Bexar County Texas Archives Obituaries.....Norcross, John  November 7, 1883
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Joan Renfrow jrenfrow@swbell.net July 20, 2008, 1:17 pm

San Antonio Light Newspaper
San Antonio Light Newspaper
November 11, 1883

JOHN NORCROSS

The Details of the Instructive and Exemplary Life of a San Antonio Citizen

There is something instructive and affecting in the death of John Norcross, 
who recently passed into his rest beyond the grave.

He was born in Keighley, Yorkshire, England, in the year 1843, and was only 40 
years old when he died.  He was born of industrious parents, and was brought 
up in the Methodist church.  At school his mind carried him to something else 
and he did not make an apt scholar.  At 12 years he left school and worked 
industriously 16 years to support an aged father, when he apprenticed himself 
to a stone cutter and carver.  He soon gave proof that he was no ordinary 
apprentice, and at the end of his apprenticeship he stood in the front ranks 
of his profession as a designer and carver in stone and wood.

Shortly after this he left his employer, and joined his brother, Smith 
Norcross, now of San Antonio, who made him his foreman, and they worked 
together for nearly 20 years.  John Norcross needs no monument to tell of his 
skill.  His work is a sufficient testimony to his genius in England now.  The 
following edifices are the proud monuments of his greatness:
Saint Mary's church, Rochdale; Stowel's Memorial church, Manchester; St. 
John's church, Altringham; hospital for incurables, near Manchester; St. 
Paul's church, Manchester.

While building St. John's church, Altringham, he married the present widow, 
and with her leaves four children, three boys and one girl, to mourn his loss.
Now, a word on his virtues, as will be seen from the above, he was not raised 
in luxury, but in the strictest sense of the term, "he was a self made man".  
Neither did he sleep on a bed of roses; it might be said and truly, his path 
was strewn with thorns, and it is just here where he has shown his true 
greatness.  Since his arrival he has had a hard struggle, and just as he was 
in the way of success he was cut down.  The ways of Providence are indeed 
inscrutable.

As a gentleman and Christian, while others would have wilted and repined under 
their burden you always found him the same simple and unassuming, cheerful 
John Norcross, always ready to lend a helping hand and assist others in 
carrying their burdens.  Moreover he had a kind word and pleasant smile for 
all and was loath to speak or believe ill of his neighbor.  He was not a 
member of any church, though he occasionally attended the Trinity M.E..  He 
carried practical Christianity in his breast.  The words of the immortal Burns 
are applicable in his case: "His failings even leaned to virtue's side."


Additional Comments:
I have no association with this family, please do not e-mail me for additional 
information.

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