Newton

North Newton: Bethel College Administration Building

Newton, city, seat (1872) of Harvey county, central Kansas, U.S. Founded in 1871 and named for Newton, Massachusetts, it was a railhead for the Chisholm Trail cattle drives from 1871 to 1873, when it was designated a division point of the Santa Fe Railroad. In the 1870s Russian Mennonite settlers began raising Turkey Red hard winter wheat brought from their homeland, and this variety became Kansas’s principal agricultural product. Newton is now a trading and shipping centre for the surrounding wheat-growing area. Also significant to Newton’s economy are railroad maintenance shops, food-processing and grain-milling plants, and factories that manufacture mobile homes. Bethel College (1887) in North Newton is the oldest Mennonite college in the United States; the Kauffman Museum on its campus features collections of antique automobiles and pioneer relics, as well as a reconstructed prairie with 16 species of native grasses and more than 100 species of wildflowers. A popular area attraction is the Mennonite Heritage Museum in Goessel, north of Newton. Inc. 1872. Pop. (2000) 17,190; (2010) 19,132.