Norton, Hiram

Born: 1799-XX-XX Onondaga County, New York

Died: 1875-04-02 Lockport, Illinois

Flourished: Lockport, Illinois

Hiram Norton was a businessman, stage proprietor, provincial legislator, grain dealer, mill operator and owner, state legislator, and pioneer of Lockport, Illinois. Norton moved to Upper Canada at the close of the War of 1812, settling in Prescott, where he found employment with the Canada Stage Company. Norton subsequently became owner of a stage line from Montreal to Toronto. Norton combined his business interests with politics, serving as justice of the peace of the Johnstown and Eastern Districts. From 1831 to 1838, he represented Grenville County in the Upper Canada Parliament. During the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1838, Norton left Canada and moved to Lockport, Illinois. Norton was among the early pioneers of Lockport and, after the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, became one of the first grain dealers in the area. Recognizing the importance of the canal for Lockport and the surrounding vicinity, Norton constructed a large grain storage facility and warehouse near the canal, helping to transform Lockport into an important center of agricultural trade. He also financed and built a flour mill, paper mill, and other facilities near the canal. He founded Norton & Company in 1848, becoming the leading miller in Lockport. In 1850, Norton owned real property valued at $4,000. In November 1858, Townsend won election as a Republican to the Illinois House of Representatives, serving from January to February 1859. By 1860, Norton owned real property valued at $60,000 and had a personal estate of $30,000.

Norton married twice. He first married Rhoda Kingsley. Rhoda Kingsley Norton died in 1843, and Hiram married Elizabeth Sager in March 1844. He fathered eight children.

J. K. Johnson, Becoming Prominent: Regional Leadership in Upper Canada, 1791-1841 (Kingston and Montreal: McGill's-Queen's University Press, 1989); 218; Thad. W. H. Leavitt, History of Leeds and Grenville Ontario, From 1749 to 1879(Brockville: Recorder Press, 1879), 148; W. W. Stevens, Past and Present of Will County Illinois(Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1907), 91, 93, 96; David A. Belden, Images of America: Illinois and Michigan Canal(Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2012), 20, 21; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Lockport, Will County, IL, 15; The Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 November 1858, 2:4; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 222; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Lockport, Will County, IL, 1; The Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 3 April 1875, 8:7; Alabama, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1805-1967, 2 March 1844, Mobile County (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2016); Gravestone, Rhoda K. Norton, Lockport Cemetery, Lockport, IL; Hiram Norton, Lockport Cemetery, Lockport, IL.