The Newton H. Kingman collection (20 items) contains 16 letters and postcards that Kingman sent to Judge Edward D. Shurtleff of Marengo, Illinois, between September 11, 1928, and November 9, 1933; a biography of Kingman published on his 91st birthday (May 20, 1928); an additional letter and postcard to Shurtleff (March 23, 1929, and May 30, 1935); and a newspaper clipping (October 19, 1933). A few of Kingman's early letters are copied on stationery belonging to Shurtleff.
Kingman's correspondence with Shurtleff pertains to his genealogy, his health, his involvement in local South Dakota politics in the mid-1880s, and contemporary party politics; he supported Herbert Hoover, the Republican Party, and temperance. Kingman commented on the commemorative biography first printed on his 90th birthday and responded to Shurtleff's attempts to locate Kingman family grave markers. One postcard with a holly border contains printed Christmas greetings (December 25, 1931). Shurtleff also received a letter from Lew Siebrecht and Mrs. F. McCormick regarding the death of their father, August Siebrecht, and a postcard from Mrs. E[dmund] B[ogardus] Kingman about Newton H. Kingman's inability to write.
The remaining items are a newspaper clipping with images of the South Dakota prairie (October 19, 1933) and the second edition of Life Story of Captain Newton H. Kingman, issued on his 91st birthday (May 20, 1928). The 39-page booklet includes a description of his Civil War services and pictures of Kingman in and out of uniform.
Newton Hawes Kingman was born in Geauga County, Ohio, on May 20, 1837, the son of Edmund Kingman and Hannah Hawes. The Kingman family moved to Walworth County, Wisconsin, in 1849, and Newton Kingman briefly attended Albion Academy until early 1861, when he enlisted in Company K of the 1st Wisconsin Infantry Regiment. The regiment mustered out in August 1861; Kingman soon joined Company I of the 13th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, with which he served until September 8, 1865. He was commissioned a captain by the end of the war.
After working as a traveling salesman for several years, Kingman moved to Indiana, where he and a brother formed the publishing firm Kingman Brothers in 1876. In mid-1883, he moved to Walworth County in present-day South Dakota, where he built a homestead; his family joined him the following year. Kingman held local political offices in the mid- to late 1890s and became a land broker in 1899, moving to Selby, South Dakota, in 1900. In 1918, he retired to Eugene, Oregon. Kingman married Mary E. Davis (1842-1924) on November 26, 1866, and they had four children: May Louise (b. 1868), Arthur Judson (b. 1869), Newton Hawes, Jr., (b. 1871), and Edmund Bogardus (b. 1881). Newton H. Kingman died in 1937.
