Jasper Co. IAGenWeb
Past and Present of Jasper Co.

CHAPTER XXXIV
NEWTON TOWNSHIP

Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa
B.F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912


Newton Township, in which the city of the same name is situated, is about in the geographical center of the county, and as now constituted, comprises twenty-four sections of congressional township 80, range 19 west. At its north is found Malaka Township, on its east is Kellogg, on the south is Palo Alto Township and on the west is Sherman Township. Cherry Creek and smaller streams drain and water this part of the county. There are beautiful groves of native timber, once heavy, large forest trees in the west and northwestern part of Newton Township, but much has been cut off with the passing of years and the development of the county.

Newton was organized in 1851 by County Judge Jesse Rickman, who decided the boundaries of Newton Township should be as follows: "Commencing at the northeast corner of township 81, range 18 west, and run twelve miles west to the northwest corner of township 81, range 19; thence south six miles to the southwest corner of said township and range; thence west two miles to the northwest corner of section 2, township 80, range 20; thence south to Skunk River; thence east to the range line 18; thence north to the place of beginning."

It will be seen that originally this township took in much more than its present territory, including Kellogg Township of today. In 1857 it took its present form and size.

The population of this township, outside of the city of Newton, in 1905, when the state census was taken, was nine hundred and two.

At the presidential election in 1852, when Gen. Winfield Scott and Franklin Pierce ran for the presidency, Newton Township gave the former sixty-eight votes and the latter thirty-two votes.

In April 1855, in voting on the prohibition question, this township gave the measure of prohibition one hundred and eighty-eight votes and fifty-three against the measure.

In 1878 the records show that there was personal property valued at $22,308 in Newton Township, outside the city. This included 324 head of horses, 11 mules and 274 head of cattle of taxable age.

At the above date the total valuation of property in the township was $252,425, on which was paid a total tax of $4,559.46.

For the first five or six years the history of Newton Township is partly summed up by the following extracts from the records now on file:

1848 -The record for this year shows that William M. Springer was sworn in as township clerk, by T. J. Adamson, a justice of the peace. William C. Smith was school inspector. The township trustees were Charles C. Thorp, Ballinger Aydellotte and Henry Hammer. In April the same year, Lewis Herron and James Pearsons qualified as fence viewers and overseers of the poor. In June, Moses Lacy was appointed constable, while in August Hart Spring was made another constable for Newton Township.

1849 -The trustees were Evan Adamson, Seth Hammer and John B. Hammack It was during that year that the township was divided into four road districts.


1850 - The trustees ordered twenty-eight dollars and twenty-five cents to be paid for the benefit of John Sewel1. On March 30th the order read to "call out all the 'respectful' hands in the road districts, and open up the county road laid from Newton to the Marion County line, in the direction of Red Rock."

1852 - Joseph Dodd and J. N. Edgar were elected justices of the peace; Jesse Hammer and T. J. Densmore, constables.

1853 -Three new road districts were established in this township. At the April election were elected Edwin White, Ezekiel Shipley and T. J. Allen as trustees. W. M. Springer was clerk and Lawson D. Sims, assessor.

1856 - The sum of fifty-one dollars was voted to defray the sick and burial charges of Mary Jane McConkey, a pauper. William R. Davis was assessor that year. The same year ten dollars was allowed for defraying the expense of caring for Mary Johnson, a pauper, and a like amount for a "sick man."

The history of the City of Newton appears elsewhere in this work, it being given a chapter by itself.

Transcribed by Ernie Braida in July 2003