Civil War - enlisted Cincinnati, Ohio 1861

Name Honis Randall Norton
Event Type Death
Event Date 18 Dec 1870
Event Place Manhattan, New York, New York, United States
Residence Place New York City, New York
Gender Male
Age 35
Marital Status Married
Race White
Occupation Clerk
Birth Year (Estimated) 1835
Birthplace Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
Burial Date 20 Dec 1870
Cemetery Greenwood Cemetery
Father's Birthplace Pennsylvania
Mother's Birthplace Massachusetts

Capt. NORRIS RANDAL. NORTON died in this City at 61/2 o'clock last evening, after some four years illness. He commanded a company in the Fifth Ohio Cavalry, having been one of the first to volunteer. He took a prominent part in numerous engagements, and was so seriously wounded at the siege of Corintn that he was compelled to resign his commission.

Cincinnati Daily Press, 23 May 1859, Mon, Page 3 Norris R. Norton, Esq., who for some time past has been one of our poetical poetical contributors, has become permanently connected connected with the city-editorial department of the Enquirer. Mr. Norton is a gentleman of capacity and culture, energy and industry, and excellently qualified to discharge the laborious duties of journalism, to which be must prove a valuable acquisition.

Captain, 5th Ohio Cavalry, Company K. A Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, native, Norton was associated with the press in Cincinnati, Ohio, prior to his military service. According to his obituary in the Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, he came to that city in 1851 and worked for the Columbian, the Gazette, the Enquirer, and the Penny Press; he also contributed poetry to the Cincinnati Daily Press. During the Civil War, he enlisted as a captain on September 26, 1861, the same day that he was commissioned into Company K of the 5th Ohio Cavalry. On April 5, 1862, he was wounded in action near Newalla, Mississippi; his obituary in the Chicago Tribune, which notes that he served with distinction, confirms that he was seriously wounded and refers to the site as the Battle of Corinth. His obituary in The New York Times reports that he was also injured in the foot during one of his encounters with "the guerillas of West Tennessee" and was disabled for many months; the Cincinnati Daily Enquirer notes that he was injured at Shiloh, Tennessee. He resigned his commission and was discharged on account of his wounds on April 12, 1863. The 1863 Cincinnati Directory lists him as a journalist. His song, Emblem of Freedom, published in Cincinnati for the Benefit of the Great Western Sanitary Fair and printed in Perrysburg [Ohio] Journal on August 12, 1863, begins, "Can the traitors yet hope that the flag they have torn will not peacefully float o'er the Nation again; That the banner their sires have successfully borne unavenged can be trod in the dust of the plain?…" The final stanza of his tribute to Union flag ends with these lines: "…Let us strike till that Banner of Beauty again over every fair state of the Union shall wave…." Norton came to New York City after the War and worked as assistant editor for the Tribune; he was disabled by sciatica and needed crutches to walk. He left that job for a position as the chief clerk in the Bureau of Sanitary Inspection. The 1868 New York City Directory states that he was a clerk who lived at 218 West 18th Street. His obituary in The New York Times reports that he was an expert on the problems of overcrowding in tenement houses and that his essays were included in the annual reports of the Board of Health. Esteemed by friends and colleagues, he was lauded for "his rare ability as a writer." The Sacramento Daily Press posted his obituary and indicated his service as a news journalist as well as his military service. His obituary in the New York Tribune, which also lauded his Civil War service, referred to him as an "honorable, generous, and chivalrous gentleman…" At the time of his death, he was the chief clerk at the Board of Health. His death certificate lists him as a clerk, but misspells his first name as Honis. His wife, Sarah Frances Norton, who devoted her life to philanthropy, was the great grand-daughter of President John Adams. His last address was 60 Perry Street in Manhattan. His death was attributed to Bright's disease and peritonitis. Sarah Norton applied for and was granted a widow's pension in 1888, certificate 254,100. When Mrs. Norton died in Troy, New York, in 1910, she was penniless, having exhausted her fortune helping those in poverty. An advocate for the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children and Animals, she sought a New York City monument for Henry Bergh, an advocate for animals, who is buried at Green-Wood; she was also a friend of Horace Greeley, and colleague of Henry Ward Beecher (see), and Susan B. Anthony.

Name Norris Randall Norton
Date of interment December 20, 1870
Lot number (of current burial site) 17340
Grave number (of current burial site) 3
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Birthplace Pennsylvania
Marital status Married
Age at death 35 years
Late residence 60 Perry, New York State
Place of death NY
Cause of death Uremia
Date of death December 18, 1870
Lot number (of previous burial site) 4259
Diagram available (see digital image) false
Lot owner? false
Undertaker / Funeral Director Senior's Son's
Notes & Remarks Jan 8 1873
Burial Registry Volume 19
Burial Registry Page 75
Interment Number 148906