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Bradford Founders Series - Augustus W. Newell
April 5, 2008
AUGUSTUS W. NEWELL
AUGUSTUS WILLIAM NEWELL was born October 9, 1832, at Newton, Mass. He attended the schools of Brookline, Mass. At the age of thirteen years he began the study of civil engineering. He was in his father’s office when a young man, and later helped survey the routes of different railroads. Daniel Kingsbury, his uncle, had purchased of the United States Land Company 200,000 acres of land in McKean County, Pa., and young Newell gave his uncle the money he had saved to invest in land in that county. He then settled at Bradford. He helped survey the route for and to build the Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg Railroad, his uncle being president and a large stockholder of the company. The company went into bankruptcy, owing young Newell considerable money.
He conceived the idea of hiring an engine and running a train himself. Obtaining permission to do this, he hired a man, and they mowed the grass off of the track from Bradford to Carrollton, twelve miles, and commenced railroading. He was the fireman, engineer, brakeman, and conductor himself, and soon made enough to pay the company’s indebtedness to him. He was afterwards, and for several years, a director in the company. Mr. Newell invested his money in lands, and began the extensive real-estate business which he has carried on ever since. He has sold his land at greatly increased prices, and is to-day still one of the heaviest real-estate and property owners in this region of the state.
Mr. Newell was married, February 17, 1861, to Anna M. Haynes, who died in 1864. They had one child, Frederick Haynes Newell, who has for years been a valued employee of the United States government. Mr. Newell married, in 1877, Miss Phoebe Lewis, and they have three children : Lewis, Henry Foster, and Augustus William. Mr. Newell has ever been deeply interested in the growth and prosperity of Bradford. He was instrumental in the organization of its system of water-works, and for a number of years was a member of the water board. He has been school director, and was postmaster under President Lincoln. Governor Beaver appointed him commissioner from Pennsylvania to the International Exposition at Paris. He is a member of the American Association of Engineers, and went with the members to Europe in 1889. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and enjoys the distinction of having been the first member initiated in the oldest lodge of this city, No. 334. He is a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has served as one of its officers for years. His life has been an honorable, upright, and useful one.
This book has been digitized by the Google Book Project.
Originally published in 1899, and now in the public domain, this excerpt is from "Between the ocean and the lakes;: The story of Erie"
by Edward Harold Mott.From the chapter titled, “Men Of Mark In Erie Towns”.
Topics: History, Local Interest |
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