Wapello County IA Archives Biographies.....Norris, James Wellington 1815 - 1882 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ia/iafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 July 9, 2013, 9:38 pm Source: See Below Author: S. J. Clarke, Publisher JAMES WELLINGTON NORRIS. The history of newspaper publication in Ottumwa would be incomplete were there failure to make prominent reference to James Wellington Norris, who was one of the early editors and newspaper publishers of Wapello county and the publisher of the first daily paper. He was born in Meredith, New Hampshire, August 13, 1815. His father, Samuel Sheriff Norris, also a native of the old Granite state, was born in 1789 and died in May, 1861. He married Anna McKenzie Bean. They were earnest Christian people, whose lives constituted an influencing force for moral development in the communities in which they lived. Mr. Norris, a devoted Christian man, aided in founding two churches in Canada, one in Bloomington, Illinois, and a fourth in Ottumwa, Iowa. He labored with much success as an agent of the Bible Society and as a Colporteur of the American Tract Society on the frontier of Iowa. He was one of the original members of the First Congregational church of Ottumwa. His two sons, James Wellington and George Punchard Norris, and two daughters, Ann Nichols and Julia, came to Ottumwa with him. The second son, Captain George P. Norris, was born in Compton, Canada, May 15, 1830, and in 1845 arrived in Ottumwa, Iowa, in company with his parents. He enlisted in Company C, of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry, as first lieutenant on the 3d of January, 1863, and was promoted to the rank of captain in 1865. He participated in a number of hotly contested engagements and was mustered out at Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1866. He married Roxcy Murray, and in their family were six children. Captain Norris spent the greater part of his life in Minnesota and Ottumwa, but passed away in Canton, Mississippi, May 30, 1899. James Wellington Norris, the elder son of Samuel S. Norris, was a youth in his teens when his parents removed with their family to Compton, Lower Canada. He attended Hadley Academy and in the summer of 1833 went to the grammar school at Peacham. In the winter of 1834 he took up the profession of teaching but in 1835 resumed his studies, marticulating in Marietta College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1838. He then secured a position as private tutor in Kentucky and while thus engaged devoted his leisure hours to the study of law, so thoroughly qualifying for the profession that he was admitted to the bar in 1839, although he continued teaching at Bloomington, Illinois, until 1843. In that year he removed to Chicago, and he published the first directory of that city in 1843-4. In April of the same year he established the Chicago Journal in connection with Robert L. Wilson and after two years began the publication of directories again. He organized the first Rough and Ready Club and invited Abraham Lincoln to address them, which he did. He was thus closely associated with a number of important events that occurred during the early history of the western metropolis. On the 29th of March, 1849, Mr. Norris left Chicago with a mule team and arrived at Ottumwa about the 1st of May. In December, 1855, he purchased the Courier and ten years later established the Daily, which was the first daily published in the county. During the period which antedated the war he was a strong advocate of Abraham Lincoln and in the year 1861 Lincoln appointed Mr. Norris to the position of postmaster of Ottumwa, in which capacity he served for five years to the entire satisfaction of the general public. At the same time he continued the publication of the Courier, but in 1866 sold the paper and in 1867 went to Europe, this being at the time of the great world's exposition in Paris. On the 27th of July, 1851, Mr. Norris was married to Miss Martha Rebecca Spaulding, a sister of the Rev. B. A. Spaulding, one of the Iowa band of Congregational ministers famous in church annals. Her parents were Sampson and Susanna Spaulding, and she was born in Billerica, Massachusetts, on the 20th of June, 1819. Through the columns of the press and through individual effort Mr. Norris exerted a wide-felt influence on public affairs in Wapello county, doing much to shape the public policy during the formative period in the history of this section of the state. Mr. Norris passed away March 3, 1882, and his wife survived until February 3, 1900. Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY IOWA ILLUSTRATED VOLUME II CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1914 Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ia/wapello/photos/bios/norris826gbs.jpg This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/iafiles/ File size: 5.1 Kb