San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES L. NEWTON
An experienced, successful
vineyardist, who has also been able to serve his fellow citizens in the
official capacity of county supervisor, is Charles L. Newton, a native of
California, having been born in Amador County of January 27, 1857. His father, Dr. Jabez Newton, came to
California in September, 1849, and landed at French Gulch, in El Dorado County;
he was a member of the Connecticut branch, dating back to the Mayflower, and a
descendant and relative of men high in public and professional stations. Dr. C. B. Newton, a younger brother of Jabez,
was a regent of Bellevue Hospital, in New York, and Dr. Jabez Newton was also a
well-known physician, although after coming to California he abandoned practice
and went in for mining, in El Dorado and Amador Counties. He opened up a copper mine between Ionia and
Jackson in Amador County which became well-known as the Newton Copper Mine. When he came to Woodbridge, he helped to lay
out the town, and then he settled in the locality.
In this vicinity, therefore, Charles
L. Newton went to school, and at the San Joaquin Valley College, conveniently
located at Woodbridge, he completed his studies. His father had gone into the hotel business
while in Amador County, while he was locating mines, and in that county he
acquired about 2,000 acres of land, which he sold on coming to Woodbridge. For many years, Dr. Newton was proprietor of
the Keith Hotel at Woodbridge, until he retired, and he lived to be 83 years
old. He had married Miss Mary E.
Rutledge, a member of a family whose history is elsewhere sketched in this
volume, and she lived to her seventy-sixth year. Five children were born to this worthy
couple. Our subject was the eldest; then
came Prof. C. B. Newton, of San Francisco; J. F. Newton, deceased; Annie, Mrs.
J. S. Mayberry, of Antioch; and Jennie, Mrs. A. C. White, of Stockton.
After finishing his schooling,
Charles Newton went into the butcher business in Woodbridge, purchasing the interests
of the firm of Thompson & Folier; and this shop
he ran for about ten years. On September
26, 1883, he was married at the old Jahant ranch, about four miles north of
Woodbridge, to Miss Katherine Jahant; the wedding being a noted affair. Rev. A. J. Compton performed the ceremony,
and not less than eighty invited guests attended. Her parents were Victor and Soli Jahant, the
former a native of Ohio and the latter a native of England. He came to California in 1852, and two years
later bought some 640 acres originally located by Charles Grassard
and Peter Jahant, in 1853, and the next year Victor
Jahant came into possession of said section of land located in Liberty
Township, four miles north of Woodbridge.
Mrs. Newton was one of a family of seven children. Her father was a very energetic farmer, and
kept his ranch in a fine state of cultivation, always using the best farm
machinery he could buy. Wheat at that
time was the main product looked for, and he raised some of the best in the
state. In 1877, he built a splendid
ranch home and there he established his family.
Mr. Newton sold his business in
Woodbridge in about 1887 and they moved to Shasta County, and located at
Anderson; there Mr. Newton opened a butcher and ice business; and he also carried
on the forwarding business at that point, and remained in this line of activity
for four years. On his return to
Woodbridge he engaged in butchering for a year, and he then took a position
with Thompson and Company, at Lodi, where he remained for one year and a half,
resigning to assume public office.
He was elected county supervisor,
1899, and later he was re-elected four times, giving twenty years to the public
service. During the years he served as
supervisor he was for many years’ chairman of the finance committee and also
chairman of the committee on roads, bridges and franchises. Always an advocate of good roads and road
improvement he saw the need for bonding the county to build permanent roads,
but it took two years to get the people thoroughly interested so a bond issue
of $1,890,000 was voted which built the splendid permanent roads of today. Thus San Joaquin County was the first county
in the state to issue bonds to build permanent highways. In fact, Mr. Newton, as supervisor, was an
enthusiastic supporter of every movement for the building up of the county and
bettering the condition and enhancing the comfort and happiness of its
people. Mr. Newton, though repeatedly
offered the chairmanship of the board, steadfastly refused the honor in order
that he might better carry the work he planned from the floor. He was a member of the committee appointed
from different county supervisorial boards to handle the San Joaquin Valley
exhibits for the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. Feeling after giving twenty years to the
office of supervisor that he had done his duty faithfully and wishing to be
free to look after his private business and ranches, he refused to be again a
candidate, so in 1918 he stepped down and out from the office, leaving behind
an enviable record, it being the general opinion that he was one of the best
supervisors San Joaquin County ever had.
Since retiring from office, Mr.
Newton has given himself exclusively to the occupation of vineyardist; sixteen
years ago having set out about fifty acres of the old Jahant ranch to
grapes: thirty acres to Tokay and twenty
acres to wine grapes. He has been
steadily improving his vineyard, and today he has it in a fine-bearing
condition. He also purchased a twenty
acre vineyard adjoining his home place and on each place he has installed
pumping plants. He is now the director
of the Woodbridge Vineyardist Association, and has done much to raise this to a
front rank among similar California organizations.
Always a Democrat in politics, Mr.
Newton has been active in the councils of his party in county and state
politics having served as a member of the county central committee for years as
well as a delegate to county and state conventions. He was a member of the state convention that
nominated James Budd for governor of California.
With the exception of four years
spent in Shasta County, Mr. Newton has made Woodbridge his home since 1869; and
he at present resides in the house formerly belonging to the Folger family,
which he remodeled. Two sons were born
to Mrs. and Mrs. Newton, and one is living.
Charles Victor died at the age of 26; the other son, D. E. Newton, of
Woodbridge, is the field manager of the Pioneer Fruit Company. Mr. Newton is a member of Woodbridge Lodge of
Masons; is past master, and with his wife is member of the O. E. S. He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias,
and the Native Sons of the Golden West.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
434-437. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases