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NAVIGATION
Michigan
Histories
Cass County
Biographies
Online Biographies
Illinois
Histories
Also see [Railway Officials in America 1906]
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Among the early settlers of Champaign County, Ohio, was Nathan Norton, the father of the immediate subject of
this biography. He came from Virginia, which was the place of his nativity. He resided in Ohio until 1828, when
with his family, which consisted of his wife and five children - Mahala, Pleasant, Jane, Levi D. and Richard. He
started for that El Dorado of the pioneers, Oass County. They arrived safely after a journey devoid of particular
incident, and settled in township of Jefferson, where they were the first settlers in the section of the town in
which they located. Here the elder Norton resided until his decease. Levi D. resided in Jefferson until 1839, when
he removed to Calvin; his name is stamped on many of the initial events in Jefferson's history. He plowed the first
furrow ever turned in the township, and assisted in the production of the first crop.
In Calvin, he was also a pioneer, and in addition to the many privations and hardships that he was called upon
to pass through, he was crippled by the loss of a considerable amount of the irredeemable currency of that day,
but his energy and industry overcame all obstacles, and he not only regained what he had lost, but ultimately became
one of the most successful and prosperous farmers of the township. His death occurred November 7, 1872, at his
home in Calvin. He identified himself closely with the township, and his name is frequently found in the civil
list. He discharged his duties concientiously and faithfully, and he endeared himself to the community in which
he lived by generosity and liberality. He was married, in September, 1814, to Miss Martha, daughter of Samuel and
Elizabeth Mcllvain. Mrs. Norton was born in Logan County, Ohio, in 1812. and came to Oass in 1832. She was the
counterpart of her husband in many things, and is now living on the old homestead with her daughter Jane, now Mrs.
C. L. Baldwin. Their other children are: Mary A. (now Mrs. Adamson); Leonard, who is in Chicago; Elizabeth, (now
Mrs. Shaw), in Cheboygan; and Samuel, who resides in Kansas.
FROM:
History of Cass Couny, Michigan
With Illistrations and Biographical Sketches
of some of it's Prominent Men and Pioneers.
Waterman, Watkins & Co., Chicago 1882.
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