Person:John Newton (85)

According to E. Leonard, in The Newton Genealogy (de Pere, Wisc., 1915)

JOHN NEWTON" (William W.,° John- Obediah, Thomas--, John^ Richard'), son of William Wallace and Lydia (Wells) Newton of Worcester, Mass., and Bainbridge, N. Y., was bom March 3, 1791, and died at Bainbridge, Chenango County, N. Y., January 30, 1866. He married in Connecticut, October 4, 1810, Abiah Miller, whose parents moved from Connecticut to Ohio. She was bom February 2, 1789, and died February 8, 1875, at Collinsville. Hartford County, Conn. She had nine children. Mr. Newton lived, a few years before his marriage, and after, in Simsbury, 1809. and Granby, 1812, Plartford County, Conn. About 1813 he removed to Bainbridge, Chenango County, N. Y., where he settled and lived the remainder of his life. The first two children were born in Connecticut, the others in Bainbridge. The following sketch. written by his granddaughter in a letter to me, is both interesting and tells much of genealogical value; and should be preserved here.

She writes : We know very little except of Grandfather, Capt. John Newton, as he was always called. The first we know of his early life—after he finished school—he went into a clergyman's family for the winter to finish his studies, taking mathematics, bookkeeping, English composition, vocal and instrumental music. Flute and claronette, specialties. For years afterward he was a vocal teacher and very proficient in that branch. Later he went to Connecticut, where he married and remained until their oldest child (my mother) was 3 years of age, when they returned to Bainbridge and resided until the close of his life. He was one of the leading business men of the town. The same is true of his membership in the Episcopal church. He owned large tracts of land which he cultivated; had a saw-mill and carried on a large business in lumbering; had a flour-mill, which he operated. He was not a mechanic or a carpenter, but he certainly was a builder, for there are now [1913] six houses standing of his building —had built. Yet all through his active, busy years, he kept up his music, being chorister in his church until nearly seventy years of age—repeatedly resigning and as often recalled. His eldest daughter, my mother, when sixteen years of age was sent away to learn instriunental music. He had an organ built expressly for her.

She was the first organist in the town, and played the first church organ in the town ; her father being chorister. When my mother married her next sister took her place, and when she married and removed to Green, her next sister took the place—and so on until four daughters had officiated for a time. By that time my eldest sister. Amy Pearsall, who inherited her mother's and grandfather's musical talent, was installed organist, and after her, my sister Emily, until her leaving for Salt Lake, as a Missionary under Bishop Tuttle—grandfather being chorister the while, resigning, and being recalled on account of his superior talent. "My grandfather was Captain of the Military Company of the Town. At Military drills every year, it was my pride to see him in his three-cornered hat, epaulets and sword, mounted on his gay horse, giving orders to his men ; while we little urchins hung over the gate eating gingerbread and molasses candy. They were great days, those general training days. "My grandfather"s brothers were all prosperous agriculterists."