BIOGRAPHY: Felix NORTON, Mifflin County, PA

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The Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley, Comprising 
the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry, Pennsylvania.
Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897, Volume I, pages 550-551.

  FELIX NORTON, retired blacksmith, Newton Hamilton, Mifflin county, Pa., son of 
Jacob and Sarah (Lukens) Norton, was born in Wayne township, Mifflin county, 
January 11, 1830.  His grandfather, John Norton, was a native of Holland, where 
he was born in 1767.  He came to America in boyhood and settled in Lancaster 
county, Pa., where he became a weaver's apprentice, and where he lived during 
the Revolutionary war.  While yet a young man he came to Mifflin county, and in 
1790 bought a tract of land then in a wilderness condition.  This he cleared and 
improved, enduring all the hardships of pioneer life.  In connection with his 
farm, he carried on a blacksmith shop.  He married Jane Noss, of Lancaster 
county, who became the mother of ten children:  Mary B., born October 16, 1790;  
Michael, born August 20, 1792;  Elizabeth, born August 23, 1794;  Johanna, born 
August 14, 1796;  Felix, born May 17, 1799;  Jacob, born August 1, 1801;  Jane 
C., born May 4, 1803;  Julia A., born September 13, 1805;  Benjamin, born July 
10, 1807;  and Susanna, born October 4, 1809.  Mr. Norton died in 1842, and both 
he and his wife lie buried on the home farm.  He was a Democrat.  He led an 
honest, upright and industrious life.  His sixth child, Jacob Norton, was born 
in Wayne township, Mifflin county.  He acquired a limited education in the early 
subscription schools.  He was reared on the farm, and at the age of eleven years 
in 1872 began as a helper in his father's blacksmith shop.  He continued on the 
home place until he was twenty-two, when he removed to the James Criswell farm 
near McVeytown.  He remained here one year, and then returned to the homestead.  
Four years later he removed to Atkinsons Mills, where he carried on a blacksmith 
shop until 1834.  He then came to Newton Hamilton and was in the same business 
there until 1870, when he retired.  He was a good mechanic and an expert 
gunsmith.  His wife was Sarah Lukens, a native of Wayne township, daughter of 
Abraham Lukens.  Their children were:  Prudence L., widow of Dr. K. Wharton, of 
McVeytown;  John, a retired blacksmith, of Princeton, Ill.;  Felix;  Emeline 
(Mrs. John Montgomery), of Virginia;  and William, who died in 1847.  Mrs. Sarah 
Norton died in 1834.  Mr. Norton afterwards married Mary Postlethwaite, a native 
of Wayne township.  Their children were:  Sarah J., wife of Rev. W. B. McKee, of 
Rock Island, Ill.;  Mary E., who died in Princeton, Ill., in 1894;  Harriet 
(Mrs. Jasper Laughlin), of Newton Hamilton, deceased;  Nancy E., of Kewaunee, 
Ill.;  Thomas and Charles, who died in infancy.  Mrs. Mary P. Norton died in 
Newton Hamilton in 1847.  Mr. Norton was again married to Mary Montgomery, widow 
of James Graham, of Waterloo, Juniata county.  The children of this marriage 
are:  Alice;  Julia, deceased;  and Isabella (Mrs. Samuel McCullough), of 
Juniata county.  Mr. Norton died in February, 1880, and his wife in 1892.  He 
was a Jacksonian Democrat.  He served as postmaster of Atkinsons Mills, and was 
the first school director of the first free school in the township.  He was a 
captain in the State Militia, and an active and enterprising citizen.
  Felix Norton attended the subscription and public schools during the winter 
months.  From seventeen to twenty-one years of age he worked in his father's 
blacksmith shop.  He then worked for his father by the month until 1862, when he 
became a partner in the business, continuing  eight years, after which he 
embarked in general blacksmithing with J. M. Graham.  This partnership continued 
until 1893, since which time Mr. Norton has lived retired.  In 1862 Felix Norton 
married Sarah C. Sheaffer, a native of Huntingdon county, daughter of William 
and Mary A. Sheaffer.  Their children are:  John Truxton, telegraph operator for 
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, at Mt. Union, Huntingdon county;  William B., 
who died in 1888;  Mary Hope, who married Dr. C. B. Bush, and who died in April, 
1889.  Mr. Norton is a Democrat, and has filled the offices of burgess and 
councilman of Newton Hamilton.  He has also served as school director and county 
auditor.  He is a member of the Presbyterian church, of which he has been an 
elder for a number of years, and was superintendent of the Sunday-school.  He is 
also a member of McVeytown Lodge, No. 376, F. and A. M.  Mr. Norton is highly 
esteemed as a man of strict integrity, and is regarded as a progressive and 
public-spirited citizen.