This gentleman, well known throughout the county of Greene, and highly respected for his sterling integrity and masculine common sense, is descended from one of the oldest and most prominent families of the early days of this town. He was a son of John and Eunice (Bushnell) Newton, and was born in West Kill village, August 30th 1808. His father was of good Connecticut stock, a son of  Silas Newton, of Cheshire town, that State, and was born February 3rd 1776. In this town he spent his minority, during which he served an old-time apprenticeship at the wheelwright business, and then came to Lexington, in 1797, settling in this village, and establishing himself in his trade, marrying Captain Bushnell's daughter Eunice, January 25th 1798, and to whom Julia M. and Orlando L. were born, May 5th 1800, and August 30th 1808, respectively.  Captain Elijah Bushnell (born April 10th 1746) married, February 12th 1769, Eunice Pratt (born May 10th 1750), to whom ten children were born: Elijah, Jr., Zerriah, Aaron, Eunice (born October 16th 1778), Samuel, Lewis, Lucia, Ira, Anson and Alvin (born ) October 4th 1793.  Of all this large family of Bushnells, and their male descendants, not one is left in the town to bear the time-honored name.

 

Orlando L. Newton was reared in the village, or on the farm of his father, of whom he learned the wheelwright trade, which he has followed more or less since. He received the education common to the early district schools. He married, April 8th 1830, Harriet P. Bump (born December 23rd 1809), daughter of Elijah and Rebecca (Anjevine) Bump, of French extraction. To this union were born: Champion M., May 15th 1831, married Orthelia N. Kipp, October 15th 1859, died February 20th 1867;  Corydon B., December 3rd 1832, married Minerva Clawson, April 20th 1858;  West C., August 24th 1834, married Myra Winne, April 7th 1869;  Augustus T., May 10th 1836, married Rachel Dubois, October 13th 1857;  Iretus D., December 1st 1838, married Lolla T. Clark, May 22nd 1862; Orlando L. Jr., October 22nd 1844, married Ruth E. Winters, May 12th 1868; and Harriet M., December 11th 1849, married James L. Allaben.

 

John Newton died November 29th 1853, aged 78 years, and Eunice, his wife, February 15th 1868, aged 88 years. Harriet P. Newton died March 3rd 1872.

 

Mr. O.L. Newton married, May 7th 1873, for his second wife, Mrs. Ruth Christina Van Valkenburgh, relict of Jacob Van Valkenburgh, of Lexington.  She died in 1877, and for his third wife, he married, November 21st 1877, Miss Rebecca A. Bump of Windham, a cousin of his first wife, and a daughter of Roswell Bump, formerly of Dutchess county.

 

Mr. Newton, from early manhood, has been most emphatically a representative citizen, and, by a distinctly marked course of conduct, has won and long enjoyed the high respect of his fellow townsmen, as well as those of the county who were numbered among his constituency. He held some town office for over 32 successive years, as well as several appointments as notary public. Always  a staunch democrat of the Jacksonian school, he was nominated to represent the county in the General Assembly for 1881, and elected by a good majority (452), and participated in the excited scenes, the result of the Conkling-Platt resignation. This year (1883) he was also supervisor.

---