Isaac Newton Jr. family.

The oldest son of Isaac Newton Sr. and Hannah H. C. Newton, Isaac Newton Jr. was born in New York City on August 4, 1837 and attended the Columbia College Grammar School at Hamilton College in New York. He studied civil engineering at the University of the City of New York, receiving his degree in 1856. Under his father's tutelage, Newton worked in the Delamater (Phoenix Foundry) Iron Works in New York City and at the Novelty Iron Works. From there, Newton served as an assistant engineer on the People's Line and from 1857 to 1858, he served as an engineer on the Collins Line between New York and Liverpool. In 1859, Newton received his engineer's certificate from the State of New York. At the start of hostilities in the Civil War, Newton sought a commission with the United States Navy. After passing his examinations, he was commissioned as First Assistant Engineer, U.S. Navy, on June 14, 1861, and was ordered to report to the USS Roanoke. He served on the Roanoke, under Chief Engineer Alban Stimers, as part of the Federal blockade squadron off of Charleston Harbor. Newton was transferred from the Roanoke, on November 20th, 1861, and in accord with John Ericsson and Alban Stimer's wishes, he was assigned to duties in connection with the construction of the USS Monitor. Upon the ship's completion in January 1862, Newton volunteered as First Assistant Engineer and participated in her voyage from New York to Hampton Roads and subsequently in the Monitor's historic confrontation with the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia on March 9, 1862. He remained on board Monitor until August 1862, when transferred to the Office of the General Inspector of Ironclads, where he served as superintendent of construction. During the next three years, Newton was involved in the construction and preparation of plans and specifications for the construction of an Atlantic Coast ironclad fleet. On February 8, 1865, he resigned his commission in the Navy and took charge, as engineer, of the Broad Top Coal Company's Works (Kemble Coal and Iron Company). By 1868, Newton was working with former general George McClellan reconstructing the Stevens' Steam Battery at Hoboken. In June of 1869, the Secretary of the Navy appointed him to a Navy board to examine the condition and needs of the steamships in the Navy. From 1871 to 1872, Newton was an assistant to McClellan in the Department of Docks of the City of New York. Over the course of the next decade, Isaac Newton was engaged with the railways of Prince Edward Island, U.S. Rolling Stock Company, Burlington and Southwestern Railway, International Railways of Nova Scotia, and the New York Rapid Transit Commission. He was a member of the United States Court of Claims in the Monitor cases and was a trustee of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge. On March 3, 1880, Newton was elected as a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. On March 15, 1881, Newton was appointed chief engineer of the Department of Public Works of the City of New York. As chief engineer for the department, Newton developed and designed the Croton Aqueduct. Isaac Newton would not live to see the completion of this project, as he died on September 25, 1884.

Isaac Newton Sr. was born January 16, 1794. His father, Abner Newton, is listed as a Revolutionary War veteran from the colony of New York. Isaac Sr. is listed on several documents as a merchant and ship master. A sailing card in the collection identified him as the master of the DeWitt Clinton (Sloop : 1825) in 1830. He also owned the steamship New World and was the founder of the People's Line between Albany and New York City. His sister Rena Newton (d. 1862) seems to have worked with the family to furnish the ships of the People's Line. He had two children by a first marriage: a daughter, Frances Maria Newton (1824-1912), born in Albany, New York; and a son George, born in 1822, who pre-deceased him. By his second wife, Hannah Humphreys C. Newton, he had 7 children: Isaac Jr.; John C. Newton (1839-1884); Alice R. Newton (1841-1917); James B. Newton (1843-1912); Henry C. Newton (1845-1899); Charles D. Newton (1847-1919); and William K. Newton (1850-1909). He died in 1859 in New York City.

Little is known of the Isaac Newton Sr. family other than concerning Isaac Jr. Charles D. Newton worked for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in 1879. Dr. Henry C. Newton was a noted geologist and a recognized expert in iron and steel metallurgy. He assisted in the geological survey of Ohio and was appointed Assistant Geologist on the scientific expedition to the Black Hills in 1876. He took the Ph.D. from the Columbia School of Mines in 1877. Dr. William K. Newton was a physician in New York City and Paterson, NJ. He was assistant resident surgeon at Nurses and Child's Hospital in New York and served on the city's Board of Health. He became sanitary inspector of New Jersey in 1882 and was elected president of the New Jersey Sanitary Association. He was the family physician of Vice-President Garret A. Hobart. Alice R. Newton married James W. Raynor in 1866, and their son, Captain S. Russell Raynor (b. 1867) served as executor to the estate of his grandmother Hannah. He was involved in the Spanish-American War and World War I in the New York Naval Militia. James and Alice R. Newton Raynor also had a daughter Mary Raynor (b. 1870).

From the description of Isaac Newton Jr. family papers, 1829-1932. (The Mariners' Museum Library). WorldCat record id: 760314613