The story
Welcome to Newton Township
Newton Township, in south-central Calhoun County, was set off from Burlington in 1838 and named for Newton, Massachusetts, on the suggestion of Benjamin Chamberlin. Its heavy timber kept it from settling as early as its neighbours; Granville Beardslee of Rochester, New York, was the first settler, in 1834.
Newton is surveyed Township 3 South, Range 7 West, and was part of Burlington until the Legislature of 1837–38 divided it on the petition of citizens who found the township inconvenient for elections. The petition offered Bedford, Newton and Greenfield, all places in Massachusetts, and the Legislature chose Newton. The first township meeting was held at Daniel Merrill’s house on the first Monday in April 1838, and Stephen Graham was elected supervisor.
Everts explains that Newton settled more slowly than its neighbours because so much of it was thickly timbered, and that Nottawa Creek, its chief stream, nowhere had fall enough for mills. Most of the first settlers came from western New York. Granville Beardslee came in the fall of 1834 with his wife and two daughters and settled in the northeast corner, on sections 1 and 12; he sowed the first wheat, planted the first orchard, and built the first frame house in 1835, and his daughter Caroline, born May 1, 1835, was the first girl born in the township. Jeremiah and Asa Woodward came in 1835, and many settlers in 1836, among them Benjamin Chamberlin on section 15.
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The first road was laid out in April 1837, and the first burying ground was set off on section 16, on school land bought from the state, in 1838. The township was divided into school districts in 1838, and the first district schoolhouse was built in 1839. A Congregational society was organized in May 1840, and a Methodist class formed in 1869 became a church in 1874.
The 2020 census counted 2,781 people in Newton Township.