My Genealogy Hound

A. J. Norris, merchant at Seneca, Newton Co., Mo., was born in Maryland, February 28, 1832, and reared in Baltimore County, near Baltimore. His father, Edward Norris, was born and reared in Harford County, Md., and there married Miss Elizabeth Sitze, a native of York County, Penn. There they both remained until their deaths, which occurred in 1876 and 1884, respectively. Their son, A. J. Norris, was reared in Baltimore County, Md., and began learning the carpenter’s trade in the year 1852. A year later he located in Coles County, Ill., near the present site of Mattoon, before that city was built, and assisted in erecting some of the first houses ever put up in that place. He worked at the carpenter’s trade at Mattoon for about nine years, and assisted in building the depot of the Illinois Central Railroad; also put up twenty-one houses one season through that country, all good ones, too. He sold goods at Etna, a station on the railroad, south of Mattoon, for seven years. Mr. Norris was married there November 5, 1861, to Miss Rebecca Sayer, a native of New Jersey. In 1869 he came to Missouri, reaching Seneca September 14 of that year. He engaged in merchandising, and clerked for three years, and has sold goods ever since, with the exception of three years, during one of which he kept hotel. In 1884 he purchased the Seneca Dispatch office, and published that paper until October 1, 1886, when he sold out. He has been in the grocery business since October, 1887, and is doing well. Mr. Norris is the father of four children: Erastus Preston, Jonathan, Luella and A. J., Jr. E. P. is now in the machine shops of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad. J. Norris, Jr., is now floor walker in the retail store of Penney & Gentle, at St. Louis, Mo. Mr. Norris is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he has been at times steward, and for the past ten years class leader and exhorter. He is a Republican in politics; was a justice of the peace, also councilman for two years, and treasurer of Seneca for two years; was at one time township treasurer.