Biography of Revilo Newton

Revilo Newton, born on April 11, 1842, in Illinois, moved to Cherryvale, Kansas, in 1882, becoming cashier of the Montgomery County National Bank. He actively contributed to the town’s development, especially in education and religion, serving as superintendent of the Methodist Sunday School for 25 years. A Civil War veteran, he held various public service roles, including mayor and state representative. Newton was also involved in Masonic organizations and the Democratic Party. He married Ada Anderson, with whom he had two daughters. His family history includes notable civic engagement.

REVILO NEWTON—Cherryvale, of this county, had not been incorporated very many years when this worthy and respected citizen took up his residence within its borders. He, at that time, was connected with a private bank, which afterward became the Montgomery County National Bank, of which he has, since its inception, been cashier. He has taken a keen interest in the advancement and development of the town and has been especially active in the building up of its educational institutions and in giving tone and strength to the religious life of the community. He has been superintendent of the Methodist Sunday School for twenty-five years and since his settlement in the town has been a potent factor in shaping, through that institution, the moral tone of the community. During much of this time, he has been connected, in an official way, with the school systems of the county, and has been exceedingly active in securing the best educational facilities for the use of the growing municipality.

Revilo Newton is a native of Illinois, born on the 11th of April, 1842, in La Salle county. He was there reared to man’s estate, receiving a fair common school education, though this was interrupted by the approach of the great Civil War. He took a gallant part in this sanguinary struggle. He went from the school room to the field, enlisting in August, 1862, in Company “A,” Eighty-eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. This regiment became part of the army of the Cumberland, its first smell of powder being at the bloody battle of Perryville and subsequently at the Stone River struggle. He then went with Rosecrans to Chattanooga, but before active operations were begun at that point, he was taken sick and was compelled to return to the hospital, where he received his discharge in December of 1863. This ended his military experience, as he never recovered his health sufficiently to bear the rigors of military life. He resumed his school life, taking a commercial course and then entering the mercantile business in Tonica, Illinois. Later he removed to Iowa where he continued business five years, thence to Monunk, Illinois, where he spent twelve years behind the counter. This brings us to the date of his settlement in Montgomery county. In 1882, he made Montgomery county his home, as stated, and became connected with a private banking institution. This was later merged into the Montgomery County National Bank, in 1892, one of the safest and solidest financial institutions of Southern Kansas. C. C. Kincaid is president, Mr. Newton cashier and S. J. Howard assistant cashier. The bank has a capital of $50,000 and carries a surplus of $30,000.

In the different communities in which our subject has resided, he has always taken a most active part in its municipal life, having been, at one period or another, mayor of the four different towns in which he has lived.

At the time he left Illinois he was the representative of his district in the State Legislature and was one of the best known men of that section. Since his residence in this State, he has been active in many different lines of service, having been a member of the board of trustees at the inception and building of the present county high school of Montgomery county and on this board he served a period of four years.

He and his family are active workers in the M. E. church, in which organization he holds several official positions. His love for children has led him to be active in any work that looks to the proper development of the child mind and he has, as already stated, devoted practically a lifetime to Sunday School work, having been superintendent of the Sunday School from six years prior to the date of his coming to Kansas. No more earnest worker in this line resides in the county.

Mr. Newton is a member of the Masonic order, Blue lodge, Chapter and Commandery, and is also a member of the Noble Order of the Mystic Shrine. In political affairs Mr. Newton has always taken an exceedingly active and prominent part and was a delegate to the Kansas City convention of the Democratic party in 1900.

The domestic life of our subject has been a happy one, beginning in 1865, when he was joined in marriage with Ada Anderson, a native of Ripley, Brown county, Ohio. To this marriage two daughters were born, Revilla, and Minnie, deceased.

Mentioning briefly a few points in the family history of Mr. Newton, the biographer notes that he was the son of Major George M. and Fanny (Loomis) Newton, both of whom were natives of Green county, New York. They were farmers by occupation, and the father also followed carpentry and the millwright business. They were early settlers in Illinois, having removed to the State in 1834, traveling overland by wagon. George Newton was a major in the New York militia and was very active in the public life of the different communities in which he resided. He was postmaster of Tonica, Illinois, for a number of years, that point having been located as a station when the Illinois Central was built through his farm. He died at the age of seventy years, his wife having passed away some years previous at the age of forty-five. They were prominent members of the Baptist church and staunch supporters of every good cause in the communities in which they lived. They reared a family of six children, of whom but three survive.