Prof. Henry B. Norton

Information is received of the death of Prof. Henry Norton, son of G. G. Norton, of Stillman Valley, which occurred in California last week, after an illness of only four days, of pneumonia. He was county superintendent of Ogle County twenty years ago. Since that time he had been prominently identified with the cause of education in Kansas. At the time of his death he was a professor in the State Normal School. It will be remembered by many Rockford people, that he delivered an able address before the graduating class of Rockford Seminary last year. He was a man universally esteemed for his sterling qualities of mind and heart. His age was about 50 years. He had a sister, Mrs. O. B. Youngs, and other relatives, residing in Stillman Valley. He was also a regularly ordained minister of the Congregational Church. The following additional fact regarding the late Prof. Norton appeared in a Bloomington paper:

News has been received of the death, at San Jose, Cal., of Professor Henry B. Norton, one of the faculty of the California State Normal School. He was one of the most distinguished and brilliant men who have ever graduated from the Illinois State Normal School, at Normal. He was a member of the class of 1862. Almost immediately upon graduation he was made principal of the model department of the Illinois Normal, and soon was elected principal of the Kansas Normal School at Emporia, which position he occupied until 1872, when called to California. He was assigned to the chair of Natural History, and later made vice president of the State Institution He was president of the State Teachers' Association of California. He was a poet of much excellence, and as a lecturer was widely known. He was about 42 years old, and was a native of Ogle Co., Illinois.

Byron Express, July 10, 1885, p. 1

Contributed by Bob Hutchins

Return to Ogle Co. Genealogy Site