Santa
Clara County
Biographies
REUBEN
DINSMORE NORTON
Noteworthy among the most respected and valued residents of San Jose is Reuben Dinsmore Norton, a man of high moral principles, and a professed Christian, whose mode of living and acting as exemplified in his daily life is in accord with his ideas of religion. Although an attendant of the Methodist Episcopal Church for nearly fifty years, he did not become a member until after coming to this city to live. He had long been convinced of the great necessity of seeking the favor of the Lord, and during a series of union meetings held in San Jose he was a constant attendant and through the grace of God became converted. When the full conviction of his sins fell upon him, he tried to induce his brother to attend the meetings, but the brother would make no promises. However, he too was visited by the spirit of the great Master, and with his wife and two children made a public confession of faith, and all united with the First Methodist Episcopal Church. Subsequently Mr. Norton was instrumental in starting the Union Mission, located on Park avenue, and has since devoted his time and strength to its maintenance. A son of Reuben Norton, Jr., he was born November 1, 1840, in Pittsfield, Somerset county, Me., of Scotch ancestry. His grandfather, Reuben Norton, Sr., was born and bred in Scotland. With two brothers, who subsequently settled in northern New York, he emigrated to New England, and located in Maine, where he built up a very successful practice as a physician. He was very popular as a man and as a practitioner, and lived to the venerable age of ninety years, or more.
A native of Maine, Reuben Norton, Jr., spent his sixty-nine years of earthly life in that state. He followed the carpenter’s trade in Pittsfield for many years, and also owned a good farm in that town. He married Margaret Dinsmore, who was born in St. Stephens, N. B., of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and died in Maine, at the comparatively early age of forty-six years. Four sons and three daughters were born of their marriage Reuben D. Being the third child in order of birth. Heman H., of Detroit, Mich.; John A., formerly a miner, now resides on the Meridian road, where he is engaged in ranching, and William H., of Nevada City, Cal., is a mining man.
Brought up in Pittsfield, Me., Reuben D. Norton successfully studied the three “R’s” in the little “red school house” of his fathers, with its limited accommodations, attending the winter terms of eight or nine weeks. Learning the carpenter’s trade with his father he worked at it until the breaking out of the Civil war. Early in the spring of 1862 he enlisted for a term of nine months in Company C, Twenty-fourth Maine Volunteer Infantry, and was in camp at Augusta, Me., until the fall of that year, when the regiment was ordered to New Orleans. Arriving in eastern New York, however, it was sent into the barracks for the winter. While there, Mr. Norton contracted diphtheria, after which he had a hard siege with lung fever, and on recovery from that was so injured by a fall that he was sent to the hospital, where he remained until receiving his honorable discharge, on account of physical disability, just seven months after his enlistment. Returning to Maine, he remained at home until the fall of 1863, when he started for California by way of the Isthmus of Panama. From San Francisco, Mr. Norton went directly to Nevada county, where he was engaged in mining and logging for nearly six years, becoming owner of a quartz mine, and hauling logs by contract. Going to the territory of Nevada in 1869, he was employed by the railroad company to prospect for coal and minerals on each side of the railway, and during the six months that he was thus engaged discovered coal, but not in paying quantities, and also some gold and silver. Mr. Norton remained in the railroad district, at first working in the mines by the day, but was afterward foreman in the Bodie, Tuscarora and Cornucopia districts. In Tuscarora he remained for twelve or fifteen years, being foreman the greater part of the time, and also interested financially in the mines of which he had charge. A part of the time he was foreman of a number of mines, including the Navajo Mine and the Belle Isle, both valued at several million dollars; the Northern Belle Isle, whose stock, unsalable at five cents a share, advanced to $11 per share; the Northern Commonwealth; Del Monte, an others.
Retiring from mining pursuits in 1889, Mr. Norton located in San Jose, and two years later, in 1891, bought his present fine estate at the corner of Park avenue and Lincoln street, where he has a beautiful residence. He has made improvements of an excellent character, having an inexhaustible well of pure water, and his own waterworks, which he runs with a gasoline engine irrigating his land, and raising alfalfa, which he cuts seven times a year. His lot contains over five acres of land, and in addition to his alfalfa crops he also raises many different kinds of fruit.
In 1890, in Maine, Mr. Norton married Lillie Ward, who was born in Plymouth, Me., and died in San Jose, leaving one child, Harvey W. Norton. For many years Mr. Norton was identified with the Republican party, but is now a strong Prohibitionist, and as he never drank liquor practices in truth the principles which he so strongly advocates.
Transcribed
By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California &
Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A.
M., Pages 712-715. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Cecelia M. Setty.