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and died at Merrimack, March 19, 1915. She was descended from the English family, Leeds.
Mr. Norris was graduated from the high school at Baraboo, Wisconsin in 1884. He taught school in Nebraska for 12 years, was station agent at Abie, Nebraska, in the employ of the Chicago & Northwestern Company for six years, and served as agent at Dunning, Nebraska, for six years. A Republican, he was county clerk of Blaine County from 1908 to 1927, and since 1927 has been state representative from the 91st district. He is affiliated with the Congregational Church, the Masonic Lodge, and the Nebraskana Society. During the World War he served as a member of the selective board.
His marriage to Verna Mary Treaster was solemnized at Schuyler, Nebraska, October 11, 1890. Mrs. Norris, whose ancestry was German, was born at Exeter, Nebraska, June 21, 1872, and died at Brewster, December 12, 1912. Five children were born to this marriage; Ethel, March 12, 1891, who died December 9, 1915; Mabel, May 27, 1896, who married Ross N. Wilkinson; Bernice, March 13, 1899, who married Herbert Moore; Harold, May 18, 1902, who married Virginia Lyons; and Dan C., Jr., March 13, 1911.
Mr. Norris' marriage to Olive S. Ball was solemnized at Brewster, May 7, 1914. Mrs. Norris was born at McCook, Nebraska, May 25, 1883. She is the daughter of Peter and Elizabeth (Rowe) Muntz. Her father was a pioneer settler of Red Willow County, Nebraska. She is a member of the Congregational Church at Brewster. She has one daughter by a former marriage, Wilma L., born May 20, 1901, who married Harold W. Cochran of Bartley, Nebraska. They now reside at York, Nebraska. Residence: Brewster. (Photograph in Album).
George William Norris
George W. Norris, lawyer and United States senator from Nebraska, was born in Sandusky County, Ohio, July 11, 1861. He is the son of Chauncey and Mary (Mook) Norris, both of whom are deceased. Mr. Norris was first married to Pluma Lashley of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, who died at McCook in 1901. There are three children of this marriage: Gertrude, born March 21, 1900, married to George Brandon Rath; Marian, born February 11, 1897, married to Harvey Frans Nelson, and Hazel, born January 10, 1895, married to John Porteus Robertson. His second marriage was to Ellie Leonard, 1903.
In his youth Senator Norris worked on a farm summers and went to country schools in winter, thus obtaining his elmentary (sic) education. He attended Baldwin University and Northern Indiana Normal School. Later, while teaching, he studied law, afterward attending Valparaiso University, and was admitted to the bar.
A Republican, he was prosecuting attorney three terms. Later he was judge of the fourteenth Nebraska district, 1895-1902. In 1903 he was elected to United States Congress as representative from the fifth Nebraska district, and served during the 58th, 59th, 60th and 62nd congresses. Elected to the United States Senate in 1913, his third term expired in 1931; he was re-elected.
Senator Norris is a Mason, Odd Fellow and Modern Woodman of America. He resides at McCook. His hobby is reading. Residence: McCook. (Photograph on Page 886).
Viola Hinds Norris
On January 18, 1890, Viola Hinds Norris was born at Harrisburg, Banner County, Nebraska, the daughter of H. P. and Susie E. (Phillips) Hinds. Her father, who was born at Shabbona's Grove, Illinois, September 29, 1851, was a pioneer in western Nebraska in the early 70's. A teacher for twelve years and a county judge for four, he is descended from Scotch ancestors who came to America 14 years after the landing of the Mayflower, the Andre Revolutionary stock.
Susie Hinds, mother of Mrs. Norris, was born near Alton, Illinois, October 2, 1858. Her maternal grandfather was killed in the battle of Shilo during the Civil War.
Mrs. Norris was educated in the Wabash (Nebraska) grade schools after which she attended the Weeping Water High School. In 1907 and 1908 she was a student at the Nebraska Wesleyan University.
She is a Republican and has served on election boards at various times. She is manager of the poultry division of the Norris White Rock Farm, which is one of the outstanding exhibition flocks in the state; she has written many articles on 4-H club work, the care of poultry, published in farm magazines; and has been active in 4-H club work for many years. She has trained several 4-H club demonstration teams that have won championships at state fairs. In 1927 her team was chosen to represent Nebraska internationally at the Poultry Congress at Ottawa, Canada. Her son was a member of this team, which was declared the best at the meet.
She married Ray Ellsworth Norris at Wabash, Cass County, Nebraska, December 29, 1909. Mr. Norris, who is a farmer, was born at Avoca, Cass County, Nebraska, January 7, 1887. They have one son, Clarence, born November 24, 1910. He is a sophomore at the University of Nebraska where he is a member of Alpha Theta Chi Fraternity; was one of the four outstanding 4-H club members to represent Nebraska at the National Camp, at Washington, D. C., in 1929; and has taken an active part in the various university activities.
Mrs. Norris is a leader in clubs of all kinds; is a member of the Woman's Club, and now secretary and treasurer of the Cass County Federation of Women's Clubs. and the Project Extension Club; is a leader of boys' and girls' 4-H clubs, having taken charge of from one to three organizations of this kind every year for the last eight years. She is a member of the Red Cross, the Helping Hand Aid Society, holding offices in the latter, and the Avoca ParentTeachers' Association, serving as treasurer in 1928 and 1929. She has taught in Sunday School and sung in the church choir for over twenty years; at one time was a member of the Y. W. C. A. She has served as one of the superintendents of the county fair, and is an officer of the Eastern Star and has taken active part in the Weeping Water Congregational Church. Swimming is her favorite sport; she has been swimming instructor for boys and girls at 4-H camps. Her hobby is helping boys and girls in 4-H club work. She is also guardian of a Campfire group. Residence: Weeping Water.
Bernard Alexander Norsworthy
Bernard Alexander Norsworthy, retail merchant, was born at Gothenburg, Nebraska, December 29, 1894. He is the son of John Henry and Anna Wilhelmina (Ihde) Norsworthy. The former a native of Ontario, Canada.
John Henry Norsworthy was born January 16, 1861, and has lived in Nebraska for a number of years. He is a retired farmer and stock buyer, at the present time, and is mayor of Gothenburg. His ancestry is English, Canadian and Scotch. His wife, Anna, was born in Plainfield, Iowa, January 1, 1868, of German and Danish descent.
Mr. Norsworthy completed his public school education at Gothenburg, in 1909, and was graduated from Gothenburg High School in 1913. While in school he was a member of the football, track and basketball teams, and during his term (1915-1916) at the University of Colorado, received a freshman numeral in football.
Since 1920, he has been the owner and manager of his own retail seed, feed and grain business at Gothenburg. He is interested also in a farm in Colorado and a ranch in Wyoming.
He is married to Mima Morris, their marriage having been solemnized at Carrol, Nebraska. Mrs. Norsworthy is a former school teacher of Welsh ancestry.
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They have four children, Bernard A., born November 13, 1926; Joan E., born August 8, 1929; Wynne E. and Milton J., twins, born November 21, 1931.
From 1915 until 1917, Mr. Norsworthy held the rank of second lieutenant in the Nebraska National Guard. He spent eight months of his service on federal duty on the Mexican border, near Brownsville, Texas. During the World War from July, 1917 until June, 1919, he served with the 134th Infantry as first lieutenant and captain. He is a member of the American Legion, the Officers Reserve Corps, the Military Order of Foreign Wars (Pennsylvania commandery). He is county chairman for Dawson County of the Citizens Military Training Camp for Nebraska.
At the present time, he is serving as president of the Gothenburg Chamber of Commerce, a member of the board of education, of which he is secretary at the present time. He is a Mason and a Shriner, and a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. He is affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church. Among his favorite sports are football, fishing and hiking while his hobbies are military work and reading. He is a member of Gothenburg Country Club. Residence: Gothenburg. (photograph in Album).
Jacob Henry North
Since 1872 Jacob Henry North has been a resident of Nebraska, and for many years has been politically active in the state. He was born at Norwich, England, May 11, 1865, the son of Jacob and Hannah (Abel) North. His father, who was born at Norwich, March 17, 1838, was a printer and established the firm of Jacob North & Company. He died at Lincoln, September 11, 1899. His mother was born at Norwich, February 14, 1839, and died at Lincoln, October 4, 1908. Her mother was Irish and her father was English.
Mr. North received his education in the public schools of Norwich and Lincoln. He has been associated with the Jacob North Company since its organization in 1892 and since the death of his father he has been president of this firm. He is a director in the Dwelling House Insurance Company of Lincoln.
A Democrat, Mr. North served for four years as chairman of the Lancaster County Democratic committee; later he was defeated as Democratic candidate for the Nebraska house of representatives. He is a Democrat mainly on the principle of free trade. In 1928 he resigned as presidential elector in view of his opposition for Alfred E. Smith as candidate for president. He was an ardent admirer of William Jennings Bryan and the ideals of the Commoner.
He was married to Laura Belle Hill at Lincoln, September 30, 1903. Mrs. North, who was born at Lincoln, Nevember (sic) 17, 1882, is descended on the maternal side from the Pennsylvania Sigfrieds of Revolutionary days. She is entitled to membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. There are two children: Emma Ruth, born July 1, 1904, who was graduated from the University of Nebraska where she was a member of Alpha Phi Soroity (sic); and Jacob Sigfried, born October 17, 1906, who was a member of Phi Kappa Psi at the University of Nebraska, and who is now employed in the Jacob North Company.
In the Spanish American War Mr. North was a private in Company F, second Nebraska Volunteer Infantry. During the World War he was first Sergeant in the Lincoln Home Guard. He is a member of the United Spanish War Veterans, is past commander of William Lewis Camp Number 2, U. S. W. V., and for two terms was Department Adjutant and quartermaster in this organization.
He is a member of the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, the Democratic Noon Luncheon Club, and the Anti-Saloon League. He is a member of the National Geographic Society, the Society for the Prevention of Blindness, and the Birth Control League. Past chancellor of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias; he is past master of Masonic Lodge Number 19, and member of Scottish Rite, and Shrine. His hobbies are politics and history. He is a non-active member of the Episcopal Church. Residence: Lincoln.
Rose North
Rose North, county superintendent of schools of Lincoln County, was born at Decatur, Michigan, January 28, 1878, daughter of Charles William and Mary Ann (Webster) Dennis.
Her father was born in Erie County, Pennsylvania, in November, 1840, and died at Decatur, Michigan, in November, 1921. He was a farmer and a veteran of the Civil War. His wife, Mary, was born in Cold Water, Michigan, December 2, 1838, and died at Decatur, in June, 1917. She was a teacher before her marriage.
Upon the completion of her early education in the public schools of Decatur, in 1891, Rose Dennis entered the high school there, from which she was graduated in 1895. In 1912, she received the degree of Bachelor of Pedagogy from the Normal College at Ypsilanti, Michigan.
She began her teaching career as elementary teacher in the public schools of Decatur, Michigan and Jackson, Michigan, and afterwards was critic teacher at Fort Wayne, Indiana. For a time, she was first grade supervisor in Warrensburg State Normal College of Warrensburg, Missouri.
In November, 1922, she was elected county superintendent of schools of Lincoln County, and still holds that office. She is a Republican.
On February 2, 1917, she was married to Ralph L. North, at Grand Rapids. He was born at Convoy, Ohio, May 10, 1878.
Mrs. North is a member of the United Spanish War Veterans Auxiliary, the United Presbyterian Church, the Nebraska Slate Teachers Association, the Altrusa Club, and the Deiphian Society. At the present time, she is chairman of the Junor (sic) Red Cross of Lincoln County; president of the State Association of County Superintendents of Nebraska, 1930; author of child story Dell and Dot in Fairyland; and vice-president of District No. 4 of the Nebraska State Teachers Association, 1931 and 1932. Residence: North Platte.
Mrs. Charles Oliver Norton
Lottie Elouise Gove Norton, business woman and former banker, is descended from a splendid American ancestry, and takes much interest in applying to present day problems the ideals of the Puritans and other early settlers of America.
Her father, the Honorable Elijah Atwood Gove, eminent jurist was born at Weare, New Hampshire, September 22, 1832. In 1856 he was graduated from Dartmouth College with his Bachelor of Arts degree and Phi Beta Kappa honors. A sutler in the Army during the Civil War, he was later a lawyer and judge, and at the time of his death at Minneapolis, September 5, 1922, was the oldest living graduate of Dartmouth. (See page 231, Gove Book.)
Marie Louise Haynes, wife of Elijah Gove, was born at Wilmington, Vermont, July 4, 1836, and died at Watertown, South Dakota, September 15, 1916. She was a writer of much ability, and held many offices in the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Eastern Star. etc. Of English and Scotch ancestry, she was descended from the Campbell family of Argyle, the Frazer, Gordon, Haynes, Robinson and Carpenter families, all early settlers in the Massachusetts colony in 1636.
Educated in the public and high schools of Minneapolis, and later a student at St. Joseph's Convent under Mother Seraphim, a sister of Archbishop John Ire-
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land, she thereafter took post graduate work and studied the French language in Church School at London, Ontario. Brought up an Episcopalian, she was a member of St. Mark's Church at Minneapolis, where her father was junior and senior warden for several years.
On November 29, 1879, she was united in marriage to Charles Oliver Norton at Marshall, Minnesota. Mr. Norton, born at Fort Edward, New York, September 25, 1848, died at Kearney, on April 8, 1896. A banker and financier, and a man of wide business interests, principally in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. he came of the English and Scotch families of Campbell, Fraser and Gordon. The ancestors of the Norton family came to America in 1637 from England.
Three children were born to this union, Charles Oliver, Jr., born September 27, 1882, who died January 24, 1883; William Strait, born September 13, 1884, who died January 12, 1892; and Oliver Gove Norton, born December 30, 1893. Oliver Gove attended Phillips Exeter Academy, and in 1915 was a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, being at that time its youngest graduate. His fraternity is Sigma Chi. He is a mechanical, designing and efficiency engineer, who served as a member of the Bolling Government Commission to France in April, 1916, and who was subsequently a first lieutenant and later a captain in the United States Aviation Service, American Expeditionary Forces, attached to the Second General Staff in Paris. He married Charlene Barton, and resides in Paris.
Upon the death of her husband, Mrs. Norton took over the banking interests and operated his banks for several years. She is a member of the Society of Founders and Patriots of America, the Colonial Dames (Massachusetts) and a charter member of its associate society in Nebraska. A member of the First Families of Virginia, the Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth Century, and the Daughters of the American Revolution with twenty-four ancestral bars of service in that war, she is ex-state vice regent and ex-state regent of the Nebraska Society of the last mentioned organization. She was an organizing member and first vice president of the Nebraska Society of the Daughters of 1812; is a member of the Nebraska State Historical Society, the New England Historic Genealogical Society and holds orders of The Daughters of Colonial Governors through her ancestor' Governor Thomas Mayhew of Massachusetts, is a member of Americans of Armorial Ancestry and is eligible for membership in the Mayflower Society.
Mrs. Norton was vice president of the Oregon Trail Memorial Commission at the inception of the marking of the trail across Nebraska, and was instrumental in placing the first monument and tablet to mark this trail in the state. She also served as a member from Nebraska on the International Peace Arbitration Commission. She had the honor also of being the only woman in Nebraska who was an active member of a Commercial Club in early years.
Interested in charities and philanthropic work, she is well known as a genealogist, and is a newspaper and magazine contributor. She has had published several pamphlets on genealogical subjects, and is a member of the League of American Pen Women. She is secretary of the Kearney Cemetery Commission, is a life member the Kearney Woman's Club, the Nebraska State Historical Society and the Nebraskana Society. Mrs. Norton gave the land upon which the Kearney City Library a; built, and also the land upon which the Fort Kearney Hotel is erected. Her favorite sport is hiking and her hobby is genealogy. Residence: Kearney. (Photograph On Page 888).
John Nathaniel Norton
John N. Norton is a true Nebraskan - born on the homestead his parents settled early in Nebraska's history, on May 12, 1878. His father, Charles O. Norton, was born in Sweden, September 28, 1842. At the age of six he started to America with his parents, but, his mother, dying on the voyage, he continued with his father, who settled in Illinois. There he grew to manhood and married Mary S. Hurtig. He was an outstanding personage, active in the public and political life of the community. He served in the Civil War, and during its last days was appointed an officer of the military prison at Little Rock, Arkansas. He died on September 26, 1929.
Mary S. Hurtig was of Swedish parentage. Born in Illinois on November 15, 1849, in 1873 she came to Nebraska with her husband, and here they made their permanent home. On the homestead in Polk County, three children were born. Of the six born to their marriage, three are now living. After an exemplary life she died on July 17, 1910.
John N. Norton received his early education in the country schools of Polk County, after which he attended the Bryant Normal and Business College, then located at Stromsburg. After attending Nebraska Wesleyan University for some time, he entered the University of Nebraska, where he received his A. B. in 1903.
At Nebraska Wesleyan he was active in dramatics, while at the state university he was active both in debate and dramatics, the former being under the tutelage of Professor M. M. Fogg.
He married Selma Josephine Floodman, daughter of Charles F. and Hilma J. (Widga) Floodman, the latter of whom is still living. Their children are: William Wendell and Evelyn Maurine. William graduated from the University of Nebraska with an A. B. and LL. B. in 1925. He is a member of Phi Alpha Delta, and while at the university was active in dramatics and athletics. He was Ivy Day orator his graduation year. Evelyn, who majored in dramatics, was graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1926. She has taken post graduate work at George Washington University.
John Norton, while attending the state university, studied economics under Dean Ross, now of the Wisconsin State University, and perhaps one of the best known authorities on that subject in America. He has since that time devoted much effort to the study of agricultural economics, and in addition to his other endeavors has been active in the agricultural field.
He held his first public office as mayor of Osceola, Nebraska, 1908-09. Elected to serve as member of the Nebraska house of representatives in 1911, he was Democratic leader of the house two sessions and during one session was speaker pro tem. During this term he was chairman of two of the most powerful committees, the judiciary and the ways and means committees, He was the author of the resolution for the reform of legislattive (sic) procedure, which was made a law in 1915, and which resulted in reducing the personnel by one-third.
He was the author of the resolution in 1917, which resulted in the calling of a constitutional convention. The resolution was approved in 1918, and the convention was held 1919-20. He was a member of the convention and chairman of the legislative committee.
In 1924 he was Democratic nominee for governor, after Charles W. Bryan had withdrawn to accept the Democratic nomination for vice president. Although defeated in the Coolidge landslide of that year he received a vote which exceeded that received by the head of the ticket by 45,000 votes.
Elected to the United States Congress in 1926, to represent the Fourth Nebraska district, he rendered a service to his district that was highly pleasing to his constituents. Always attentive to his legislative and departmental duties, he initiated the idea of a weekly news letter, which would report congressional activities, as a means of keeping the people informed as to what is going on in Congress.
Defeated in 1928 by the narrow margin of 218 votes
