Otis Norcross

Otis C. Norcross (November 2, 1811 – September 5, 1882) served as the nineteenth Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, from January 7, 1867 to January 6, 1868 during the Reconstruction era of the United States. Norcross was a candidate (1861) for the Massachusetts State House of Representatives; served as a member of the Boston Board of Aldermen from January 6, 1862 to January 2, 1865; chairman of the Boston Board of Aldermen from January 4, 1864 to January 2, 1865; and served as a trustee of the City Hospital, 1865 & 1866; and a member of the Massachusetts Governor's Council, under Gov. William Claflin (1869).Chapman, Jacob Chapman & Fitts, James Hill, comp. Lane Genealogies. Exeter, NH: The News-Letter Press. 1897, Vol. II, p. 240.

As a politician, he was "very pronounced" in his views; a Webster Whig Party member, with a "most consistent temperance." At the onset of the American Civil War his political views were aligned with the Republican Party.

The sentiment of Norcross' spirit was reflectively shared upon his death:

It is with this in mind, that "[h]is failure to receive the customary re-election for a second-term was due, perhaps, to a certain stiffness of virtue, which in political life at least, seldom receives the reward it merits."

His distant fourth cousin Jonathan Norcross served as fourth ante-bellum Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, as candidate of the Moral Party.Kaemmerlen, Cathy J. The Historic Oakland Cemetery of Atlanta: Speaking Stones. The History Press, 2007, p. 26.

In his civic life, Otis Norcross was one of the Boston Committee (1871) to relieve sufferers of the Great Chicago Fire. In 1872, while the Boston Fire was raging, he was made treasurer of the Relief Committee. His legacy includes serving as a member of the Water Board (1865) that helped to promote the construction of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir.

Family Otis C. Norcross married Lucy Ann [Lane] (1816–1916), his first cousin, on 9 December 1835, at the Twelfth Congregational Church in Boston,Pray, Lewis G. Historical Sketch of the Twelfth Congregational Society in Boston. (Boston, MA: John Wilson and Son, 1863). strict disciples of Unitarianism. His wife was the daughter of George Lane and Sarah Merritt [Homer], married 27 July 1814.Chapman, Jacob Chapman & Fitts, James Hill, comp. Lane Genealogies. Exeter, NH: The News-Letter Press. 1897, Vol. II, pp. 234–241.

Notable Boston Brahmins, the Norcross family resided at No. 249 Marlborough Street, Boston, adjacent to Boston Common. He later died at the family home, No. 9 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, and is interred with his family at Mount Auburn Cemetery, in Cambridge, MA.Lane Genealogies. Vol. II. Compiled by Jacob Chapman & James Hill Fitts. Exeter, NH: The News-Letter Press. 1897, pp. 234–241.

Otis Norcross, Jr. and Lucy Ann's eight childrenNew England Historic Genealogical Society. Memorial Biographies of New England Historic and Genealogical Society, 1853–1855. Pub. by the Society, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 112. include: their first four children, all of whom died in infancy: two sons (the first originally named Otis, [III]) and two daughters. Those surviving into maturity included: Laura [Norcross] (1845–1926), married Kingsmill Marrs; Otis Norcross [IV], Esq (b. 1848) (Harvard College, A.B., 1870, Harvard Law, LL.B., 1873), married Susannah Ruggles [Plympton]; descendant of Timothy Ruggles; Addison Norcross (1850–1873; a. 23 yrs.); and Grenville Howland Norcross, Esq (1854–1937) (Harvard College, A.B., 1875, Harvard Law, LL.B., 1877), who resided as a bachelor at the family home, No. 9 Commonwealth Avenue.New England Historical Society. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Pub. New England Genealogical and Historical Society, 1917, pp. xlvi–xlvii.

The Norcross Family: Genealogical lineage of a prominent son & relatives The Norcross family is a succession of prominent New Englanders in America deriving from All Hallows Bread Street, London, Middlesex, England, whom upon arrival in the colonies (1638), first settled with fellow Puritans in Salem, Massachusetts, then resettling with the new community in Watertown, Massachusetts,Bond, Henry, MD. Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts's (Boston: NEHGS, 1860). whose progenitor Jeremiah Norcross was a landowner within the town in 1642.U.S. Arsenal Map; 1642Thompson, Roger. Divided We Stand: Watertown, Massachusetts, 1630–1680. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001. The patriarch was married to Adrean [Chadwick].Bond, Henry, MD. Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts's (Boston: NEHGS, 1860), p. 376.

The family's patrilineal descent of this specific line includes: the second son, of the immigrant's first three children, Richard Norcross (1621–1708), the great-great-great grandfather of Otis Norcross, Jr.Thompson, Roger. Divided We Stand: Watertown, Massachusetts, 1630–1680. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 2001, p. 121.

This Norcross blood-line extends further in perpetuity with Otis Norcross' great grandfather Peter Norcross (1710–1777) whose younger brother William Norcross (1715 – ca. 1775), and his wife Lydia [Wheeler] (married 6 Nov. 1741), are the great, great grandparentsCrane, Ellery Bicknell. Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts: With a History of Worcester Society of Antiquity. New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1907, p. 391. of Otis' third cousin once removed American poet, Emily Dickinson; daughter of Emily [Norcross] and Edward Dickinson; granddaughter of Joel Norcross and Betsey [Fay]; and great granddaughter of William and Sarah [Marsh] Norcross.Cutter, William Richard & Adams, William Frederick. Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts. New York: Lewis Hist. Pub. Co., 1910, Vol. 1, pp. 412–413.

During the American Revolution,A National Register of the Society, Sons of the American Revolution, p. 520, (1902) the Norcross family "served the cause," whereby [Private Sergeant] Daniel Norcross (1743–1805), grandfather of Otis Norcross, Jr., served in Captain Samuel Warren's Company of the Massachusetts Militia; and Colonel Joseph Reed's Regiment of Militia,Society of the Sons of the Revolution in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Register of Members of the Society of Sons of the Revolution in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with the Constitution and By-Laws. Boston: 1897, p. 111 Lexington, MassachusettsClark, Alonzo Howard & Cornish, Louis Henry; Sons of the Amer. Revolution. A National Register of the Society, Sons of the American Revolution. Nat. Pub. Comm. A. H. Kellogg, Vol. 1, 1902, p. 520. He married Abigail [Chapin], 3 October 1765, a descendant of notable New England families, including those of: Josiah Chapin (1634–1726), Jonathan Thayer (1658), and Henry Adams (ca. 1582/82–1646), patriarchs of three distinguished colonial families of Weymouth and Braintree, Massachusetts.Thayer, Bazeleel. Memorial of the Thayer Name from the Massachusetts Colony of Weymouth and Braintree: Embracing Genealogical and Biographical Sketches of Richard and Thomas Thayer, and Their Descendants, from 1636 to 1874. Pub. R. J. Oliphant, 1874, p. 223.

Through the ChapinCrane, Ellery Bicknell. Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts: With a History of Worcester Society of Antiquity. New York: Lewis Publishing Co., 1907, p. 220–221. Followed by Norcross family 221–223.Quintin Publications. The Chapin Gathering; Proceedings of the Meeting of the Chapin Family, in Springfield, Mass., September 17, 1862. Pub. S. Bowles & Co., 1862, pp. 35–36.Chapin, Orange. The Chapin Genealogy: Containing a Very Large Proportion of the Descendants of Deacon Samuel Chapin, Who Settled in Springfield, Mass., IN 1642. Northampton, Massachusetts: Metcalf & Co., 1862.Cutter, William Richard. New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial, Vol. II. New York: Lewis Historical Pub. Co., 1910, pp. 1232. family-line, Otis Norcross is the first cousin fourth removed of the second U.S. President John Adams, and the respective second cousin third removed therefore of the sixth U.S. President John Quincy Adams,Cutter, William Richard. New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation. New York; Lewis Historical Publishing, Co. Vol. 3. 1914, p. 1418. as well as, the distant cousin of Brig.-Gen. Sylvanus Thayer, father of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point.Vinton, John Adams. The Vinton Memorial: Comprising a Genealogy of the Descendants of John Vinton of Lynn, 1648. S. K. Whipple, & Co., 1858, pp. 357.

The Hon. Otis Norcross, is the fourth cousin, third removed of Hon. Chester W. Chapin, President of Boston & Albany Railroad, Co.Noon, Alfred. Ludlow: A Century and a Centennial, Comprising a Sketch of the History of the Town of Ludlow, Hampden County, Massachusetts, Together with an Account of the Celebration by the Town of Its Centennial Anniversary, June 17, 1875. C. W. Bryan and Co., 1875, pp. xiv–xvii.

Otis Norcross, Sr. (1785–1827), married Mary Cunningham [Homer], January 8, 1809, parents of Otis Norcross, Jr. (their second child), and siblings including: Mary Homer Norcross (1809–1885),. Cites here sister Adelaide in correspondence in Irvington, NJ (1885). married Oct. 1830 Stephen Gore Bass, Caroline A. [Norcross], married in 1834 [Hon.] Jonathan D. Wheeler, Esq.Pierce, Frederick Clifton. History of Grafton, Worcester, Massachusetts; From Its Early Settlement by the Indians in 1647, to the Present, 1879. Press of C. Hamilton, 1879, p. 588. Adelaide Norcross (1816–1885), married Nov. 1844 John Warren White Bass,

Mary Cunningham [Homer] Norcross was the elder sister of Charles Savage Homer; father of American artist Winslow Homer.Goodrich, Lloyd. Winslow Homer. Published for the Whitney Museum if American Art. New York: The Macmillan Co. 1944, pp. 26. With this, Otis and his siblings were first cousins of the artist. The Homer family, stems from Ettingshall, Warwick Co., England and dates from 1690 in America, having originally settled in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, later removing to Cambridge, Massachusetts.New England Historical and Genealogical Register. By the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, Vol. 79, (Jan. 1925), pp. 93–95. Mary Cunningham [Homer] Norcross was the third born of fourteen children to Eleazer and Mary [Bartlett] Homer.Bolton, Ethel Stanwood and Coe, Eva Johnston. American Sampler. National Society of the Colonial Dames of America Massachusetts. Pub. Massachusetts Society of the Colonial Dames of America, 1921, p. 174.

Otis Norcross & Co. Otis Norcross, Jr. assumed proprietorship of Norcross, Mellen & Company (est. 1810), upon the death of his father Otis Norcross, Sr. and the subsequent retirement of fellow partner Eliphalet Jones (b. 31 Aug. 1797, Boston), who entered the company as an apprentice in 1811 (r. 1847).

Otis Norcross, Jr., having started with the firm as an apprentice at the age of fourteen, along with his two brothers Addison and D. Webster, and Otis Norcross Jones (b. 6 Mar. 1828, Boston, d. 20 May 1892); son of Eliphalet, and not a relative, at least known, to senior member Jerome Jones,;Connelly, John. A Century-Old Concern: Business of Jones, McDuffee & Stratton Co. Pub. The H. G. Ellis Co., Printers, 1910, pp. 14 & 16. renamed and shared in partnership Otis Norcross & Co - importers, dealers, wholesalers and retailers of fine European, Japanese and Chinese china, glassware, crockery, earthenware and pottery in Boston.