BIOGRAPHY

HART NORRIS - OF STAFFORD NY

Hart Norris, youngest son of Deacon Abijah Norris, from Ridgebury, Conn., came to Stafford in 1835 from Orange County. He was born in Sullivan County in 1814, and was partly educated there and partly in Orange County, finishing his education at Troy and Williamstown, Mass. He worked on his father's farm a few years, when he began for himself by setting out a peach orchard, and later engaged in the nursery business, carrying on an extensive trade as far west as California. In 1851, acting upon the advice of his brother, he bought a section (640 acres) of land in La Salle County, Ill., which has proved a profitable investment. A few years later he leased his nursery business to a nephew, and went to Iowa, where he engaged in a similar trade, and also conducted a real estate and mortgage office. Soon after 1857 he went to Dade County, Mo., and purchased several thousand acres of improved land, a portion of which he still holds. In 1859 he located a quantity of land in Northern Iowa and in Nebraska, and engaged in the cattle business. Later, through the efforts of a brother in Florida, he became interested in the Spring Garden orange plantation in Volusia County, and built a steamer to run from the lake to Jacksonville. He also engaged in the growing of oranges, pears, persimmons, and the mulberry, and passes his winters in that section.

FROM: Gazetteer and Biographical Record of Genesee County, New York, Edited by: F. W. Beers, J.W. Vose & Co., Publishers, Syracuse, N. Y. 1890