Biographical Sketch of Dr. A. J. Norris, Greene County, Missouri, Boone 
Township

>From "History of Greene County, Missouri," St. Louis: Western
Historical Company, 1883.

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This gentleman was born in Lincoln County, Kentucky, June 24, 1836.
When he was but six years of age he walked three miles to school.  The
doctor says his teacher knew the front part of the spelling book, but
stuttered so badly the scholars could hardly understand him.  He also
states that in four days he mastered the alphabet, which had been cut
out of the book and pasted upon a shingle for his especial benefit. He
was then taken sick and lay upon a bed of pain for four years and arose
a cripple for life.  He then went to school a short time, and at the 
age of seventeen he began teaching school, which he followed for fif-
teen years.  When the civil war came on he enlisted in the 19th Ken-
tucky Volunteers, United States Infantry, and served for nine months
when he was discharged for disability.  He then entered the secret 
service and served as a spy for eighteen months.  He then assisted in
raising a battalion of cavalry, known as Hall's Gap Tigers, with which
he served until the close of the rebellion.  He was in several hard
fought battles and skirmishes, including the sanguinary battle at 
Perryville.  At the close of the war he attended school in Illinois
and resumed the occupation of teaching.  He went to Kansas in 1867 and
taught school in Council Grove, read medicine, and in 1870 went to
Fayetteville, Arkansas where he read law three years, taught school
and prosecuted claims against the government.  He then turned his
attention to one branch of the medical profession, viz.: Ophthalmia.
The doctor moved to Ash Grove, Greene County, Mo., in 1876, where he
fitted up a hotel, known as the Empire House.  To use his own words,
he is "an oculist, hotel-keeper, livery stable boss, notary public,
real estate and insurance agent, a Greenbacker in good standing, prac-
tices law for exercise and preaches for fun.  He is a whole souled,
genial gentleman and one of the substantial citizens of Greene County.

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