Elsie Eaton Newton

Elsie Eaton Newton (February 6, 1871 – January 12, 1941) was an American educator with the United States Indian Service, and the first Dean of Women at Marietta College in Ohio.

Elsie Eaton Newton
Born	Elsie Eaton February 6, 1871 Washington, D.C.
Died	January 12, 1941 Warner, New Hampshire
Occupation(s)	educator, college administrator
Known for	Work with US Indian Service, YWCA; Dean of Women, Marietta College
Parent	John Eaton Jr.

Early life

Elsie Eaton was born February 6, 1871, in Washington, D.C.,^[1] the daughter of General John Eaton Jr. and Alice Eugenia Shirley Eaton.^[2] She graduated from Lake Erie Seminary.^[3] Later in life, she graduated from Marietta College in Ohio.^[4]

Career

Elsie Eaton Newton was a health and education supervisor at the United States Indian Service before World War I.^[5] She wrote articles,^[6] spoke at conferences,^[7] and gave reports on prevention measures against contagious diseases such as tuberculosis^[8] and trachoma^[9] at reservations and federal schools.^[10] She served on the War Work Council of the YWCA during World War I, advising on health outreach and recreational programs for Native American girls.^[11][12]

Newton was a member of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality, the National Association of Women Deans and Counselors, and the American Child Hygiene Association,^[13] and a charter member of the Toledo, Ohio, chapter of Sorosis.^[1]

From 1919 to 1922, Newton was assistant to the Dean of Women at Cornell University.^[14] In 1924 she was named first Dean of Women at Marietta College, an office she held until 1929.^[4][15] A women's residence hall at that school is named in her memory.^[16]

Personal life and legacy

Elsie Eaton married Charles William Newton, a medical doctor from Ohio, in 1894; they had two daughters, Janet and Mary Alice,^[1] before he died in 1904.^[17] Elsie Eaton Newton died January 12, 1941, aged 69 years, in Warner, New Hampshire.^[18] In 1957, a portrait of Newton was donated to Marietta College by her elder daughter, Janet Newton Dawes.^[19][20]

References

1. Leonard, John William (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. American Commonwealth Company. pp. 596. Elsie Eaton Newton.
2. Cheney J. Schopieray, Finding aid for Eaton-Shirley Family Papers, 1790-1939 (2003), University of Michigan, Manuscripts Division, William L. Clements Library.
3. College, Lake Erie (1910). Lake Erie College Jubilee Commencement, Fiftieth Anniversary, June Twentieth to Twenty-fourth, Nineteen Hundred and Nine. Alumnæ Association. p. 152.
4. Beach, Arthur Granville (1935). A pioneer college: the story of Marietta. Priv. Print. [The John F. Cuneo Company]. p. 282.
5. "Mrs. E. E. Newton on Indian Education". The Indian's Friend: 2. August 1910.
6. Newton, Elsie Eaton (September 1910). "The Indian and Tuberculosis; What the Government is Doing". Journal of the Outdoor Life. 7: 260–262.
7. "The Indian and Tuberculosis". The Native American. 10: 110–112. March 20, 1909.
8. Elsie Eaton Newton, "The Indians and Tuberculosis" The Twenty-Sixth Annual Lake Mohonk Conference of Friends of the Indian and Other Dependent Peoples (1908): 21.
9. Elsie Eaton Newton, "A Health Campaign Among the Blackfeet Indians" Report of the 34th Annual Lake Mohonk Conference on the Indian and Other Dependent Peoples 34(1916): 107-109.
10. Lindsey, Donal F. (1995). Indians at Hampton Institute, 1877-1923. University of Illinois Press. p. 105. ISBN 9780252021060.
11. "A Loan to the Y.W.C.A." War Work Bulletin: 4. May 30, 1919.
12. "Chatter". The American Indian Magazine: 118. Summer 1919.
13. "Membership List". Transactions of the American Child Hygiene Association. 6: 450. 1915.
14. White, Georgia L. (1923). "Report of the Dean of Women". Annual Report of [the] President. Cornell University. pp. lii.
15. "President John Eaton". Marietta College. 2016-06-20. Retrieved 2019-09-18.
16. "About Your Room". Marietta College. 2016-03-31. Retrieved 2019-09-18.
17. Shrady, George Frederick; Stedman, Thomas Lathrop (May 21, 1904). "Obituary Notes". Medical Record. 65: 822.
18. "Mrs. Elsie Eaton Newton". Chicago Tribune. January 13, 1941. p. 10. Retrieved September 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
19. "Gift to College". The Cincinnati Enquirer. August 25, 1957. p. 11. Retrieved September 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
20. "Portrait Dedicated". The Cincinnati Enquirer. February 19, 1958. p. 15. Retrieved September 18, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.