he was commissioner of public works in New York City, and from 1888 until his death, on the 1st of May 1895, he was president of the Panama railway.
NEWTON, a city and the county-seat of Harvey county, Kansas, U.S.A., about 27 m. N. of Wichita. Pop. (1905) 6601; (1910) 7862. It is served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé (of which it is a division point and which has shops here), and the Missouri Pacific railways. Newton is the centre of the settlements of the German-Russian Mennonites, a thrifty people,
who immigrated in 1873 and subsequently; Bethel College
(opened 1893) is a Mennonite secondary school, and there is a
Mennonite hospital. Newton is a supply and distributing point
for the surrounding agricultural and stock-raising region, and
has various manufactures. The municipality has natural gas for
heating, lighting and manufacturing. Newton was first settled
in 1871, was chartered as a city in 1872, and in 1910 adopted
a commission form of government.
NEWTON, a city of Middlesex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., 10 m. W. of Boston, on the S. bank of the Charles river, which
borders it for 16 m. Pop. (1880) 16,995; (1890) 24,379; (1900)
33,587, of whom 10,068 were foreign-born, 19,006 of foreign
parentage and 505 were negroes; (1910, census) 39,806.
Newton is served by the Boston & Albany railway. The city,
with an area of 17·98 sq. m., contains 15 villages. In Newton,
the most prominent of these villages, is a stone terrace monument
to John Eliot, erected on the site of Waban’s wigwam
near Nonantum Hill, where Eliot founded the first Indian Church
on the 28th of October 1646—the Nonantum Indians, under
their chief Waban, removed to Natick in 1651. On Institution
Hill, Newton Centre, is the first Baptist theological seminary
in America, Newton Theological Institution, founded in 1825.
Here also is the residence of Samuel Francis Smith (1808–1895),
author of “America” and several missionary hymns, and pastor
here in 1842–1854. In Newton Upper Falls, Echo Bridge (of
the Boston Aqueduct) crosses the Charles near the falls in
Hemlock Gorge Reservation of the Metropolitan Park system.
Auburndale is the seat of Lasell Seminary for Young Women,
founded in 1851 by Edward Lasell (1809–1852). Other of the
villages are Newtonville, West Newton and Newton Highlands.
The city of Newton is primarily a residential suburb of Boston;
along the Charles is a part (191·12 acres) of the Charles River
Reservation of the Metropolitan Park system, and the city has
several attractive public parks, including Norumbega Park,
on the banks of the river, with a large open-air theatre; boating,
especially canoeing, on the river is very popular. The city has
a public library, a high school and a technical high school.
Among its manufactures are foundry and machine shop products,
worsted goods and electrical apparatus; the factories utilize
the water power of the falls. The value of the manufactured
product in 1905 was $4,140,996. The region was settled as a
part of Cambridge in 1630 and was called South Side (i.e. of the
Charles), Nonantum (the Indian name), Cambridge Village,
Little Cambridge or New Cambridge; in 1688 it was incorporated
as a separate town and in 1691 received its present name; it
annexed an island in the Charles in 1803; parts of it were
annexed to Roxbury (1838) and Waltham (1849); it became a
city in 1873; and in 1875 it annexed a part of Boston, with which
there have been several more recent boundary adjustments.
NEWTON ABBOT, a market town and seaport in the Ashburton
parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, 20 m.
S. by W. of Exeter by the Great Western railway. Pop. of
urban district (1901) 12,517. Beautifully situated at the head
of the Teign estuary, the town grew rapidly in the 19th century.
The two parish churches, St Mary’s in Wolborough, and All
Saints’ in Highweek, are Perpendicular in style. St Mary’s
contains a Norman font, an ancient brass lectern, buried during
the Civil Wars, and some interesting heraldic ornaments which
date from the 15th century. Of the 14th century chapel of St Leonard,
only a tower survives. A large nunnery, called St Augustine’s
Priory, was erected near the town in 1861; while
eastward is the Jacobean Forde House, belonging to the earl
of Devon, and visited by Charles I. and William of Orange,
who first read his declaration to the people of England at Newton
Abbot market-cross. The establishment of large engine works
by the Great Western railway has aided the development of
local industries, and there is a considerable shipping trade,
fine china clay and pipeclay being worked near the towns and
exported to the Potteries. Large fairs are held for the sale of
agricultural produce and livestock. The portion of Newton
Abbot in the parish of Highweek was formerly a separate town,
known as Newton Bushel.
Probably both Newton Abbot and Newton Bushel were originally included under the name of Newton. Newton Abbot was given to the abbot of Tor by William Lord Brewer, founder of the monastery (1196). Newton Bushel was so called from Robert Bussell or Bushel, foster-child and kinsman of Theobald de Englishville, who was made lord of the manor by Henry III. in 1246.
NEWTON-IN-MAKERFIELD, or Newton-le-Willows, an
urban district in the Newton parliamentary division of Lancashire,
England, 1512 m. W. of Manchester by the London &
North-Western railway. Pop. (1891) 12,861; (1901) 16,699.
At a short distance from the town is a moated Elizabethan
half-timbered house, and also an ancient barrow of great extent.
The Liverpool farm reformatory school is in the neighbourhood.
The industrial establishments include foundries, printing and
stationery works, paper mills, glass works and sugar refineries.
Coal abounds in the neighbourhood.
The township of Newton-in-Makerfield, gave its name in Saxon times and in the reign of William the Conqueror to one of the hundreds of Lancashire. The barony was held by the Banastres from the conquest to 1286 and passed successively to the Langtons, Fleetwoods and Leghs. It does not seem that the barons were ever summoned to parliament, and the title, like all parliamentary titles, has fallen into disuse since the abolition of feudal tenures. The courts-baron and courts-leet are held twice annually. The township returned two members to parliament from 1559 to 1831, but was disfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832. There was a market here at least as early as 1558 which is now discontinued. Near the town a party of Highlanders were taken prisoners in 1648 by Cromwell’s troops, and hanged in an adjoining wood, still called Gallow’s Cross.
NEWTOWN, a municipality of Cumberland county, New
South Wales, Australia, 312 m. S.W. of Sydney. It consists
chiefly of the residences of the wealthier citizens of Sydney and
is connected with the city by rail and tram. As a municipality
it dates from 1862. Pop (1901) 22,598.
NEWTOWN (Welsh Drefnewydd, with the same meaning,
formerly Llanfair Cedewain), a market town and contributory
parliamentary borough of Montgomeryshire, situated on both
sides of the Severn, and on the Cambrian railway, 195 m. from
London. Pop. of urban district of Newtown and Llanllwchhaiarn
(1901) 6500. It is connected with Shrewsbury (Amwythig)
by the Montgomeryshire canal. The old Anglican church,
partly Decorated and partly Perpendicular, has been superseded
by the modern St Mary’s, which contains the font and rood-screen
of the old building. In the old churchyard lies Robert Owen,
born in 1771 at Newtown, where he died in 1858, known as
“the patriarch of reason,” author of New Views of Society, &c.,
and one of the fathers of communism. Newtown, rather than
Welshpool, is the chief seat of Welsh flannel manufacture,
together with that of tweeds and shawls. It joins with Welshpool,
Llanfyllin, Montgomery (Trefaldwyn), Llanidloes and Machynlleth,
in returning a member to parliament.
NEWTOWNARDS (pron. Newtonárds), a market town of
Co. Down, Ireland, beautifully situated near the northern
extremity of Strangford Lough, on a branch of the Belfast and Co. Down railway, 912 m. E. of Belfast. Pop. (1901) 9110. The town is sheltered by the Scrabo Hills on the west and north, and possesses a fine square, in which the pedestal of an ancient cross was erected in 1636. Muslin embroidery is the principal industry. There are also mills for flax and hemp yarns, a weaving factory and a hosiery factory. The remains of the old church, originally erected in 1244, contain good Perpendicular work, and the
