Charles Davis Norton (November 20, 1820 – April 11, 1867) was an American government official.

Early life

Norton was born on November 20, 1820, in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. He was the son of Lucretia ( Huntington) Horton and Capt. Joseph G. Norton (d. 1844), a well-known shipping merchant of Hartford. His maternal grandfather was the Rev. Dr. Joseph Huntington, a Congregationalist minister of Coventry, Connecticut. His grandfather was the brother of Samuel Huntington, a

Governor of Connecticut The governor of Connecticut is the head of government of Connecticut, and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Connecticu ...

and signor of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. His uncle, Samuel Huntington Jr., served as the 3rd

Governor of Ohio A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

before becoming Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. After preparing for college under private tutors, he attended

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

, where he graduated with honors in 1840.

Career

In 1827, he moved to Black Rock, New York, where his father had a dry-goods business with Judah Bliss known as Norton & Bliss. In 1830, they moved to nearby Buffalo. In 1839, he entered the law office of Horatio Shumway, with whom he continued his legal studies until 1841. He was admitted to the bar in 1843. An ardent Whig, he supported the presidential prospects of

Henry Clay Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state, al ...

. In 1849, he was elected City Attorney of Buffalo and in 1851 he was elected Surrogate of Erie County. In 1865, President

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a Dem ...

appointed him Collector of the Port of Buffalo to succeed Christian Metz Jr., who had been appointed during the Lincoln administration. Norton served in this role until his death in 1867 after which Joseph K. Tyler was appointed to succeed him. In 1865, Norton published ''The Old Ferry at the Black Rock'', a book of the history of the ferry that crossed the

Niagara River The Niagara River () is a river that flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the province of Ontario in Canada (on the west) and the state of New York (state), New York in the United States (on the east) ...

from the " black rock" near the foot of Fort Street to the Canadian shore from the time of the American Revolution.

Personal life

In October 1851, Norton was married to Jeannette Phelps (1822–1889), a daughter of Oliver Phelps (grandson of

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

Oliver Phelps) and Laura ( Chapin) Phelps of Canandaigua, New York. Her grandmother, Elizabeth "Betsy" Law ( Sherman) Phelps, was the granddaughter of founding father

Roger Sherman Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an American statesman, lawyer, and a Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to sign four of the great state papers of the United States related to the founding: the Cont ...

. Together, they were the parents of two sons: * Porter Norton (1853–1918), a lawyer who married Jennie H. Watson, daughter of Stephen Van Rensselaer Watson and Charlotte ( Sherman) Watson of Buffalo. *

Charles Phelps Norton Charles Phelps Norton (March 15, 1858 – July 11, 1923) was chancellor of the University of Buffalo from 1909 to 1920; and a founder of the University of Buffalo Law School, now known as the State University of New York at Buffalo Biography Nort ...

(1858–1923), a lawyer who became the 6th Chancellor of the University of Buffalo. Norton died on April 11, 1867, in Buffalo. After a funeral at the First Presbyterian Church of Buffalo, he was buried at

Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo Forest Lawn Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in Buffalo, New York, founded in 1849 by Charles E. Clarke. It covers over and over 152,000 are buried there, including U.S. President Millard Fillmore, First Lady Abigail Fillmore, singer Rick J ...

. His widow lived until September 10, 1889.

Descendants

Through his eldest son Porter, he was a grandfather of Porter Huntington Norton (who married Gilbertine Love Coakley) and Gertrude Van Dolfson Norton (who married

Daniel Willard Streeter Daniel Willard Streeter (2 November 1883 – 27 July 1964Date in ''Harvard Alumni Directory'', 1965.), was an American hunter, adventurer and writer active in the 1920s, who lived in Buffalo, New York."Daniel W. Streeter, Buffalo Weaving & Bel ...

References

External links

Porter-Phelps-Huntington Family Papers
at the

University of Massachusetts, Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, i ...

Libraries {{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Charles Davis 1820 births 1867 deaths Union College (New York) alumni Lawyers from Buffalo, New York Collectors of the Port of Buffalo