M. D. NEWELL, PIONEER SETTLER PASSES AWAY

Eighty Nine Year Old Resident Came To The State In 1865

HAD BEEN RESIDENT HERE SINCE 1900

M. D. Newell, a resident of Blair since 1900, passed away at his home near the Cassetter Park on Wednesday evening, November 16th, at 8:30 o’clock.

Deceased was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on September 16, 1855, and at the age of ten years came with his parents in a covered wagon. Crossing the river at Council Bluffs, the family settled at Elk City where they resided for three years. In 1868 the family moved west of Herman where the father homesteaded.

On September 7, 1880 Mr. Newell was married to Susan T. Hall at New England. Judge Alonzo Perkins issued the marriage license and Rev. John Patrick performed the ceremony. They resided in this county until 1884 when they went to Frontier County where the deceased took up a homestead and where they resided until 1900 when they returned to this county and settled in Blair.

Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Newell, Mrs. Fred Jenkins of Blair and Edward S. Newell of Glendale, California. These, with the aged widow, now past 82 years of age, survive of the immediate family. Besides these, there are six grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Several nephews and nieces also survive, among whom are Mrs. Lutie I. McKay, Forrest and Kate Newell of Blair and John Newell of Los Angeles, California.

A member of the Church of God for the past fifty years, deceased lived the part, honorable in his transactions with his fellow men and conscientious in all details, he was held in high esteem by all who knew him. His pioneer experiences in this section of the state and in the western part made him a colorful and entertaining figure, and in his passing the state and county loses another of those early pioneers whose place cannot be filled.

He was of a methodical nature and his accounts of his life which he has kept are indeed interesting and will be sacred to the remaining members of the family.

Funeral services will be held on Friday, November 17th, from the Bendorf Funeral Home with J. W. Williams of Gladbrook, Iowa, assisted by the local minister of the Omaha church officiating, and interment will be made in the Blair Cemetery.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library~~~

Find a Grave Memorial #110486879