Otis Norcross
Encyclopedia
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. Norcross was a candidate (1861) for the Massachusetts State House of Representatives; served as a member of Boston's Board of Aldermen from January 6, 1862 to January 2, 1865; Chairmen of the Board of Aldermen from January 4, 1864 to January 2, 1865; and served as a Trustee of the City Hospital, 1865 & 1866; and a member of the Massachusetts Governor's Council, under Gov. William Claflin
(1869).
As a politician, he was "very pronounced" in his views; a [Webster] Whig Party
member, with a "most consistent temperance." At the onset of the American Civil War
his political views were aligned with the Republican Party
.
The sentiment of Norcross' spirit was reflectively shared upon his death:
It is with this in mind, that "[h]is failure to receive the customary re-election for a second-term was due, perhaps, to a certain stiffness of virtue, which in political life at least, seldom receives the reward it merits." During his tenure as Mayor, he had the great distinction of welcoming as guests to the City, both 17th U. S. [President Andrew Johnson
and General Philip Sheridan
.
His distant fourth cousin Jonathan Norcross
served as fourth ante-bellum Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, as candidate of the Moral Party.
In his civic life, Otis Norcross was one of the Boston Committee (1871) to relieve sufferers of the Great Chicago Fire
. In 1872, while the Boston Fire was raging, he was made treasurer of the Relief Committee. His legacy includes serving as a member of the Water Board (1865) that helped to promote the construction of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir
, and the Bunker Hill Monument Assoc.
. His wife was the daughter of George Lane and Sarah Merritt [Homer], married 27 July 1814; younger sister of the Mayor's mother Mary Cunningham [Homer] Norcross (noted below).
Notable Boston Brahmins, the Norcross' resided at No. 249 Marlborough Street, Boston, adjacent to Boston Common
. He later died at the family home, No. 9 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
, and is interred with the family at Mount Auburn Cemetery
, in Cambridge, MA.
Otis Norcross, Jr. and Lucy Ann's eight children include: their first four children, all of whom died in infancy: two sons (the first originally named Otis, [III]) and two daughters. Those surviving into maturity included: Laura [Norcross] (1845–1926), married Kingsmill Marrs; Otis Norcross [IV], Esq (b. 1848) (Harvard College
, A.B., 1870, Harvard Law, LL.B., 1873), married Susannah Ruggles [Plympton]; descendant of Timothy Ruggles
; Addison Norcross (1850–1873; a. 23 yrs.); and Grenville Howland Norcross, Esq (1854–1937) (Harvard College, A.B., 1875, Harvard Law, LL.B., 1877), who resided as a bachelor at the family home; No. 9 Commonwealth Avenue, as was customary for the time.
, London, Middlesex, England, whom upon arrival in the colonies (1638), first settled with fellow Puritans in Salem, Massachusetts
, then resettling with the new community in Watertown, Massachusetts
, whose progenitor Jeremiah Norcross was a landowner within the town in 1642. The patriarch was married to Adrean [Chadwick]. The family's patrilineal descent of this specific line includes: the second son, of the immigrant's first three children, Richard Norcross (1621–1708), the great-great-great grandfather of Otis Norcross, Jr., and his son, Richard Norcross, Jr. (1660–1745), great-great grandfather of Otis Norcross, Jr., both of whom served as schoolteachers in the early Watertown colony (see family tree below).
This Norcross blood-line extends further in perpetuity with Otis Norcross' great grandfather Peter Norcross (1710–1777) whose younger brother William Norcross (1715 - ca. 1775), and his wife Lydia [Wheeler] (married 6 Nov. 1741), are the great, great grandparents of Otis' third cousin once removed American poet, Emily Dickinson
; daughter of Emily [Norcross] and Edward Dickinson; granddaughter of Joel Norcross and Betsey [Fay]; and great granddaughter of William and Sarah [Marsh] Norcross.
During the American Revolution
, the Norcross family "served the cause," whereby [Private Sergeant] Daniel Norcross (1743–1805), grandfather of Otis Norcross, Jr., served in Captain Samuel Warren's Company of the Massachusetts Militia
; and Colonel Joseph Reed's Regiment of Militia
, Lexington, Massachusetts
He married Abigail [Chapin], 3 October 1765, a descendant of notable New England families, including those of: Josiah Chapin (1634–1726), Jonathan Thayer (1658), and Henry Adams (ca. 1582/82 - 1646), patriarchs of three distinguished colonial families of Weymouth and Braintree, MA.
Through the Chapin family-line, Otis Norcross is the first cousin fourth removed of the second U.S. President John Adams
, and the respective second cousin third removed therefore of the sixth U.S. President John Quincy Adams
, as well as, the distant cousin of Brig.-Gen. Sylvanus Thayer
, father of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point.
The Hon. Otis Norcross, is the fourth cousin, third removed of Hon. Chester W. Chapin
, President of Boston & Albany Railroad, Co. through Chapin pedigree of Deacon Samuel Chapin.
Otis Norcross, Sr. (1785–1827), married Mary Cunningham [Homer], January 8, 1809, parents of Otis Norcross, Jr. (their second child), and siblings including: Mary Homer Norcross (1809–1885), married Oct. 1830 Stephen Gore Bass, Caroline A. [Norcross], married in 1834 [Hon.] Jonathan D. Wheeler, Esq., Adelaide Norcross (1816–1885), married Nov. 1844 John Warren White Bass, Samuel Dow Norcross (1818–1839), Joseph Addison Norcross (1820–1849), Jane Eliza Norcross (1823–1840), Laura Olivia Norcross (1825–1834), and Daniel [D.] Webster Norcross (noted below).
Mary Cunningham [Homer] Norcross was the elder sister of Charles Savage Homer; father of American artist Winslow Homer
. With this, Otis and his siblings were first cousins of the artist. The Homer family, stems from Ettingshall
, Warwick Co., England and dates from 1690 in America, having originally settled in Yarmouth, Massachusetts
, later removing to Cambridge, Massachusetts
. Mary Cunningham [Homer] Norcross was the third born of fourteen children to Eleazer and Mary [Bartlett] Homer.
The company also established a glass factory in Sandwich, Massachusetts
.
This partnership also later included Otis Norcross Howland; nephew of Otis Norcross, Jr.; son of is brother-in-law, Ichabod Howland, a business partner at the firm, who was married to his wife's sister, Mary (Maria) Wellington [Lane]; descendant of Mayflower
(1621) passenger; John Howland
. The company was sold upon Otis Norcross, Jr.' retirement in 1867 when he assumed his mayoral duties, upon which time his partner Jerome Jones (apprentice, Jun. 1853; pr. 1861) and Mr. Otis Norcross Howland took over the company as Howland & Jones, Co. Jerome Jones (b. 1837) was the son of Theodore Jones, Sr. and Marcia [Estabrook] of Brookline, MA.
The Company was sold for the final time in 1871 upon the death of Mr. Howland, and renamed; [Jerome] Jones, [Louis P.] McDuffee & [Solomon Piper] Stratton, Co. (Inc. 1896). In 1885 Jones' son Theodore Jones, Jr. (b. 17 Mar. 1866) began an apprenticeship at the firm rising through the ranks to the partner position of Treasurer.
Since its inception, the company under numerous iterations amassed productive wealth and notoriety for all its partners as esteemed members of society, of whom applied legacies to many endowments within the City of Boston. Proceeding the death of Eliphalet Jones, he became a member of the New England Genealogical and Historical Society, 11 Nov. 1861. http://www.newenglandancestors.org
family of Boston. Sarah [Whipple] Bruce's son Joseph Bruce, married Harriet [Fay]; whose parents Heman and Martha (Patty) Fay both descend from John Fay, the early Puritan
who arrived on the Speedwell
(1656) in Boston, Massachusetts.
D. Webster Norcross' daughter, Clara Gertrude [Norcross] (b. 1858, Boston); niece of Hon. Otis Norcross; and a gifted amateur oilpainter married (1883) Melville Oscar Stratton; son of Oscar Stratton and Ellen Amelia [Estabrook] of Sterling, MA and later Denver, CO.; resided in Denver, Colorado, pioneers of the Westward Expansion, were of the Stratton family, also original settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts, whose progenitor Samuel Stratton (b. 1592) and his first wife Alice [Beeby] arrived on the Arbella
(30 July 1630, Massachusetts Bay Colony
) and whose pedigree
widely extends throughout the early American colonies; this line stemming from Gravesend
, Kent, England, includes the original Stratton settlers of East Hampton, Long Island
, Suffolk, Co., New York and James City, Jamestown, Virginia
; including Winfield Scott Stratton, "the Gold King of Colorado", of the Windsor Stratton line.
Melville [M.] Norcross Stratton, was the son of Melville O. Stratton and Clara G. [Norcross], grandnephew of Hon. Otis Norcross, married (1908) Helen Elizabeth [Hickey], of Grafton, Massachusetts
, whose first three daughters Eleanor N., Elizabeth G., and Geraldine F., from a total of six children were the great grandnieces of Mayor Otis Norcross. M. Norcross Stratton served as President of Massachusetts Board of Education, Vocational Education Society of Boston; and Director Vocational Education [Division], Field of Industrial Schools for Men and Boys, and Agent-in-Charge of Teacher Training in all fields, Massachusetts Department of Education.
M. Norcross Stratton Elementary School Arlington, Massachusetts http://www.arlington.k12.ma.us/stratton/
William Claflin
William Claflin was an industrialist and philanthropist who served as the 27th Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1869–1872 and as a member of the United States Congress from 1877–1881....
(1869).
As a politician, he was "very pronounced" in his views; a [Webster] Whig Party
Whig Party (United States)
The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...
member, with a "most consistent temperance." At the onset of 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...
his political views were aligned with the Republican Party
Republican 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...
.
The sentiment of Norcross' spirit was reflectively shared upon his death:
"He brought to our service the sterling qualities which marked his whole character and career. He was a man of great intelligence, of remarkable firmness, and of the highest integrity, never weary in well-doing, and one whose counsel and co-operative, in all the concerns of this Association and of the community in which he lived, were as highly valued as they were cheerfully and generously afforded." Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, President, Annual Address, 18 June 1883, Annual Meeting Bunker Hill MonumentBunker Hill Monument-External links:****: cultural context**...
Association
It is with this in mind, that "[h]is failure to receive the customary re-election for a second-term was due, perhaps, to a certain stiffness of virtue, which in political life at least, seldom receives the reward it merits." During his tenure as Mayor, he had the great distinction of welcoming as guests to the City, both 17th U. S. [President Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
and General Philip Sheridan
Philip Sheridan
Philip Henry Sheridan was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close association with Lt. Gen. Ulysses S...
.
His distant fourth cousin Jonathan Norcross
Jonathan Norcross
Jonathan Norcross , fourth Mayor of Atlanta, GA. Dubbed the "Father of Atlanta" and "hard fighter of everything." - Henry W. Grady - Personal life :...
served as fourth ante-bellum Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, as candidate of the Moral Party.
In his civic life, Otis Norcross was one of the Boston Committee (1871) to relieve sufferers of the Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S...
. In 1872, while the Boston Fire was raging, he was made treasurer of the Relief Committee. His legacy includes serving as a member of the Water Board (1865) that helped to promote the construction of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir
Chestnut Hill Reservoir
Chestnut Hill Reservoir is a reservoir created in 1870 on existing marshes and meadowland to supplement the city of Boston's water needs. It is surrounded by Chestnut Hill, a neighborhood which consists of parts of Boston, Brookline, and Newton. The reservoir, though, is located entirely within...
, and the Bunker Hill Monument Assoc.
Family
Otis C. Norcross married Lucy Ann [Lane] (1816–1916), his first cousin, on 9 December 1835, at the Twelfth Congregational Church in Boston, strict disciples of UnitarianismUnitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
. His wife was the daughter of George Lane and Sarah Merritt [Homer], married 27 July 1814; younger sister of the Mayor's mother Mary Cunningham [Homer] Norcross (noted below).
Notable Boston Brahmins, the Norcross' resided at No. 249 Marlborough Street, Boston, adjacent to Boston Common
Boston Common
Boston Common is a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts. It is sometimes erroneously referred to as the "Boston Commons". Dating from 1634, it is the oldest city park in the United States. The Boston Common consists of of land bounded by Tremont Street, Park Street, Beacon Street,...
. He later died at the family home, No. 9 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Commonwealth Avenue is a major street in the cities of Boston and Newton, Massachusetts. It begins at the western edge of the Public Garden, and continues west through the neighborhoods of the Back Bay, Kenmore Square, Allston, Brighton and Chestnut Hill...
, and is interred with the family at Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery was founded in 1831 as "America's first garden cemetery", or the first "rural cemetery", with classical monuments set in a rolling landscaped terrain...
, in Cambridge, MA.
Otis Norcross, Jr. and Lucy Ann's eight children include: their first four children, all of whom died in infancy: two sons (the first originally named Otis, [III]) and two daughters. Those surviving into maturity included: Laura [Norcross] (1845–1926), married Kingsmill Marrs; Otis Norcross [IV], Esq (b. 1848) (Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
, A.B., 1870, Harvard Law, LL.B., 1873), married Susannah Ruggles [Plympton]; descendant of Timothy Ruggles
Timothy Ruggles
Timothy Dwight Ruggles was an American military leader, jurist and politician. He was a delegate to the first Stamp Act congress of 1765.-Early life:...
; Addison Norcross (1850–1873; a. 23 yrs.); and Grenville Howland Norcross, Esq (1854–1937) (Harvard College, A.B., 1875, Harvard Law, LL.B., 1877), who resided as a bachelor at the family home; No. 9 Commonwealth Avenue, as was customary for the time.
The Norcross Family: Genealogical lineage of a prominent son & relatives
The Norcross family is a succession of prominent New Englanders in America deriving from All Hallows Bread StreetAll Hallows Bread Street
All Hallows Bread Street was a church in the Bread Street ward of the City of London on the south side of Watling Street. First mentioned in the 13th century, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666...
, London, Middlesex, England, whom upon arrival in the colonies (1638), first settled with fellow Puritans in Salem, Massachusetts
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
, then resettling with the new community in Watertown, Massachusetts
Watertown, Massachusetts
The Town of Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,915 at the 2010 census.- History :Archeological evidence suggests that Watertown was inhabited for thousands of years before the arrival of settlers from England...
, whose progenitor Jeremiah Norcross was a landowner within the town in 1642. The patriarch was married to Adrean [Chadwick]. The family's patrilineal descent of this specific line includes: the second son, of the immigrant's first three children, Richard Norcross (1621–1708), the great-great-great grandfather of Otis Norcross, Jr., and his son, Richard Norcross, Jr. (1660–1745), great-great grandfather of Otis Norcross, Jr., both of whom served as schoolteachers in the early Watertown colony (see family tree below).
This Norcross blood-line extends further in perpetuity with Otis Norcross' great grandfather Peter Norcross (1710–1777) whose younger brother William Norcross (1715 - ca. 1775), and his wife Lydia [Wheeler] (married 6 Nov. 1741), are the great, great grandparents of Otis' third cousin once removed American poet, Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
; daughter of Emily [Norcross] and Edward Dickinson; granddaughter of Joel Norcross and Betsey [Fay]; and great granddaughter of William and Sarah [Marsh] Norcross.
During the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, the Norcross family "served the cause," whereby [Private Sergeant] Daniel Norcross (1743–1805), grandfather of Otis Norcross, Jr., served in Captain Samuel Warren's Company of the Massachusetts Militia
Massachusetts militia
Militia of the Colony and later Commonwealth of Massachusetts.-List of Massachusetts militia units of the American Revolution:*Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts *Cogswell's Regiment of Militia...
; and Colonel Joseph Reed's Regiment of Militia
Reed's Regiment of Militia
Reed's Regiment of Militia also known as the 6th Middlesex County Militia Regiment was called up at Littleton and Westford, Massachusetts on September 27, 1777 as reinforcements for the Continental Army during the Saratoga Campaign. The regiment marched quickly to join the gathering forces of...
, Lexington, Massachusetts
Lexington, Massachusetts
Lexington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,399 at the 2010 census. This town is famous for being the site of the first shot of the American Revolution, in the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775.- History :...
He married Abigail [Chapin], 3 October 1765, a descendant of notable New England families, including those of: Josiah Chapin (1634–1726), Jonathan Thayer (1658), and Henry Adams (ca. 1582/82 - 1646), patriarchs of three distinguished colonial families of Weymouth and Braintree, MA.
Through the Chapin family-line, Otis Norcross is the first cousin fourth removed of the second U.S. President John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
, and the respective second cousin third removed therefore of the sixth U.S. President John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...
, as well as, the distant cousin of Brig.-Gen. Sylvanus Thayer
Sylvanus Thayer
Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Sylvanus Thayer also known as "the Father of West Point" was an early superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point and an early advocate of engineering education in the United States.-Biography:Thayer was born in Braintree, Massachusetts,...
, father of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point.
The Hon. Otis Norcross, is the fourth cousin, third removed of Hon. Chester W. Chapin
Chester W. Chapin
Chester William Chapin was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.Chester W. Chapin was born in Ludlow, Massachusetts, the youngest son of Ephriam and Mary [Smith] Chapin; six generations removed from the family's pilgrim immigrant Deacon Samuel Chapin attending common schools and Westfield...
, President of Boston & Albany Railroad, Co. through Chapin pedigree of Deacon Samuel Chapin.
Otis Norcross, Sr. (1785–1827), married Mary Cunningham [Homer], January 8, 1809, parents of Otis Norcross, Jr. (their second child), and siblings including: Mary Homer Norcross (1809–1885), married Oct. 1830 Stephen Gore Bass, Caroline A. [Norcross], married in 1834 [Hon.] Jonathan D. Wheeler, Esq., Adelaide Norcross (1816–1885), married Nov. 1844 John Warren White Bass, Samuel Dow Norcross (1818–1839), Joseph Addison Norcross (1820–1849), Jane Eliza Norcross (1823–1840), Laura Olivia Norcross (1825–1834), and Daniel [D.] Webster Norcross (noted below).
Mary Cunningham [Homer] Norcross was the elder sister of Charles Savage Homer; father of American artist Winslow Homer
Winslow Homer
Winslow Homer was an American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th century America and a preeminent figure in American art....
. With this, Otis and his siblings were first cousins of the artist. The Homer family, stems from Ettingshall
Ettingshall
Ettingshall is an area of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England, and is a ward of Wolverhampton City Council.-History:Ettingshall was mentioned as an ancient manor in the Domesday Book of 1086...
, Warwick Co., England and dates from 1690 in America, having originally settled in Yarmouth, Massachusetts
Yarmouth, Massachusetts
Yarmouth is a New England town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, Barnstable County being coextensive with Cape Cod. The population was 24,807 at the 2000 census....
, later removing to Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
. Mary Cunningham [Homer] Norcross was the third born of fourteen children to Eleazer and Mary [Bartlett] Homer.
Oits Norcross & Co.
Otis Norcross, Jr. assumed proprietorship of Norcross, Mellen & Company (est. 1810), upon the death of his father Otis Norcross, Sr. and the subsequent retirement of fellow partner Eliphalet Jones (b. 31 Aug. 1797, Boston), who entered the company as an apprentice in 1811 (r. 1847). Otis Norcross, Jr., having started with the firm as an apprentice at the age of fourteen, along with his two brothers Addison and D. Webster, and Otis Norcross Jones (b. 6 Mar. 1828, Boston, d. 20 May 1892); son of Eliphalet; and not a relative, at least known, to senior member Jerome Jones, renamed and shared in partnership Otis Norcross & Co; importers, dealers, wholesalers and retailers of fine European, Japanese and Chinese china, glassware, crockery, earthenware and pottery in Boston.The company also established a glass factory in Sandwich, Massachusetts
Sandwich, Massachusetts
Sandwich is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 20,675 at the 2010 census. The Town Hall is located right next to the Dexter Grist Mill, in the historic district of town....
.
This partnership also later included Otis Norcross Howland; nephew of Otis Norcross, Jr.; son of is brother-in-law, Ichabod Howland, a business partner at the firm, who was married to his wife's sister, Mary (Maria) Wellington [Lane]; descendant of Mayflower
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
(1621) passenger; John Howland
John Howland
John Howland was a passenger on the Mayflower. He was an indentured servant who accompanied the separatists, also called the Pilgrims, when they left England to settle in Plymouth, Massachusetts...
. The company was sold upon Otis Norcross, Jr.' retirement in 1867 when he assumed his mayoral duties, upon which time his partner Jerome Jones (apprentice, Jun. 1853; pr. 1861) and Mr. Otis Norcross Howland took over the company as Howland & Jones, Co. Jerome Jones (b. 1837) was the son of Theodore Jones, Sr. and Marcia [Estabrook] of Brookline, MA.
The Company was sold for the final time in 1871 upon the death of Mr. Howland, and renamed; [Jerome] Jones, [Louis P.] McDuffee & [Solomon Piper] Stratton, Co. (Inc. 1896). In 1885 Jones' son Theodore Jones, Jr. (b. 17 Mar. 1866) began an apprenticeship at the firm rising through the ranks to the partner position of Treasurer.
Since its inception, the company under numerous iterations amassed productive wealth and notoriety for all its partners as esteemed members of society, of whom applied legacies to many endowments within the City of Boston. Proceeding the death of Eliphalet Jones, he became a member of the New England Genealogical and Historical Society, 11 Nov. 1861. http://www.newenglandancestors.org
Brother: D. Webster Norcross
D. Webster Norcross (b. 17 August 1826 - d. 1903), the younger brother of Otis Norcross, married Delia Augustus [Bruce]; direct descendant of Pilgrim Henry Samson, Mayflower (1621), whose granddaughter Abigail [Samson] married George Bruce; and whose subsequent grandson, [Capt.] Simon Bruce married Sarah [Whipple]; daughter of James Whipple; descendant of the WhippleWhipple
-Family name:*Abraham Whipple , American revolutionary naval commander*Allen Whipple , American surgeon, eponym of the Whipple procedure and Whipple's triad...
family of Boston. Sarah [Whipple] Bruce's son Joseph Bruce, married Harriet [Fay]; whose parents Heman and Martha (Patty) Fay both descend from John Fay, the early Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
who arrived on the Speedwell
Speedwell (ship)
The Speedwell was a 60-ton ship, the smaller of the two ships intended to carry the Pilgrim Fathers to North America...
(1656) in Boston, Massachusetts.
D. Webster Norcross' daughter, Clara Gertrude [Norcross] (b. 1858, Boston); niece of Hon. Otis Norcross; and a gifted amateur oilpainter married (1883) Melville Oscar Stratton; son of Oscar Stratton and Ellen Amelia [Estabrook] of Sterling, MA and later Denver, CO.; resided in Denver, Colorado, pioneers of the Westward Expansion, were of the Stratton family, also original settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts, whose progenitor Samuel Stratton (b. 1592) and his first wife Alice [Beeby] arrived on the Arbella
Arbella
The Arbella or Arabella was the flagship of the Winthrop Fleet on which, between April 8 and June 12, 1630, Governor John Winthrop, other members of the Company and Puritan emigrants transported themselves and the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company from England to Salem, thereby giving legal...
(30 July 1630, 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...
) and whose pedigree
Pedigree chart
A pedigree chart is a diagram that shows the occurrence and appearance or phenotypes of a particular gene or organism and its ancestors from one generation to the next, most commonly humans, show dogs, and race horses....
widely extends throughout the early American colonies; this line stemming from Gravesend
Gravesend, Kent
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. It is the administrative town of the Borough of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of...
, Kent, England, includes the original Stratton settlers of East Hampton, Long Island
East Hampton (town), New York
The Town of East Hampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, at the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. It is the easternmost town in the state of New York...
, Suffolk, Co., New York and James City, Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 , it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke...
; including Winfield Scott Stratton, "the Gold King of Colorado", of the Windsor Stratton line.
Melville [M.] Norcross Stratton, was the son of Melville O. Stratton and Clara G. [Norcross], grandnephew of Hon. Otis Norcross, married (1908) Helen Elizabeth [Hickey], of Grafton, Massachusetts
Grafton, Massachusetts
Grafton is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 17,765 at the 2010 census. Grafton is the home of a Nipmuc village known as Hassanamisco Reservation, the Willard House and Clock Museum, and the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine...
, whose first three daughters Eleanor N., Elizabeth G., and Geraldine F., from a total of six children were the great grandnieces of Mayor Otis Norcross. M. Norcross Stratton served as President of Massachusetts Board of Education, Vocational Education Society of Boston; and Director Vocational Education [Division], Field of Industrial Schools for Men and Boys, and Agent-in-Charge of Teacher Training in all fields, Massachusetts Department of Education.
Family tree
The following is a selective family tree of notable members of the Norcross family relative to the Honorable Otis Norcross, 19th Mayor of the City of Boston, Massachusetts:Tribute
The Norcross Grammar School District for Girls (erected: 1867; first occupied: March 1868) (D and Fifth Streets, Boston, MA) was duly named in tribute to the 19th Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts.M. Norcross Stratton Elementary School Arlington, Massachusetts http://www.arlington.k12.ma.us/stratton/