John P. Newburg, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of John P. Newburg
JOHN P. NEWBURG is a resident of Westchester township, Porter county, Indiana, who has by his zeal and industry carved for himself a niche in the district with which he has been closely identified since his early youth. He is the son of Andrew E. and Elna (Holdstom) Newburg, who came to this country from Norway in the year 1864. Andrew E. Newburg died in Westchester township, in 1894, and his wife, Elna Newburg, who was born August 28, 1819, died in Porter, Indiana, March 2, 1883. The militant spirit of the Newburgs is obvious from the fact that, although alien, and bound by no possible ties to take up arms in the war then being waged when he reached this country, Andrew Newburg immediately took service in the Federal army and served in Calvin's Battery K, of the Union army, until the close of the war. He then returned to Porter county, where he entered the employ of the Michigan Central Railroad Company. Mr. and Mrs. Newburg were the parents of two children. The elder was Charles E. Newburg, of Blockerd, Wisconsin, who was born in Norway, January 7, 1858, and the younger John P. Newburg, who was born September 1, 1863, also in Norway.
He was educated in the public schools of Lake and Porter counties, Indiana, and after leaving school, lived a quiet and uneventful life in the pursuits of his chosen labors. On December 3, 1893, shortly after he had passed his thirtieth birthday anniversary, he was married to Miss Clara Louise Erickson, who was born August 12, 1861, in Sweden, and who came to the United States in May, 1891. Mr. and Mrs. Newburg are the parents of three children. The eldest, Victoria L., was born September 15, 1894, and was graduated from the common school of District No. 10 in Westchester township, on May 29, 1911. Julia E., the third child, was born November 25, 1903. The second child, Anna Maurie, is deceased. The parents, with their two daughters, are active and earnest workers in the Swedish Lutheran church, of which they are members, and in which their influence and example is widely felt and appreciated. Mrs. Newburg is one of the industrious and thrifty wives which the Scandinavian Peninsula has furnished, a thorough business woman and one to whom honesty is a cardinal characteristic. She loves her home and her desire is to educate her children in our American schools and properly train them that they may be an honor to their mother and an honor to their home in the United States.
Mr. Newburg is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees, in which fraternal society he carries a life insurance policy for $2,000. He is a staunch Republican, although he has never held any political office. He is the owner of ninety-six acres of valuable farm land in Westchester township, which under his careful supervision yields them a comfortable income, and also enables them to put by something for their maintenance in later life. As a useful citizen and an honored and highly respected resident of Westchester township he occupies a place in his community of which any man might be justly proud, and it is to the stead-going, sober-minded make up of such men as he to which so many of our agricultural communities are indebted for their solidity and responsibility.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company. 1912. History of Porter County, Indiana: A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, its People and its Principal Interests. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company. 881 p.
Page(s) in Source: 822-823
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook