Norton, J. C.

NORTON

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 8/11/2008 at 13:43:30

J. C. Norton

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.71, Belknap Twp.)
J. C. Norton, hardware and furniture, Oakland, was born in Livingston County, N. Y., June 13, 1836, son of William C. and Harriet (Thayer) Norton; he born in Onondaga County, N. Y.,in January, 1811, is a carpenter, living in Oakfield, Audubon County, Iowa; she, born in Oneida County, N. Y., in September, 1813, is the mother of three sons and four daughters. The girls received sufficient education to enable them to teach, but Mr. Norton, being the oldest child, was deprived of school advantages, till he became twenty-three years old, when he attended school two years, and one year later he obtained a certificate for teaching. Mr. Norton early learned the trade of carpentering, and worked at home till twenty-one years of age. In October, 1856, Mr. Norton's parents migrated to Audubon County, Iowa, where our subject worked at his trade summers and engaged in trapping, winters. In 1867, Mr. Norton opened a mercantile business in Oakfield, Audubon County, Iowa; there he continued two years, and in 1869 came to Avoca, Pottawattamie County, when there were but two houses in the place. He was engaged in merchandising in Avoca till 1875, when he sold out and started West for his health, spenind a year and a half in California and Oregon; while in the latter State, he engaged in the sewing machine business, which he sold in 1876, and then returned to Avoca. After returning to the latter place, Mr. Norton retired from business till 1880, when he erected the first building in the new town of Oakland, where he has since conducted a mercantile business, the firm name being Nortion & Bryant. Mr. Norton was married in Oakfield, Iowa, February 2, 1868, to Susie Ostrander, born in Illinois in 1846, daughter of James Ostrander, a native of New York State, and a farmer by occupation. Mr. and Mrs. Norton have four children - Elmer D., born November 4, 1871; Arthur, June 28, 1876; Jessie, June 28, 1878 and Clarice, born September 9, 1881. Mr. Norton is a member of the Congregational Church and is a Republican.