Biographical sketch extracted from:

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887. pp. 702-703.

HON. NEWTON BURWELL, although contemplating a change of residence to some point in the far West, deserves none the less a notice in a work of this kind, as the traces of his work as a reformer in this county are too conspicuous to be ignored. He was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, August 1, 1836, son of James and Sarah (Norman) BURWELL. His father, who was a cooper by trade, moved with the family to this county in 1847, arriving at Bluffton February 7. Here he followed his trade, and for a time was in the employ of the firm of Studabaker & Co. in the warehouse business. Young Newton attended the Bluffton schools; then, in 1856—’57, attended the State University at Bloomington, where, in March, 1858, he graduated in the law department. Returning home, he commenced, during the following month, the practice of law alone. About ten or eleven years afterward he admitted James S. Wisner as partner, but after two years this relation was dissolved, and Mr. Burwell conducted his business alone for a time. From 1872 to 1874 he had Mr. A. N. Martin as a partner. About this time the great tidal wave, known as the “temperance crusade,” began to roll in every direction, until it struck Bluffton, bearing Mr. Burwell upon its crest. A temperance meeting was appointed at the Methodist church, which Mr. Burwell was persuaded to attend. Being known as a public speaker, and the occasion being such as to touch delicately upon personal habits and public relations, he trembled lest he be called upon to speak, and his wife also trembled for him. Sure enough he was called upon, and he took the pulpit, and he surprised the audience, as well as himself, by the inspiration with which he favored the temperance reform. Heart and soul he entered the movement, carrying out his convictions in an honest and earnest endeavor to secure temperance legislation, and “temperance execution” of the laws. Hence, of course, he had some political opposition. In April, 1876, Mr. Burwell moved to Fort Wayne, where for nearly two years he was engaged in the practice of his profession. He was then induced to enter the itineracy of the Methodist Episcopal church, where he served three years, from April, 1878, to April, 1881, on Huntertown circuit, Kendallville station and Ossian circuit, this county, in the North Indiana Conference. Returning to Bluffton he re-engaged, in 1883, in the practice of law, which he has since continued. In his public relations he has served the people of his county faithfully. In 1858, in his youngest days as a practitioner of law, he was elected prosecuting attorney of the common Pleas Court for the counties of Huntington and Wells, but resigned before the close of his first term; served one term as mayor of Bluffton; was trustee of the corporation of Bluffton, and member of the school board; was elected a member of the Legislature in 1804, as a Democrat, when his party was in a hopeless minority, representing the counties of Wells and Blackford. Afterward, while he was again a member of the school board, he was active in forwarding the erection of the present school building, and introduced the graded system. He also took an active interest in the building of the Fort Wayne, Cincinnati & Louisville Railroad, when the people of this county took $100,000 stock in the enterprise, by sustaining the commissioners in making the appropriation. January 31, 1861, is the date of Mr. Burwell’s marriage to Miss Josephine, daughter of Adnah and Abigail (Blatchley) Hall. (A sketch of her father is given elsewhere in this work.) The children of Mr. and Mrs. Burwell are—Anna, who died at the age of six or seven months; Rena, born January 25, 1864, now teaching school in Wichita, Kansas; Alfred Conwell, born February 11, 1866, now attorney at law in Wichita, Kansas, (was admitted to the bar before he was twenty-one years of age); James Burton, born October 14, 1868, now a teacher at Rapid City, among the Black Hills of Dakota; Louise, born December 23, 1872; Walter, who died when about ten months old; Norman Blatchley, born in Fort Wayne August 31, 1876, (their “Centennial boy”); Bessie, born also in Fort Wayne, in July, 1878, and Mary, born in Bluffton in September, 1881. Mrs. Burwell has also been a prominent worker in the temperance cause, and is an exemplary member of society.