Jonathan Norcross
Encyclopedia
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Atlanta, GA. Dubbed the "Father of Atlanta" and "hard fighter of everything." - Henry W. Grady
Henry W. Grady
Henry Woodfin Grady was a journalist and orator who helped reintegrate the states of the former Confederacy into the Union after the American Civil War....
Personal life
Jonathan Norcross was the second son of a clergyman, [Rev.] Jesse Norcross, of Charlestown, Kennebec, ME, b. abt. 1778; married 4 Mar. 1804 Nancy [Gaubert], Dresden, MaineDresden, Maine
Dresden is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, United States that was incorporated in 1794. The population was 1,625 at the 2000 census.-History:...
. He was born and raised in Orono, Maine
Orono, Maine
Orono is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. It was first settled in 1774 and named in honor of Chief Joseph Orono of the Penobscot Nation. It is home to The University of Maine. The population was 10,362 at the 2010 census.- Geography :...
, along with six other siblings, including his equally industrious older bros. Nicholas Gaubert Norcross (see below), in what could be described as a devout and pious upbringing given his later positions on issues of vice and as a practicing Baptist; evoking the Protestant Work Ethic
Protestant work ethic
The Protestant work ethic is a concept in sociology, economics and history, attributable to the work of Max Weber...
of his forefathers. His younger siblings include: Livonia (b. Jan. 1810), Jesse (b. 3 Jun. 1812), Nancy Gaubert [Norcross] (b. 2 Mar. 1816); who married Moses M. Swan, of Augustus, ME; Maria (b. Feb. 1818), and Louisa (b. Oct. 1823).
Jonathan Norcross is a descendant of Jeremiah Norcross, the English progenitor of the Norcross family who settled upon Watertown, the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
(1638); a land proprietor of Cambridge [MA] before 1642; who was an admitted freeman
Freeman (Colonial)
Freeman is a term which originated in 12th century Europe and is common as an English or American Colonial expression in Puritan times. In the Bay Colony, a man had to be a member of the Church to be a freeman. In Colonial Plymouth, a man did not need to be a member of the Church, but he had to be...
of that town in 1652.
The Mayors' lineage stems from Richard Norcross, Sr. and Mary Brooks, the second son and his wife, of the family's pilgrim; and Norcross' great-great-great grandparents. Nathaniel Norcross; their respective third son; sixth child of seven, married, ca. 1691, second (given the death of his first wife, Mehitbale [Hager], who died 5 Apr. 1691; leaving one daughter, Mehitbale Norcross) Susanna Shattuck; she was the daughter of Dr. Philip Shattuck of Watertown, MA; and great-great grandparents of the mayor.
From this same line, he is the distant fourth cousin of the Hon. Otis Norcross
Otis Norcross
Otis C. Norcross served as the nineteenth Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, from January 7, 1867 to January 6, 1868 during the Reconstruction era of the United States...
, 19th Mayor of Boston (1867), whose great-great grandfather Richard Norcross, Jr. is the older brother of Nathaniel Norcross (noted above).
Nathaniel's second son, Philip Norcross; great grandfather of Hon. Jonathan Norcross; married 1721 Sarah [Jackson] of Watertown, MA; they removed to Sudbury, MA. Philip's third son Jonathan Norcross, the fifth of nine children; the Mayor's paternal grandfather, was born in Newton, MA, who along with his wife Martha [Springer], whom he married in 1760, removed to Livermore, Androscoggin, ME, after the birth of Jonathan's father Jesse, suggesting substantial migration of the family over time for various purposes.
Hon. Jonathan Norcross' first cousin Jesse Springer Norcross of this bloodline was proprietor of Norcross Mills.http://books.google.com/books?id=XngWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA36&lpg=PA36&dq=Norcross+Mills&source=bl&ots=G6F_WeLPaq&sig=1cnxziT_yNnwgYKkvPwvUmxtwvA&hl=en&ei=lXyxSeX6A4_ftgeR3NzDBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result
Rise of Atlanta: Nineteenth Century Industrial Contributions
From an industrious background, Norcross was eventually taught the trade of millwrightMillwright
A millwright is a craftsman or tradesman engaged with the construction and maintenance of machinery.Early millwrights were specialist carpenters who erected machines used in agriculture, food processing and processing lumber and paper...
. Where thereafter, he went to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, constructing a mill for processing sugar. While attending lectures in mechanics at the Franklin Institute
Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute is a museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest centers of science education and development in the United States, dating to 1824. The Institute also houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.-History:On February 5, 1824, Samuel Vaughn Merrick and...
, Philadelphia, PA, Norcross principally studied arts and sciences, beyond his common [elem.] education in Maine, receiving praise for an essay entitled Mercantile Integrity. Norcross then left Pennsylvania to teach school in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
(1833) which led to his southern travels; entering Georgia (1835); residing first in Augustus, then onto where would eventually become Atlanta for the remainder of his life. In 1836, he took charge of lumber interests in Southern Georgia for Northern capitalists. While in Putnam County, Georgia
Putnam County, Georgia
Putnam County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 18,812. The 2007 Census Estimate showed a population of 21,251...
he filed a patent, US 3210 for a Reciprocating Mill-Saw Guide in August 1843 http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT3210&id=srNBAAAAEBAJ
From these efforts, he invented a vertical saw with a circular wheel 40 feet in diameter, which was adjusted in an almost horizontal position, with a capacity to saw approximately 1,000' of lumber per day.
In August (1844), Norcross came to Marthasville, GA, "but the humble terminus of a railroad," establishing himself as a successful dry goods merchant and sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
operator; becoming a prominent citizen. His sawmill mainly produced railroad ties and string timbers for the construction of the Georgia Railroad. The leavings of the mill provided timbers for shanties built by the poor where Grady Hospital now sits called Slabtown. While pioneer life could be characterized as desolate and simple, it was evident of plain pleasures, however dangerous, as described by Jonathan Norcross:
"I recalled very well the first train of cars over the Georgia Railroad. It was on the 15th of September, 1845. The train came in about dark. Judge KingJohn Pendleton KingJohn Pendleton King was a United States Senator from Georgia.Born in Glasgow, Kentucky, King moved in infancy with his parents to Bedford County, Tennessee, and then to Augusta, Georgia, in 1815. He graduated from the Academy of Richmond County in Augusta, and studied law. He was admitted to the...
was on board and a great many others. There were a great many people out, and there was a good deal of excitement. There was a well in the square here, and such was the excitement, and it being dark, a man fell into the well and was drowned. Judge King came very near falling in there, also. It was dark, and he was just on the brink of stepping in when someone caught him and saved him. I suppose there were about twenty families here at the time."
Marthasville was renamed Atlanta in 1845 (chartered, December 1847). Norcross evoked the pioneer spirit and ambition, "seen in the individual independence of its citizens," but even as Norcross commented, many municipal decisions were made in haste, "[t]he reason why the streets are so crooked," as he explained, "is that every man built on his land just to suit himself." This spirit of individuals' such as Norcross is emblematic of the foresight and potential many of its leaders demonstrated in the need for law(s) and order to perpetuate the growth of Atlanta; whose reasoned nature is seen in full form in his positioning for political office.
Jonathan Norcross additionally co-founded the Daily Intelligencer
Daily Intelligencer
The Daily Intelligencer was first published on June 1, 1849 as the young city of Atlanta's first successful daily newspaper.The founders were Benjamin Bomar, Z.A. Rice, Jonathan Norcross and I.O...
two years later (1849), recognizing a significance in establishment credentials. http://www.daily-intelligencer.com
Norcross was also instrumental with 23 others' in organizing the Atlanta National Bank (commenced, 1851; charter for incorp., 27 Jan. 1852). The impetus for such an effort derived from a recognition, "to the continued prosperity of the city." The first charter Bank of Atlanta however was unsuccessful; a "distrust in its methods of doing business and in those who had control of its management; (a committee of five elected directors' composed of stockholders), appears to have become general," though it is duly noted that these suspicions were simply perceptions not fully founded. However, in both 1845, and October 1855 given several bank runs, its fate seems to have sealed, for Director, Mr. [George] Smith, "wound up affairs of [his] bank toward the later part of 1855;" and it was out of business [brackets and parenthesis added]. However, on 6 March 1856, Norcross and others', with determination, incorporated the Bank of Fulton; the second bank of Atlanta with greater success.
Political & Civic Life
Jonathan Norcross ran as Atlanta's first mayoral candidate in 1848, failing to capture the 215 voters at the time, cast at Thomas Kil's grocery, at present day Five Points (Atlanta)Five Points (Atlanta)
Five Points is a district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, the primary reference for the downtown area. The name refers to the convergence of Marietta Street, Edgewood Avenue, Decatur Street, and two legs of Peachtree Street Five Points is a district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, the...
, to Moses W. Formwalt, Atlanta's first mayor. Ever persistent however, Norcross was a successful candidate three years later for the Moral Party in the 1850 Mayoral election (r. 1851 - 1852) against adversarial candidate, Leonard C. Simpson, an attorney for the Free and Rowdy Party
Free and Rowdy Party
The Free and Rowdy Party was a political party that operated in Atlanta, Georgia, during the middle of the 19th century. Although the mayoral elections of Atlanta are not contested along party lines, the first three mayors of the city were Rowdies, as members of the Free and Rowdy Party were called...
. He presided over a town's divisive moral choice; a "temperance man who hated civic disturbances," between civilian law & order and the bellicose Rowdies or ruffians; whose 40 drinking establishments and thriving red light district
Red Light District
Red Light District may refer to:* Red-light district - a neighborhood where prostitution is common* The Red Light District - the title of the 2004 album by rapper Ludacris* Red Light District Video - a pornography studio based in Los Angeles, California...
contradicted strict evangelical mores at the time, and contributed to town problems. With this post, Norcross served doubly as both de jure Chief of Police and Superintendent of Atlanta's Streets. One of his solutions was to make life so uncomfortable from shameful scorn of public rebuke, that it would encourage most of the Rowdies' move, a mile south-west to Snake Nation. With this however, Norcross was scornfully told, "if elected, that he might find town 'too hot to hold him', if he executed his proposed reforms." These threats were found to be without merit.
The early nineteenth century in America was marked by a period of religious revival; a Second Great Awakening
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Christian revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1800, had begun to gain momentum by 1820, and was in decline by 1870. The Second Great Awakening expressed Arminian theology, by which every person could be...
, whereby principle ideals of antiquity were emphasized specifically in the field of education at all levels, spreading the nation over, whereby, '[c]lassical study inculcated intellectual discipline and provide[d] those who pursued it, the world over, with a common frame of reference." This reference transferred into the domain of politics, and in the case of Norcross with his political platform, the Moral Party could similarly be viewed as "American statesmen defend[-ing] their principles of 'classical republicanism
Classical republicanism
Classical republicanism is a form of republicanism developed in the Renaissance inspired by the governmental forms and writings of classical antiquity. The earliest examples of the school were classical writers such as Aristotle, Polybius, and Cicero...
' with arguments drawn from Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
, Publius, and Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
" [brackets added]; those in antiquity whose doctrine framed a moral philosophy.
Norcross was in his 50s during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
and notable for being on the Committee of Citizens (with William Markham
William Markham (mayor)
William Markham was a prominent hotel owner in Atlanta. Following the illness of John Mims he filled in as mayor October 1853 and won a special election soon after...
) that surrendered the city to Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
General Henry Slocum. Norcross was in opposition to succession.
Railroad Industry
As a business man, Norcross had a vested interest in the railroad as did many industrialists of the time. With this in mind, his involvement in rail efforts was strong, for "[t]he key issue before inland cities like Atlanta was transportation, and the railroad was the key to commercial prosperity."On 3 April 1856, Norcross, who served as the first president, and 15 fellow gentlemen incorporated Air Line Railway, which was to run through the Carolinas and Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
facilitating traffic from New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to New Orleans. He failed to get funds from the Georgia General Assembly
Georgia General Assembly
The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, being composed of the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate....
largely because of intense lobbying from the competing Georgia Western Railroad and Central of Georgia Railway. After Norcross got a bond
Bond (finance)
In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest to use and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity...
commitment from the city of Atlanta, Lemuel P. Grant
Lemuel P. Grant
Lemuel Pratt Grant was an American engineer and businessman.He was Atlanta's quintessential railroad man as well as a major landowner and civic leader....
joined the list of adversaries supporting a different route (Georgia Western Railway) and by 1860 both rail ventures were dead. However, from Norcross' initiation of the development of the Richmond–Danville Railroad, proposed 1856; his determined efforts led to a modest beginning, of which, the first 20 mi. were laid, 12 Sept. 1869.
Candidate for Governor of Georgia
The Hon. Jonathan Norcross was the RepublicanRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
nominee for Governor of Georgia in 1876, he was defeated by Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Alfred H. Colquitt
Alfred H. Colquitt
Alfred Holt Colquitt was a lawyer, preacher, soldier, 49th Governor of Georgia and two term U.S. Senator from Georgia where he died in office. He served as an officer in the Confederate army, reaching the rank of major general....
. Norcross states in an impassioned speech, of which an excerpt provides an enlightening insight, a position which evokes a true spirit of his party. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D0DEED8143FE432A2575BC2A96E9C946790D7CF
Literary Works: Published Articles & Essays
Jonathan Norcross was most pronounced in his political views of the time, as best noted in several writings of "remarkable authorship" including:The History of Democracy: Considered as a Party Name and as a Political Organization. New York: G. P. Press, 1883.http://books.google.com/books?id=kb4BAAAAMAAJ&dq=Jonathan+Norcross&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=4GMz4LjuEv&sig=pXKAVoM82x4vQY3RYhRfE9HKcbA&hl=en&ei=uFKxSZaiH5D2MMeBgegE&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPP9,M1
Democracy Examined: Or, a Conversation Between a Republican and a Moderate Democrat. Pub. J. P. Harrison, 1880.http://books.google.com/books?id=i-s6HQAACAAJ&dq=Democracy+Examined,+Jonathan+Norcross
Common-Sense: Views of State Sovereignty versus United States Supremacy. The Atlantic Republican Print, 1876.
The Conflict of Labor and Capital. New Era Print, 1870.http://books.google.com/books?id=h3wUHAAACAAJ&dq=the+conflict+of+labor+and+capital,+jonathan+norcross
The Anarchical and Revolutionary Character of a Democratic Party: A Supplement to "Democracy Considered as a Party Name, and as a Political Organization." Atlanta: Pub. Jas. P. Harrison & Co., 1865.
Posterity & Appendage
He married twice; first in April 1845, to widow [Mrs.] Harriet N. [Bogle] [Montgomery], orig. of Blout, Co., Tenn., died Aug. 1876; and second on 4 Sept. 1877 to Miss Mary Ann [Hill], in Fulton, GA. Norcross had one son from his first marriage, [Rev.] [Dr.] Virgil C. Norcross, of the First Baptist Church (orig. James' Chapel), who subsequently married Lydia F. [Howe], 19 May 1875, Bibb, GA.Jonathan Norcross died at the age of 90, the last surviving ante-bellum Mayor of Atlanta, and is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, in an unmarked grave.