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Biographies
Source:
History of Trumbull
& Mahoning Counties
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
Vols. I & 2 -
Publ. Cleveland: H. Z. Williams & Bro.
1882
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EBEN
NEWTON was born in the town of Goshen, Litchfield county,
Connecticut, Oct. 16, 1795. He was a son of Isaac Newton,
a farmer who died at Goshen, and of Rebecca Newton, who
removed to Ohio in 1820, and died at the home of her son, in
Canfield, in 1833. In his early years he worked on his
father's farm and attended the schools at Goshen. In May,
1814, he emigrated to Portage county, Ohio; worked on a farm, and
about two years prior to 1820 was a clerk in his brother's store,
where he began to read law in the office of Darius Lyman at
Ravenna. In 1822 he returned to Connecticut, read law a short
time, returned to Ravenna, read law with Jonathan Sloan, and
was admitted to the bar at Warren, Ohio, in August, 1823.
Before his admission to the bar, he received an
invitation from Elisha Whittlesey, who had been elected a
member of Congress, to enter into a partnership with him, which he
accepted and removed to Canfield, which since then has been his
place of residence. The partnership of Whittlesey and
Newton continued twenty years, fifteen years of which time
Mr. Whittlesey was in Congress. Their business
extended all over the Reserve and into other parts of the State, and
the reputation of the firm was among the highest in the State.
In the fall of 1840 he was elected to the State Senate,
and during his term he was elected president judge of the Third
judicial district, and filled that office with marked ability.
He resigned the judgeship in 1846 and returned to his law practice.
In the fall of 1850 he was elected to Congress and
served two years, and then resumed practice. In 1863 he was
again elected to the State Senate. After the expiration of his
Senatorial term he took charge of the settlement of the estate of
the late Simeon Jennings, in which he has been engaged since
then. This involved much litigation in many States, and
required extensive travel in this country and two visits to Europe.
Except when employed in official duties he has practiced law in our
courts; has kept an open office, and to some extent is still, at his
advanced age of eighty-six years, engaged in legal business.
Besides his official and legal business other business
enterprises have occupied his time and attention. He was for
some years president of the Ashtabula & New Lisbon Railroad company,
now Niles & New Lisbon, and to his exertions it owes, in a great
measure, its existence. He always taken great interest in
agricultural improvement, and, for several years, was president of
the Mahoning County Agricultural society. He has been a
practical farmer on a large scale, imported and raised thoroughbred
stock, and is extensively known as a leading stock-breeder and
well-informed agriculturist.
During the time he practiced law, before he entered
Congress, he had thirty and more law students, and for many years
the Canfield Law school of Whittlesey & Newton had a wide and
deserved celebrity. Among its graduates were Senator
Benjamin F. and his brother Edward Wade, Joshua R. Giddings,
Ralph P. Buckland, and others, who became members of Congress,
and several who became judges and distinguished lawyers.
He was married at Canfield on May 20, 1826, to Miss Mary
S. Church, a native of that place and daughter of Ensign
Church, an early pioneer and son of Nathaniel Church, one
of the proprietors of the township.
Source: History of Trumbull &
Mahoning Counties with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches Vol.
I - Publ. Cleveland: H. Z. Williams & Bro. 1882 - Page 215 |
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