Newton Down Under

Urban migration necessitated the development of systems that could provide sufficient drinking water as well as handle wastewater. In the mid-1800s, we had learned that diseases like cholera, dysentery, and typhoid were caused by drinking contaminated water. From then on, efforts were made to keep drinking water and wastewater separated.

Clean water was captured and distributed from upstream and wastewater was discharged downstream. Given that there are often numerous communities located along waterways, this system did not solve the issue of sharing wastewater with downstream neighbors. Even so, most wastewater went completely untreated until the passing of the 1972 Clean Water Act.

By the turn on the century, the population of Newton had grown to 1583. That number would nearly triple to 4,400 by the late 1930s. And, by 1950, there were 6039 residents calling Newton home.

In 1900, most of the town's residents lived along the street grid extending out from the courthouse square. During that period, a building boom began as rural county residents moved into town looking for work at one of the mills in Newton's growing textile industry. And, by 1908, the town had installed its first water distribution system to meet the ever-growing demand for water by both residents and industry. A pumphouse was built along Hildebran Creek to distribute untreated water throughout the fledgling system. That building is still visible near the Greenway trailhead on W 7th Street.