BIO: NEWELL, William H., Campbell Co., KY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contributed for use in US GenWeb Archives by the Kentucky Biography Project Date: Wednesday, July 10, 2002 Subject: BIO: NEWELL, William H., Campbell Co., KY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ******************************************************************************* USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogical information on the Internet, data may be freely used for personal research and by non-commercial entities as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for profit or any form of presentation, must obtain the written consent of the file submitter, or his legal representative and then contact the listed USGENWEB archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net. ******************************************************************************* HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes, Lewis Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, Vol. III, pp. 1231-32. [Campbell County] WILLIAM H. NEWELL, a member of that important concern, the Ohio Custom Garment Company, of Cincinnati, is a Democrat who was elected in 1909 a representative to the Kentucky legislature from a Republican district (the eighty-fourth). He was a member of many committees of importance and the author of the bill classifying cities and towns which became a law. He is one of the most prominent Elks in the state, is a man of versatility and one who has had an interesting and varied career. Mr. Newell was born in Newport December 19, 1871, and is of foreign extraction, his parents, Matthew and Rosa (Cochran) Newell, having been born, the former near Manchester, England, and the latter in Ireland. They were married in England and came to the United States in the later '50s, locating first in Cincinnati and later in Newport, Kentucky, where they still reside. Young Newell spent his boyhood and youth in his native place, attending the parochial schools and later the public schools and supplementing this with a business course in in the Commercial College in Cincinnati. He early manifested talent as an artist and for a number of years traveled over the country giving exhibitions of rapid work in crayon and oil, having devoted considerable attention to the cultivation of the latter branch. For sixteen years he was engaged in newspaper and editorial work in Cincinnati upon various of the Queen City journals, and gained that broad experience with human nature and all sorts and conditions of men which can nowhere be acquired with such facility as in the capacity of a servant of the Fourth Estate. Mr. Newell's career as a public man began in 1902 when he was elected by the Newport water works commission as its secretary and superintendent and has served for the ensuing eight years, up to the present time, in that responsible office. He resigned to accept his present position with the Ohio Custom Garment Company of Cincinnati, which he had assisted in organizing July, 1909, he being one of the partners in the concern. They manufacture clothing for merchant tailors, their trade taking in a majority of the states. The plant is one of some magnitude, about one hundred persons being employed during the busy season. Mr. Newell has been active in Democratic politics for a number of years and for four years served as secretary of the city and county Democratic committee. In the fall of 1909 he was elected on the ticket of his party as representative to the state legislature from the Eighty-fourth district of Kentucky. He proved an able legislator and was a member of various committees, among them those on commerce and manufacturing, county and city courts, municipalities, geological survey, and others. His efforts to secure beneficial legislation for this section were able and fruitful, and the bill fathered by him to secure classification of cities and towns became a law. As previously stated, Mr. Newell is one of Newport's prominent Elks. He is a member of Newport Lodge No. 273, and holds life membership in the same having served as its secretary for ten years. He assisted in the organization of the state association of Elks at Georgetown, Kentucky, and was elected first vice-president. He is also an Eagle and has the distinction of being the first Eagle in the Blue Grass state, his number being 1. In this lodge likewise he has long held the office of secretary. The marriage of Mr. Newell to Miss Mary E. McCarthy, took place in November, 1902. Mrs. Newell is a daughter of John McCarthy, a well-known resident of Newport. Two daughters have been born to this union, by name Laura Marie and Mary Elizabeth. Both Mr. Newell and his wife are members of the Catholic church. *******************************************************************************