and married in England, from which country they located in Cincinnati but soon afterward removed to St. Louis, where Mr. Dowson followed the carpenter’s trade for four years. At the end of that time they came up the Mississippi river to Muscatine and from there to Louisa county. Here they entered forty acres of government land in Concord township, for the breaking of which Mr. Dowson exchanged carpenter work. They continued to reside upon that place for twenty years, during which time he added to his holdings another sixty acres. Selling this to advantage he then purchased one hundred and twenty acres two miles farther south, where they lived until their retirement in 1893. They had met with more than average success and at that time owned three hundred and seventy-five acres of good tillable land. When they withdrew from the farm they went to Columbus Junction, Iowa, to live but Mrs. Dowson passed away January 16, 1894, since which time the father, who is now eighty-nine years of age, spends a large portion of his time among his children. To Mr. and Mrs. Dowson were born eleven children but only six are now living: Jane, the wife of C. Bonnichsen, of Columbus Junction; Mary, now Mrs. Newell; Robson, who is a farmer of Concord township; John, a resident of Clear Lake, Iowa; William, who lives in Nebraska; Charles Henry, of Detroit; three who died in infancy; and Thomas and Florence, who are also deceased.

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         Mr. and Mrs. Newell have seven children, two daughters and five sons, in order of birth as follows: Mary C., who received a high-school education, is now the wife of Rudolph Schlichting, of Concord township; Robert J., who is married, and was for a time a civil engineer in the government service in Idaho but recently established an office of his own at Boise City, is a graduate of Highland Park College, where he pursued his engineering course; Hugh R., also married, pursued a two years’ course in agriculture at Ames in the Iowa State College and is now farming in Concord township, this county; Jesse D., who is married and farming in Grand View township, also had training as an agriculturist, having spent two years in the Agricultural College of Nebraska; Thomas R., a graduate of the high school at Columbus Junction, is now taking his third year in the civil engineering department at Ames College; Edwin O., also a high school graduate, has had one year in the State University at Iowa City; Frances B. is attending high school and studying music.

         In matters of religion the views of Mr. Newell coincide with the teachings of the Universalist church. In politics he is a democrat and has always taken an active interest in matters of a governmental nature. He has served as township assessor for eight terms, while for one term he was county supervisor and for several years he was secretary of the school board. Mr. Newell is held in high regard in Concord township as a business man, agriculturist and private citizen, and numbers among his friends many of the comrades and schoolmates of his early boyhood.