Person:Philo Newton (3)

Philo Newton

Philo Newton, at age 11, lived with his parents in the 1860 U.S. Illinois Census for DeKalb County, Sycamore Township. A letter by Ephraim Brown written in February 1868 noted that Philo was working at the “finery”. This finery, or factory, was probably in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area. Philo’s parents, where mentioned in the letter and referred to as “Uncle Daniel and Aunt Lovina”. A best guess is that Daniel, Lovina and Philo were all living the Kent County, Michigan area in 1868. This letter was written when Ephraim was in Blendon, Ottawa County, Michigan. Blendon Township is about 10 miles west of Grand Rapids.

Ephraim Brown mentioned Philo in another letter which was dated January 5, 1874 and was written in Kent (probably meaning Kent County), Michigan. Ephraim noted that Philo was going to go home and live with Uncle Daniel (Philo’s father) and Aunt Louisa since Aunt Lovina (Philo’s mother) died. It is suspected that Philo was living near Ephraim’s farm in northern Kent County at this time. Where his father, Daniel, lived at this time is unknown but Daniel’s wife, Lovina, died in Grandville, Michigan in 1873.

GEORGE NEWTON (1840 - BET 1900 & 1910) By Myron L. Newton, Jr.

No conclusive information has been found concerning Philo since the above mentioned letters that placed him in Kent County, Michigan as late as 1874.

A person named P.L Newton is buried in Section 1A – 106 of the Grandville Cemetery in Wyoming Township, Kent County, Michigan. Also buried with him are C.W. Newton and Harry Newton. They are buried in graves 1NE, 2NE and 3NE but their stones are covered with grass. No original cemetery records exist on these burials and the records on file at the cemetery office were taken from the grave stones. P.L. Newton died on December 23, 1882 (or possibly 1889) and was born August 14, 1850. This date of birth is about two years different from Philo’s birth year using census information. C. W. Newton died in 1879 and Harry died in 1900. The cemetery records have “(19)” prior to Harry’s year of death and this may have been his age.

It is only speculation but C.W. may have been the wife of P.L. Newton and Harry may have been a son. A search of death and marriage records at both the Kent County Courthouse and the Ottawa County Courthouse failed to produce any information on the above persons.

Even with the above information, it is still unclear whether P.L. Newton is actually Philo Newton, the son of Daniel, but the lack of finding any other Newton that could be Philo suggests that P.L. and Philo may have been the same person.