El
Dorado County
Biographies
DAVID E. NORTON
The memory of David E. Norton, a California pioneer, who
successfully engaged in mining, ranching and merchandising and was a forceful
factor in the early development of El Dorado County, is enshrined in the hearts
of all who knew him. He was born
in Ulysses, Tompkins County, New York, September 3, 1829, and when a child of
five years went to Ohio with his parents, Joseph and Betsey (Hall) Norton, who
settled in Seneca County in 1834. There
he was reared and educated and in 1852, when a young man of twenty-three years,
started for California, making the long and hazardous overland journey with W.
H. Parks. Mr. Norton first located in
Sacramento but in 1853 removed to El Dorado County and embarked in general
merchandising, also becoming a miner and stock raiser. In 1855 he turned his attention to
horticultural pursuits, purchasing land in the town of El Dorado, where he
developed a valuable fruit farm of fifty-seven acres. He was one of the earliest orchardists of the
Sacramento valley and through his courage, foresight and initiative aided in
bringing to light the natural resources of this region. Methodical and systematic, he carefully
planned every detail of his work and his methods of farming and fruit raising were both practical and progressive. As the years passed he added many
improvements to his place, transforming it from a wild tract into a highly
productive ranch, and on that property he continued to make his home until his
death in 1885. He belonged to that class
of men who have constructive faculties largely developed—the natural leaders
who are absolutely essential in a new country and who prepare the way for the
oncoming thousands. He lived to see much
of the actual “winning of the west” and was a man of kindly nature and high
moral worth, esteemed and respected by all who knew him.
On
the 3rd of November, 1856, Mr. Norton was married to Miss Elizabeth
Dorian, who passed away in 1869. For his
second wife he chose Mrs. A. B. Gardner, to whom he was married in 1871. The daughter, Dora Norton, was married in
1880 to Stephen Cocking, of Cornwall, England, who was a native of England and
acquired his education in that country.
As a young man he sought the opportunities of the United States,
becoming a foreman in the mines of El Dorado County and occupying the position
until his death. By his marriage he had
a daughter, Lois V., who in 1902 became the wife of Ralph Sutton, now connected
with the state highway department of California. With their daughter, Dorian, Mr. and Mrs.
Sutton reside on a portion of the old Norton estate, occupying the home which
was built by Mrs. Sutton’s grandfather sixty years ago and hospitably
entertaining their many friends there.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 2 Pages 263-264. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's El Dorado
County Biographies