My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE E. NORRIS, one of the most prosperous and highly respected farmers of Buffalo county, traces his ancestry to Thomas and Jane (Bowers) Norris, early settlers of middle Tennessee and prominent slave-holders when slavery was the great institution of the South. Being people, however, of a strong sense of personal liberty, and possessing an inherent dislike for slavery, they gave up all rights they were entitled to under the institution, selling and freeing their slaves. They were the parents of several children, one of whom was John, the subject’s father, who was born in North Carolina in 1774, and when three years of age was taken to Tennessee by his parents, who settled in Davidson county, near Nashville. He was dependent upon himself from the age of sixteen, at that age learning the blacksmith’s trade and continuing at the same till he reached his thirty-second year. He then enlisted in the war of 1812, entering as a private and being promoted for his distinguished services in the field to the position of captain. He was in the battle of Tippecanoe and several smaller engagements. In September, 1812, a frontier post known as Pigeon Roost, Ind., was attacked by a band of hostile Indians, the only occupants of the post being William Collins and family and Captain Norris. These successfully defended the post until the flints in their guns gave out. They then stole away, bearing the small children in their arms, and made their way to the house of Zebulon Collins, a kinsman of William Collins, ten miles distant from the post. Captain Norris died in 1855. He was a devoted member of the Christian church, always zealous in advancing its interests, and was largely instrumental in establishing Bethany church in Clark county, Ind. In politics he was an uncompromising democrat. He was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Epler in 1819, his wife being a native of Lancaster county, Pa., and born in 1777. She was an active member of the Christian church, and lived a life consistent with her profession, dying in 1881. Their union was blessed with ten children — Nancy and Thomas (twins), Eliza Jane, Delilah, Catherine, Zerelda (who was killed by accident at the age of sixteen), Sarah Maria, John M. (deceased), Isaac E. and George E.

George E., the subject of this sketch, was born in Clark county, Ind., in 1831. Being thrown upon his own resources he migrated to Illinois in 1857, and was there employed on a farm at $13 per month, attending school a part of the winter of that and the succeeding year. In 1852 he moved to Indiana, and after a residence there of only one year he returned to Morgan county, Ill., and there remained till 1854. That same year he took the steamer, “George Law,” for California, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and after a voyage of thirty-five days passed through the “Golden Gates,” landing on the western shores of this continent, where he remained six years. The first two years he was engaged in mining, and the remaining four years in stock-raising. He then went to Chariton, Iowa, and engaged in farming and stock-raising. While there he was married, in 1866, to Anna L. Jay, a native of Trenton, Iowa. After a residence at Chariton, Iowa, of three years, they moved to Red Oak, Iowa, and from there came to their present home in Kearney, Nebr., in 1871, settling on section 4, township 8, and range 16 west. At that time there was no town on the present site of Kearney, and Mr. Norris was obliged to haul lumber from Gibbon, fifteen miles distant, with which to build his house. He engaged in the dairy business in Kearney in 1872, and continued at this twelve years. Mr. Norris came here under the burden of debt, was legally released from payment, but being true to the principles that are characteristic of him, by hard work and economy he liquidated his indebtedness, and in addition has amassed a good-sized fortune, which was partly due to his locating so near Kearney, that prodigy in enterprise, thrift and growth, but more especially due to his foresight and superior judgment in business transactions. This he exemplified by selling a part of his homestead at $500 per acre, and the balance, excepting four and a half acres, at $100 per acre, to the West Kearney Improvement Company. He owns, within a few miles of Kearney, nine hundred and forty-five acres of land, five hundred and forty of which are under cultivation. This, however, is but a part of his possessions. Mr. Norris is well and favorably known throughout the county. He has taken two degrees in the Masonic order in Iowa. Politically, he is a republican, and is now serving his second year as supervisor of his township.

Mrs. Norris is a kind and gracious woman, admired most by those who know her best. She has taught school for several years and was for some time teacher in the Chariton schools, of Chariton, Lucas county, Iowa.

To Mr. and Mrs. Norris five children have been born — George Milton and Anna L. (twins), born 1868 (the latter dying at her birth, the former two years later); Maggie Blanche, born 1873; Charles Edward, born 1874; Minnie Kate, born in 1876.

Evan Jay, the father of Mrs. George E. Norris, was a native of Indiana. He was a man not to be thwarted in his purposes by unfavorable circumstances, possessed an indomitable will, and was able to bend circumstances to it. He was looked upon as a leader in matters of public interest wherever he lived. He always endorsed anything tending to educational advancement, being himself denied the privilege of school training. He was at different times engaged in farming and mercantile business, and between the years 1840-50 he was three times representative and once senator in the Iowa legislature. In politics he was a whig, and his last vote was cast for Abraham Lincoln.

In 1827 he was married to Miss Hannah Way, a native of North Carolina, who is still living, and is eighty-two years old. She adheres strictly to the Quaker faith. Mr. Jay died in 1861.

To Mr. and Mrs. Jay were born nine children — Lydia, died at the age of two years, in 1830; Nathan (at the age of fifteen), died in 1845; Rebecca (twenty-one), died in 1853; Henry W. (thirty-four), died in 1868; Joseph R. (twenty-nine), died in 1866 (Henry and Joseph were both surgeons in the army); Mary Jane (three years), died in 1842. Anna L. and Evan T., a lawyer and extensive stock-raiser in Frontier county, Nebr., are the only surviving children of the family.