Lumus H. Newton, For more than thirty years the late Mr. Newton, bore a part in the affairs of this county and many of our readers will remember him as one of the hard working and judicious men of Pontiac Township. he was born in St. Albans, Vermont, Jul 3, 1812, and is descended from two families represented in the Colonial Army during the struggle for american independence, and in at least the paternal line, traces his ancestry to passengers on the "Matflower." His parents were Josiah and Lydia (Ball) Newton, natives of the old Bay State, and his father fought in the War of 1812 Four of the six children grew to maturity. One of this number, The Rev Benjamin B. Newton, was a graduated at both Burlington (VT), College and Yale, and became a minster, preaching at the time of his death in 1875, at Brooklyn, N. Y., in Episcopal Church.

Our subject obtained a preliminary education in the district school, being reared on a farm, and gained further knowledge in St. Albans Academy abd Burlington College. At the age of twenty-two years he went to sea, first spending a season on Lake Erie and then goiong South and sailing from New Orleans on a merchant vessel to the West Indies and thence to Liverpool. He next visited the East Indies and various South American countries, then returning to the land of his borth, he left New Bedford, Mass. on a whaling expedition where he rounded Cape Horn and visited the islands of the Pacific Ocean. He was absent two years and made a second voyage that lasted about four years. He shipped in the first place as a ship carpenter, but after becoming familiar with a seaman's duties he became Captain of the ship "Massachusetts."

In 1847 Mr Newton accompanied a friend to this county and was so pleased with the prospects that he decided to remain. Three years after his arrival he bought land in Pontiac Township and settled down to farm life. During the three years he and friends built the flour mills at Lakeville, Thornville and Rochester. His original purchase was an eighty acre tract, but at the time of his demise he held the deeds to four hundred acres. He was an excellent manager, and moreover was always ready to help a friend in need,contributed liberally to all charitable purposes, and was moral and upright in wvery resepct. He was called hence Jul 26, 1881, leaving a widow and ten children to mourne for one who had been a kind and considerate husband and father. Politically he was a stanch republican, one of the leaders of the party in the county, and during the War of the Rebellion he was a strong adherent of the Union cause. Socially he was pleasing and graceful in his manners, an agreeable companion among his friends, and a man of refined taste. He was unostentatious in his manners and conduct in everyday life.

Mrs. Newton bore the maiden name of Sarah A Averill and was born in this couty in 1827, being a daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Fowler) Averil. Her parents and grandparents were natives of Massachusetts, whence the latter drove in a wagon drawn by oxen to the new home in what was then a territory, very sparsely settled. Their removal was made about 1818, and they made their home on government land in Troy Township. They often fed Indians at their house, and their history for some years was that with which all students of pioneer times are familiar. Mrs Newton's father fought at the battle of Lundy's Lane and all through the War of 1812. Mrs Averill died here in 1852 Mr. A verill survived until 1870, and died in Kansas three of their eleven children are living.

Mrs. Newton is a woman of superior intelligence and fine taste. She has been greatly devoted to her family. The names of her children are: Helen, Josiah B., Lumus C., Emma C., Julia B. and David H. The first born is deceased. All received excellent school advantages Josiah and Lumus being college graduates Josiah received his diploma from the State University, studied law and practiced at Alpena. He was a young man of fine literary and legal attainments, and his death Apr 10, 1891, was widely mourned. Lumus is a physician at Quincy, Mass. Emma C. is the wife of Frank Galloway, and resides in Pontiac Township. Susie M. is the wife of george Kyle, son of David Kyle, of Bloomfield The other children are at home.