principal of schools and editor and proprietor of the Wayne City News, is essentially one of the foremost men of this city, in which he has been active since 1906, that being the year which marks the purchase of the plant of the Wayne City News by him. Mr. Draper is a native son of Wayne county, born here on December 22, 1875, the son of John W. and Rebecca J. (Witter) Draper, of whose life and ancestry it is fitting that a few brief words be said here.

John W. Draper was a native of Tennessee, and a son of William L. Draper, who migrated to Illinois from Tennessee, in 1856. He was the grandson of Joshua Draper, also a native of Tennessee, but who was of Virginia parentage and ancestry since the beginning of the Virginia. colonies. Joshua Draper fought in the Revolutionary war, and his ancestors came directly from England in the latter part of the seventeenth century, settling in New England, where the family continued to abide until in the early part of the nineteenth century, when the direct ancestors migrated to Tennessee. John W. Draper, the father of Newton W., married Rebecca J. Witter, a daughter of James and Sarah Witter, of North Hamilton county, Illinois, her parents coming from Kentucky. Five children were born to them: Newton W.; Mrs. Sarah E. Simpson; Francis Marion; Daniel, deceased; and Otha C. Mrs. Draper died in 1882, and in later years Mr. Draper married Malinda Ballard. Two children have been born of this  union,—Cly and Rebecca.

Newton W. was educated in the common schools of Wayne county, later attending the Southern Illinois Normal at Carbondale, and graduating from the Northwestern University Academy at Evanston, Illinois, in 1904, his education thus being of a high order and well suited to his calling in life. In 1904 and 1905 Mr. Draper was principal of the Fairfield high school, and in the fall of 1905 came to Wayne City as principal of schools, and he has labored continuously in educational work, with the exception of two years which he gave to exclusive newspaper work. In June, 1906, Mr. Draper bought the plant of the Wayne City News, which had been established there in 1903 by Woods Brothers, and since that time he has conducted the newspaper in conjunction with his other duties. The paper has a circulation of five hundred and is especially well patronized as an advertising medium. It is an eight page sheet, newsy and instructive, and is the organ of Republicanism in this locality.

Mr. Draper is a member of the Baptist church of Wayne City and is prominent in the allied work of that body, being superintendent of the Sunday-school and active in other branches. He was secretary of the Wayne County Sunday School Association for four years.

On June 6, 1906, Mr. Draper married Miss Mary P. Carter, of Fairfield, the daughter of William H. Carter. They have two children,— Dorothy, aged four years, and Elvira, two years old.