Introduction

Biography

Martha was the daugh­ter of John Haymes Mills and Eli­za­beth Ann Ar­ring­ton Will­iams, and wife of Bap­tist min­is­ter Jef­fer­son Da­vis New­ton (mar­ried 1889).

She was a po­et and an ac­comp­lished pi­ano­for­te play­er, and wrote ov­er 50 hymns. She once heard one of her hymns sung by a 3,000 voice choir (like­ly on the radio) be­fore she ev­en knew it had been pub­lished. She ne­ver re­ceived more than $5 for a hymn, and pay­ment was more oft­en on­ly $2.

She taught mu­sic in the Rich Fork Com­mu­ni­ty (Pi­lot area) of North Ca­ro­li­na, and lived for 30 years in Tho­mas­ville on land where the New Com­mu­ni­ty Ge­ne­ral Hos­pi­tal was ev­en­tu­al­ly built.

She and her hus­band were in Da­vid­son County, North Ca­ro­li­na, in 1900, 1910, 1920 & 1930.