A History of Newton County
Reprinted from The History of Newton County, 1985

    Prior to the year 1834, the northern part of our state was unorganized territory. The state legislature, meeting in the last half of that year, passed an act for the organization of fourteen new counties, and Jasper and Newton were included in this number. From John Ade's Newton County 1853-1922, in 1836 Porter County was organized, and Lake County in 1837, taking from the then Newton County all the territory north of the Kankakee River. In 1840 the present county of Benton was organized. A year or two prior to that time, Jasper County had been reorganized, and the remaining portion of Newton County becoming by that act a part of Jasper County; the original county of Newton passed out of existence and remained so for a little more than twenty years.
    In 1857 parties owning large tracts of land in the north part of Jasper County made an effort to form a new county out of the north part of that county, with the county seat to be located on the Kankakee River. Citizens residing in the western portion of the county realized that if they allowed the scheme to materialize, their prospects for a new county would pass into the descard, because of constitutional provision prohibiting the formation of new counties of less than four houndred square miles. While the western half of Jasper County (or the present Newton County) was hardly ready to assume the responsibilities of a seperate government, the residents knew if they waited too long, Newton County would contine to be a relatively outlying territory, so far as the seats of government were concerned. A meeting of the citizens of western Jasper County was called in the town of Morocco, and at this meeting it was decided to circulate a petition to the commissioners of Jasper County, asking them to set off a new county to be known as Beaver.
    On motion of Thomas R. Barker, the name was changed to Newton, thereby bringing about the friendship of Jasper and Newton, as related in history. However, the petition was opposed by the citizens of the other part of the county, and after much debate, the petition was dismissed on the ground that some of the names had been attached to the petition before the law authorizing a division had taken effect. The petition was rejected and the same night at a meeting held in the Morocco school house copies of the petition were hastily prepared, and waiting horsemen, each with an assigned territory, collected signatures. Within a twenty-four hour period these hardy workers had canvassed the entire territory and returned a petition representing an over-whelming majority of the citizens.
    On December 7, 1857, the petition for Newton County was presented to the county commissioners. A committee, composed of Zechariah Spitler, John Darroch and David Creek, was appointed to lay out and establish boundaries of the proposed new county. But, following an appeal to the circuit court, which overruled the decision of the commissioners and granted an injuction restraining them from entering the report of the committee, an appeal was taken to the Supreme Court. The matter rested there until November, 1859, when the ruling of the lower court was reversed.
    In this fashion and after much labor, the new county of Newton was given recognition, and in March, 1860, Thomas R. Barker was appointed by Governor Willard as organizing sheriff for the new county, and he issued a call for the election of officers. According to Mr. Ade's book, about the 10th of April, 1860, the following persons wer declared duly elected: Zechariah Spitler, Clerk; Alexander Sharp, Auditor; Samuell McCullogh, Treasurer; John Ade, Recorder; Adam Shideler, Surveyor; Elijah Shriver, Sheriff; William Russell, Michael Coffielt and Thomas R. Barker, Commissioners. The officers elected to the several offices in Newton County, met in the town of Kent, which had been selected as the county seat by the three commissioners, namely, Livingston Dunlap, Joseph Allen and Samuel H. Owen. And in this fashion Newton County was established.
    At the time Newton County was organized, and while it was still a part of Jasper County, there were only five townships, known as Iroquois, Jackson, Lake, Beaver and Washington. However, the work of organizing the new county had only started, because the first business transacted after the organization of the commissioners' court, was the division of the five townships.
    On Monday, April 23, 1860, on petition of Ralph Swigget and others, Washington Township was divided in such a fashion that everything north of the Iroquois River remained as Washington Township and all south of the river to the Benton County line, be named Jefferson Township. Tuesday morning, December 2, 1862, Z. T. Wheaton and others petitioned the commisioners to be set apart from Beaver Township, and from this transaction grew McClellan Township.
    Things ran along smoothly in the new county until December 6, 1865, when R. C. Currens, Blake Wilson, F. C. Pierce and thirty others petitioned for a new township to be separated from Iroquois Township, to be known in the future as Grant. On March 9, 1871, Philip Miller et al presented a petition for a division of Jackson Township, and the new civil township of Colfax was the outhgrowth. On June 8, 1872, M. D. May and fourteen others petitioned for a separate township for Colfax, and Lincoln Township was formed. Lake Township remained as it came originally from Jasper County. And to the present day, Newton County boasts the same ten townships. - Written by Joseph B. Fletcher.