James A. Norton

Norton was born in Bettsville, Ohio and attended the district schools where he graduated from Tiffin High School.

During the Civil War he enlisted in the Union Army in August 1862. He was a sergeant in Company K, One Hundred and First Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was later promoted to first lieutenant and adjutant of the One Hundred and Twenty-third Regiment, United States Colored Infantry, in 1864.

He mustered out of the service in 1865.

After the war Norton studied medicine and commenced practice in Ohio in 1867 and continued in that profession until 1879.

He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1879.

He served as member of the State house of representatives 1873-1879, and as chairman of the State Democratic committee 1887-1892.

From 1885-1892 he served as County auditor and as commissioner of railroads and telegraphs from 1889 to 1895, when he resigned to accept a position in the legal department of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co..

Norton was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth, and Fifty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1897 - March 3, 1903).

He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1902 to the Fifty-eighth Congress and resumed legal service with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

He died July 24, 1912 in Tiffin, Ohio and was interred in a mausoleum in Green Lawn Cemetery.

• United States Congress. "James A. Norton (id: N000150)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2009-04-17

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov.