James C. H. Norris (abt. 1831 - 1908)

Born about 1831 in Georgia, United States

Ancestors

Died 1908 at about age 77 in Lithia Springs, Cobb, Georgia, United States

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Biography

James was born about 1831, probably in Gwinnett County, Georgia, the son of John Jethro and Mary Johnson Norris. Between 1850 and 1860, the family moved from Gwinnett County to Fayette County, and later into western Campbell County near Powder Springs. James married Mary Herndon about 1851 and they had at least nine children.

Short anecdotes about James were submitted by a descendant, Pat Vermeer, in response to an article about the Norrises in the weekly genealogy feature, "Finding Your Folks" in the Fayette Citizen (Fayetteville, Georgia). Pat writes:

"(James) was said to be a kind man and would help anyone, as long as he was sober. When people saw him come out of a saloon, they would go across the street to get out of his way. Everyone knew that if you left him alone, he would go home. One day a deputy sheriff decided he would lock James up. The deputy told the sheriff that he was tired of seeing that drunk walking through town, so the sheriff told the deputy "Good Luck!" When the deputy tried to arrest James, the deputy ended up between the wheels of a parked buggy!!

"Another story about James is that he called his wife "Polly." Whenever he got drunk and was walking home, he would start hollering through the woods, "Polly!!! I comin' home" and she would know that he had been drinking and would just make him go to bed when he arrived. On one occasion he stopped by the general store and, instead of buying a few yards of cloth, he bought the whole bolt of cloth. ( Probably as a peace offering!) By the time he got home, it was almost completely unrolled and Mary had to go back through the woods rolling the cloth back on the board.

"One last story ... was that some neighbor had a grudge against James for some reason, but would act like his friend. One day the neighbor told James to try out his new rifle. The neighbor had rigged the rifle so that when James fired it, it blew off the thumb of his right hand."

James and Mary stayed in the western Atlanta area until they died. Some of their children lived in or around Coweta County and are buried in the Oak Hill Cemetary in Newnan. Mary died in 1903 and James died in 1908. They are both buried in the Union Grove Baptist Church cemetary in Lithia Springs.

Sources

• The Fayette Citizen newspaper, Fayetteville, Georgia, issue of 2 Aug 2008: "Finding Your Folks: James & Mary Herndon Norris," by Judy Fowler Kilgore.

• 1840, 1850 Gwinnett County censuses. Ancestry.com images online.

• 1860 Fayette County, Georgia census. Ancestry.com images online.

• 1870 Campbell County, Georgia census. Ancestry.com images online.

• 1880 Cobb County, Georgia census. Ancestry.com images online.