Capt. William Newton was born in Colchester, Conn., Oct. 15, 1786. His father, Asahel Newton, had served several years in the army of the Revolution. He was in straitened circumstances and had a large family of children, of whom William was the oldest, and on him devolved a large share of the burden of supporting his brothers and sisters. Having learned the trade of a clothier he came to Sherburne in 1806 and worked with Landon & Mills at Bullocks Mills. He took a factory in New Berlin in 1807, and went to Camden, N. Y., and worked in 1809. Aug. 22, 1810, he married Lois Butler, a native of Wethersfield, Conn., who still survives him and is living in Sherburne with mental faculties unimpaired. Mr. Newton moved his family to Sherburne May 11, 1812, and resided here from that time till his death, which occurred August 13, 1879, at the age of 92 years. He bought twenty acres of land and in 1812 built the house now occupied by Jacob Kuhn, and near it a woolen factory, on the bank of Handsome brook, which was ready for cloth dressing in the fall of that year. The factory was burned in 1822 and rebuilt in 1823. It was again burned in the winter of 1826-7 and was not rebuilt. The house in which he resided at the time of his death was built by him in 1822. His surviving children are William Butler, Louisa N. Lathrop and Lucinda N. Buell, both widows, in Sherburne; Warren, a banker, and Isaac S., a lawyer, both in Norwich; Lucius, a farmer on the homestead in Sherburne; Hubert A., a Professor in Yale College; Albro J., a sash manufacturer in Brooklyn; and Homer G., a physician in Sherburne, but not in practice.
