On Saturday, dozens of visitors from all around the state and the nation will return to Newton to catch up with each other and honor one of the county’s most influential historical figures. The annual Doolittle family reunion will be held at the former home of Thomas Irish Doolittle, the site of the first Doolittle reunion 109 years ago.
Thomas Irish was one of the 14 children of Roger Williams Doolittle, who is recorded in history as donating much of the land where the city of Newton was built, forming the town’s first volunteer fire department and supplying the town’s name. After donating the land in the mid 1800s, Roger asked that the town be named after his then youngest son, Newton.
The Doolittle family also established the Civil War cemetery in Newton, now known as Doolittle Cemetery. During the Battle of Vicksburg and shortly after Col. Benjamin Henry Grierson’s raid on the town, around 1,000 wounded Confederate soldiers were treated at the Newton hospital. Roger invited the town’s leadership to bury the approximately 100 soldiers who died at the hospital in his family’s cemetery.
Since then, the Doolittle family has maintained the cemetery that houses 33 burial sites representing known soldiers and 69 representing unknown soldiers.
Roger Williams Doolittle died in April 1889, but his family held the first reunion on Sept. 15, 1908 to celebrate what would have been his 100th birthday.
He was so influential to the town that a painting of him still hangs in the City Hall. Thomas lived in the community north of town known as “Doolittle” and much of the 600 acres where the community was located is now the site of the Newton Industrial Park.
Thomas Irish Doolittle’s former home is currently owned by Dottie and Andy Armstrong, who have allowed the Doolittle family to again use it as the site of the reunion.
The reunion will begin at 9 a.m. when guests are welcome to arrive to stroll around the grounds. Registration will begin at 10 a.m. with the business meeting to start at 11 a.m. and lunch will follow.
