Los Angeles County
Biographies
JOHN H. NORTON
NORTON, JOHN H. (deceased
February 7, 1911), Los Angeles, California, was born in Boston, Mass., in the
year 1844. He married Mrs. Mary Van Doren.
There is one daughter, Miss Amy Marie Norton.
Mr. Norton received his primary education in Boston, and
graduated from the Boston High School. After leaving school, and before he was
twenty years of age, he joined the great movement westward.
He spent one year in Kansas and went from there to Las
Animas, Colorado, then a frontier town. There he
engaged, on a small scale at first, as storekeeper. Later he worked as a sheep
and cattle herder, and finally became a large stock owner on his own account,
accumulating his first capital. After a time he sold out and undertook what was
in that day a journey of exploration into a wild land, as dangerous as any
exploration tour in Africa, on account of the hostile Indians. He traveled by
stage and prairie schooner, 850 miles to Tucson, Arizona, consuming more
than two months in the trip. Soon after arriving in Arizona he was appointed by
the Government as post trader at Fort Grant, 120 miles from Tucson. The
only way to get supplies into the fort was by way of Trinidad, two months’
journey by mule team, and every pound had to be brought across mountains and
deserts practically unmarked by roads. But his knowledge and experience in
freighting supplies gave him the necessary assurance to organize the famous
company of Norton & Stewart, the firm that developed the most remarkable
stage system in America, if not in the world. They covered the entire State of
Arizona with their network of stage lines, and in spite of holdups of the most
dramatic character and lack of roads, their service was almost as regular as
that of the railroads today.
He was cattle buyer in Mexico for the government of the
United States just previous to this venture.
In 1882 Mr. Norton founded the town of Willcox, Arizona, naming it after his intimate friend,
General Willcox, who was then in command of the
United States troops in the Southwest. His partner, Stewart, died, and shortly
after Mr. Norton organized the Norton-Morgan Commercial Company, becoming
its president.
He went to Los Angeles in 1893, and immediately became
interested in some of the largest institutions of that city. He became a
stockholder and was elected a director of the Citizens’ National Bank. He also
became interested in the Los Angeles Trust Company, and was elected one of the
directors of that institution. He invested heavily in Los Angeles real estate,
and among his possessions at the time of his death was the Jevne
block, a beautiful, modern structure at the corner of Sixth and Broadway. He
incorporated the firm of J. H. Norton Co., railroad contractors,
which company did a great deal of heavy railroad construction in the Southwest.
After his arrival in Los Angeles he interested himself
greatly in public affairs. He was active for the betterment and growth of the
city, and was a director of the Chamber of Commerce. For three years he was a
member of the Board of Water Commissioners. He was an active Republican, and twice
was sent as delegate to national conventions.
He was considered one of the more successful of Los
Angeles men and one of the most aggressive of the type that developed the
Southwest. His fortune, known to be large at his death, he earned for himself.
He generally won in his ventures because he was a brave man and capable of
undertaking any kind of legitimate work, whether driving a stage team in
Arizona or sitting at a desk in a banking office in Los Angeles. He was a
member of the California, Jonathan and L. A. Country clubs, besides a
number of civic and political organizations.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
16 March 2011.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 628,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Marie Hassard.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES