Newton Township covers an area of 36.33 square miles (94.1 km2) and contains no incorporated settlements.

[3] Newtonville was established in 1873, when a post office was built near the center of the township,[3] at 42.347°N 91.675°W (Sections 16 and 17, see map on right).

[4] Monti was founded in 1885, on Buffalo Creek in the northern part of the township, at the location of the Catholic church (Sections 2 and 3).

[5] With the introduction of Rural Free Delivery in 1902, both the Newtonville and Monti post offices closed.

[6] In 1911, the village of Kiene was founded 1.5 miles west of Monti at 42.384°N 91.661°W (Section 4), the result of a planned railway through the area.

[7][8] The Chicago, Anamosa and Northern (CAN) Railway was built through Newton Township in 1912 and passed through both Kiene and Monti.

Monti soon became a small but bustling community, with stores, a blacksmith shop, a bank, and a flag station.

[5] The official 1956 school district map for Buchanan County shows only the locations of Kiene and Monti; by this time, the other villages were gone.

[19] Today the only settlement left in Newton Township is Monti; traces of the old railroad grade can still be seen at the northern edge of the hamlet.