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BIOGRAPHIES
** Source:
A Twentieth Century History of
Hardin County, Ohio
- Vol. I & II -
Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago
1910
898 pgs.
Eurotis S. Neeley |
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W. A. NORTON.—One
of Kenton's most prominent business representatives is found in
W. A. Norton, the president of the Kenton Savings Bank,
the treasurer of the Home Savings and Loan Company of Kenton,
the president of the Kenton Gas and Electric Company and the
vice president of the Kenton Telephone Company. The Home
Savings and Loan Company is one of the substantial concerns of
Hardin county, and Mr. Norton has been associated
with it in his present capacity since its organization.
He was born at Marseilles in Wyandot county, Ohio, Dec.
17, 1852, a son of Anson and Rachel (Hooker) Norton, and
through Anson and Joel Norton, his grandfather and
great-grandfather, he traces descent to Thomas Norton
of Saybrook, Connecticut, son of Thomas of Guilford,
England, who with his wife and children emigrated to America in
1639. The grandmother, Lucretia (Woodruff) Norton,
daughter of David Woodruff, was descended from
Mathew Woodruff, one of the early Connecticut
colonists. Anson Norton, Jr., born at Sharon in
Litchfield county, Connecticut, moved to Livingston, New York,
in 1837, and ten
years afterward, in 1847, he came to Marseilles, Ohio. He
was a merchant during the greater part of his active life . In
1864 he located with his family in Kenton, where he continued
his mercantile interests for a number of years, but finally
turned his attention to the buying of wool and insurance, and
was thus engaged until his death on the 14th of February. 1903.
He was born in May, 1828. and on the 5th of February.
1852. in Marseilles, he had married Rachel Hooker,
a daughter of Henson and Susanah (Young) Hooker, and a
granddaughter on the maternal side of George Young,
a Revolutionary soldier who lived to the remarkable age of one
hundred and six years and was then laid to rest in Marseilles.
His native state was Maryland. W. A. was the first
born and only son of the children of Anson and Rachel Norton,
and the four daughters are: Emma C., wife of Henry J.
Miller, a shoe merchant in Kenton; Mary A., wife of
B. F. Schultz of Kenton; Louie Bell, who became
the wife of Elmer E. Gear and lived at Springfield, Ohio,
until her death in February 1891, and she left one son.
Anson William Gear, who resides with his uncle. W. A.
Norton; and Maud, who died when only two years old.
W. A. Norton was a lad of eleven when the family
home was established in Kenton, and thus from an early age he
has been identified with its interests and upbuilding. He
was the first boy to graduate from the Kenton public schools,
graduating in the year of 1871. and then until the 15th of July,
1878, he was associated with his father in the dry goods
business. At that time he accepted the assistant
cashiership of the Kenton Savings Bank, while in 1886 lie became
the hunk's cashier, and since 1905, has been its president.
He is a Scottish Rite Mason and a Republican in his political
affiliations. He has often been called upon for committee work,
but the greater part of his time is devoted to his business
interests. On the 5th of December, 1905, at Columbus,
Ohio, he was married to Mrs. Lula Carpenter, widow of
Eugene G. Carpenter, formerly of that city, and a daughter
of Joseph McCormick of Mt. Vernon, Ohio.
Source: A Twentieth Century History of
Hardin County, Ohio - Vol. II - Publ. The Lewis Publishing
Company - Chicago - 1910. - Page 445 |
NOTES:
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