US Congressman. He was born the youngest of twelve children (eight sons and four daughters) to Captain Daniel Norcross and Polly Jones Norcross in Rindge, New Hampshire, was educated at local schools and later attended the distinguished Appleton Academy in New Ipswich, New Hampshire. After his education, he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1847 and commenced to practicing in Worcester, Massachusetts. He also worked in the law offices of Torrey & Wood in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, before opening up his own law office in September of 1847. On June 1, 1852, he married Susan Augusta Wallis, and they had two children, Ella Eleanor Augusta Norcross in 1854, and Nelson Hamlin Norcross who was born in 1859. He then ran for public office and served as a Member of the Massachusetts State House of Representatives in 1858, 1859, and again in 1862. He was personally appointed by then-President Abraham Lincoln to serve as an Assessor of Internal Revenue from August 1862 to May 1873, when the office was abolished. He also served as the Mayor of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, in 1873 and 1874, and as a Member of the Massachusetts State Senate in 1874. He then ran for a seat in the United States Congress and won the election. A Republican, he then served Massachusetts's 10th District (Forty-Fifth, Forty-Sixth, and Forty-Seventh Congresses) in the United States House of Representatives from 1877 to 1883. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1882. After his term in the United States Congress expired on March 3, 1883, he returned to his practice of law. A highly respected businessman, he also was a senior director of the Rollstone National Bank, President of the Worcester North Savings Institution in 1886, and the Fitchburg Mutual Free Insurance in 1887. He also helped organize the Fitchburg Benevolent Union in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, was a trustee of Lawrence Academy in Groton, Massachusetts, and was the President of Cushing Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He was in Paris, France, visiting his daughter, the well-know painter Eleanor Norcross, when he passed away suddenly from a stroke at the age of 74, on April 2, 1898. He was buried in the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, beside his son who died in 1863, and his wife who died in 1869. His daughter Eleanor's body was returned from Paris, France, upon her death in 1923, and was buried with the rest of the family.