Newton County /

Newton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2010, the population was 21,720. Its county seat is Decatur. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 580 square miles (1,501 km²), of which, 578 square miles (1,497 km²) of it is land and 2 square miles (4 km²) of it (0.27%) is water. Newton County was formed in 1836. All sources say it was named in honor of Sir Isaac Newton, including the 1896 history of Newton County. Newton County is adjacent to Jasper County, which was named for Sgt. William Jasper, a Revolutionary War hero of the Siege of Savannah in 1779. Sgt. John Newton had a very similar history. Early in the 1800s, many places were named for these men. At least four other states, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri and Texas, have adjacent Jasper and Newton Counties. At least two states, Illinois and Iowa, have Newton as the county seat of Jasper County. In Arkansas, Jasper is the county seat of Newton County. The frequency of occurrence of these names in juxtaposition shows that the stories of Sgts. Jasper and Newton were widely known, and associated with each other at the time these counties were named. As of the census of 2000,