Butts-Fulton County GaArchives News.....J. F. Norris Drowned May 25, 1900
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Don Bankston http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00024.html#0005864 December 8, 2007, 10:01 pm

Jackson Argus May 25, 1900
J. F. Norris, a young man who has visited Jackson several times and who had 
many acquaintances and friends here was drowned at Lakewood Sunday morning. He 
was a son of W .D. R. Norris, a former well known and popular citizen of this 
county. 

 Monday’s Constitution gives the following account of the drowning.

After camping on the banks of the lake at Lakewood all night with three 
friends, Joseph Frank Norris   took an early bath yesterday morning and found a 
watery grave.

Norris and his three friends had been drinking and the young man who was 
drowned was warned by his comrades not to thrust himself beyond his depth in 
the lake for they realized he was not in a condition to swim any great distance.

Another young man in the party was also swimming at the time, but he did not 
see Norris when he sank under the water to rise no more.

At 9 o’clock three or four hours after the accident, Norris’s body was found 
with grappling hooks.  It was brought to the city and placed in the undertaking 
establishment of W. H. Mayer & Co., where the coroner held an inquest in the 
afternoon.

A bruise on the top of the head caused jury at first to suspect foul play.  Dr. 
Bissel, county physician, pronounced the would a bruise which might have been 
made by the grappling hooks, and the verdict of the jury was that Norris came 
to his death by accidental drowning.

Saturday night between 10 and 11 o’clock Norris with three friends, J. H. 
Smith, of 82 Terry Street; H. F. Shockly of 6 ˝  Whitehall Street, and W. T. 
Lynn of 20 King Street, went to Lakewood for a ride.

All four young men had been drinking according to the evidence before the 
coroner’s jury, and it was alleged that the reason the party remained in the 
woods all night was because Norris was unable to get back to the car line.

Missing the last car from Lakewood to the city the four young men built a fire 
on the extreme west end of the lake and slept upon the ground in the woods.

Yesterday morning about 4 o’clock Norris and Smith awoke and decided to take a 
bath in the lake.  Smith plunged into the water and began to swim toward the 
opposite shore.  Norris followed after him.

Shockly states that he was watching the swimmers and he saw Norris suddenly 
throw up his hands and sink.  He called to Lyon, who had gone to sleep again 
and told him that he believed Norris was drowning.  Smith was called to, but 
before he could reach the spot where Norris was last seen the later had 
disappeared from sight this last time.
Trolley car men brought the news of the drowning and a party went out to search 
for the body.  About 9 o’clock the body was found by means of grappling hooks.

The coroner summoned a jury and held the inquest in the afternoon.  All three 
of the young men who were with Norris appeared as witnesses.  Accidental 
drowning was the verdict rendered by the jury.

Norris was twenty seven years of age and unmarried.  He was a son of W. D. R. 
Norris, a contractor who resides at No. 38 Garnett Street.  The deceased was a 
railroad employee.

Jackson Argus – Butts County
 Week of May 25, 1900




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