Joshua G. Newbold

Joshua Gaskill Newbold (May 12, 1830 – June 10, 1903) was the tenth governor of Iowa.

Early life Newbold was born in 1830 to Barzilla and Catherine Houseman Newbold in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Newbold grew up in a Quaker family in Pennsylvania. Later he became a Baptist, specifically Free Will Baptist. He moved to Mount Pleasant, Iowa in March 1854, where he was a farmer.

Civil war service He joined the Union Army in 1862 as captain of Company C, 25th Iowa Infantry Regiment, and fought at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, the Battle of Fort Hindman, the Third Battle of Chattanooga, the Battle of Ringgold Gap, the Atlanta campaign, and Sherman's March to the Sea. Towards the end of his service, he served as a Judge's Advocate in Woodville, Alabama. He served three years before discharging due to a disability.

Postbellum Newbold served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1872 to 1876. He was elected Lieutenant Governor as a Republican in 1876, and succeeded to the governorship when Samuel J. Kirkwood resigned to take a seat in the United States Senate. During his tenure, he worked to reduce the state's deficit problem and improve the tax system. He left office in January 1878.

Personal life On May 2, 1850, he married Rachel Farquhar in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. They had five children.

From 1899 to 1903, Newbold was mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where he died and was buried in the Forest Home cemetery in 1903.