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Pliny Norcross

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Pliny Norcross
Portrait from the 1907 Wisconsin Blue Book
Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly
from the Rock 2nd district
In office
January 2, 1905 – January 4, 1909
Preceded byCharles L. Valentine
Succeeded byGrant U. Fisher
In office
January 5, 1885 – January 3, 1887
Preceded byWilliam B. Britton
Succeeded byJohn Winans
20th Mayor of Janesville, Wisconsin
In office
April 1877 – April 1879
Preceded byJames W. St. John
Succeeded bySamuel C. Cobb
District Attorney of Rock County, Wisconsin
In office
January 1, 1871 – January 1, 1875
Preceded byHenry A. Patterson
Succeeded byJohn W. Sale
Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly
from the Rock 5th district
In office
January 7, 1867 – January 6, 1868
Preceded byAllen C. Bates
Succeeded byAlexander M. Thomson
Personal details
Born(1838-11-16)November 16, 1838
Templeton, Mass., U.S.
DiedJuly 11, 1915(1915-07-11) (aged 76)
Janesville, Wisconsin, U.S.
Cause of deathDrowning
Resting placeOak Hill Cemetery, Janesville
Political party
Spouses
  • Phoebe Akin Poole
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1865; died 1900)​
  • Frances E. Spaulding
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1902⁠–⁠1915)​
Children
  • Frederick Franklin Norcross
  • (b. 1865; died 1938)
  • John Vanderpoole Norcross
  • (b. 1867; died 1940)
  • Elizabeth Leavitt (Mason)
  • (b. 1875; died 1952)
  • Edward Powers Norcross
  • (b. 1878; died 1942)
EducationUniversity of Wisconsin
ProfessionLawyer
Military service
AllegianceUnited States
Branch/serviceUnited States Volunteers
Union Army
RankCaptain, USV
Unit
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War

Pliny Norcross (November 16, 1838 – July 11, 1915) was an American lawyer, businessman, and Republican politician from Janesville, Wisconsin. He was the 20th mayor of Janesville, and an important character in the development of the city—responsible for the first electric power-generating plants in the city. He represented Rock County in the Wisconsin State Assembly for four terms spread across the 1860s, 1880s, and 1900s, and served four years as district attorney. Earlier in life, he served as an officer in the Union Army through most of the American Civil War and was described as the first University of Wisconsin student to volunteer for the war.[1]

Early life and war service

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Pliny Norcross was born in Templeton, Massachusetts. He moved west with his parents in 1852, settling on a farm in the town of La Grange, Walworth County, Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, he attended the Milton Academy for two years, then went to the University of Wisconsin.[2]

Photo ca. 1861

He left school due to the outbreak of the American Civil War and joined up with the "Governor's Guard"—a Madison-based militia company headed by captain Lucius Fairchild. He was described as the first University of Wisconsin student to volunteer for the war.[1]

The "Governor's Guard" was enrolled as Company K in the 1st Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, and went to the front in Virginia. They participated in the Battle of Hoke's Run in July 1861, and Norcross was promoted to corporal, but their three-month enlistment expired a short time later.[3]

Norcross chose to re-enlist for a three-year term, and was commissioned captain of Company K in the 13th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment.[4] He served the full three years as captain of his company and did not re-enlist again as a veteran in 1864. With the 13th Wisconsin Infantry, he participated in many of the important battles of the western theater of the war, including the Iuka–Corinth campaign and the critical Vicksburg campaign.[5]

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After returning from the war, Norcross settled in Janesville, Wisconsin, and became a junior law partner to Judge John R. Bennett. He subsequently partnered with A. A. Jackson, and then Benjamin F. Dunwiddie.[1]

Shortly after moving to Janesville, he became active in the Republican Party of Wisconsin, which was then styling itself as the National Union Party, due to the politics of the Civil War. He was elected to his first term in the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1866. He represented Rock County's 5th Assembly district, which then comprised just the city of Janesville.[6]

Running on the Republican ticket, he was elected district attorney of Rock County in 1870 and 1872, and was then elected city attorney of Janesville in 1875 and 1876, and mayor in 1877 and 1878.[2]

Norcross retired from the profession of law in 1883 and switched to commercial pursuits. He went east to Brooklyn, New York, where he became a founder of International Tile Co. After constructing the factory, however, he quickly sold his stake in the company and returned to Janesville.[1]

Back in Janesville, he was elected to his second term in the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1884, then representing Rock County's 2nd Assembly district, comprising Janesville and two neighboring towns.[7]

Around this same time, he purchased land and erected two large buildings, known as the Norcross Block and the Phoebus Block. He also purchased a mill located in the city and moved it to a different location on the river, where he leased it out. In place of that mill, he built the first electric lighting plant in Janesville, utilizing water power. He went on to convert another three such mills to providing electrical power, which were utilized to power street lamps in Janesville and Edgerton. Ultimately, Norcross sold all of his power-generating plants to the Janesville Electric Company in 1899.[1]

In 1904, he was elected commander of the Wisconsin department of the Grand Army of the Republic veterans organization. Later that year, he was elected again to the Assembly, again representing Rock County's 2nd Assembly district, which by then comprised Janesville and a swathe of the eastern half of the county.[8] He was re-elected with only 3rd party opposition in 1906.[9] During the 1907 session of the Legislature, Norcross was appointed to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents by Governor James O. Davidson.[10] He served three years on the board of regents before resigning in 1910, when he largely retired from public life.[2]

Personal life and legacy

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Pliny Norcross was the second of five children born to Franklin and Lydia (née Powers) Norcross. His older brother, Lanson, and younger brother, Frederick, both served with him in the 13th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment; Frederick died of disease during the last months of the war. His paternal grandfather was Daniel Norcross, who served as a corporal in a minutemen company during the American Revolutionary War. The Norcross family were descended from Jeremiah Norcross, a pioneer settler who came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England in 1636.[1]

On January 4, 1865, Norcross married Phoebe Akin Poole of Beloit, Wisconsin. They had four children and were married for 35 years before her death in 1900. Two years later, Norcross married Frances E. Reddington (née Spaulding), a widow who grew up in Janesville, but had lived for several years in Troy, Pennsylvania, during her previous marriage.[11] Norcross' two eldest sons became lawyers, his daughter married a lawyer, and his youngest son became a medical doctor.[1]

Norcross was also noteworthy for the part he played in the career of Lavinia Goodell, the first woman admitted to the State Bar of Wisconsin. Norcross had encouraged her studies and then sponsored her application to take the bar exam in 1874.

In his later years, Norcross lived most of the year in a home he owned in Orlando, Florida, but made frequent visits back to Wisconsin. During one such visit, in Summer 1915, he went missing after dinner and was found to have fallen into the Rock River and drowned.[2]

Norcross's Phoebus Block in Janesville is still standing and operating as a commercial property; its current address is 23–25 West Milwaukee Street.[12]

Electoral history

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Wisconsin Assembly (1884)

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Wisconsin Assembly, Rock 2nd District Election, 1884[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
General Election, November 4, 1884
Republican Pliny Norcross 1,527 56.10% +7.71%
Democratic Alexander Richardson 1,195 43.90% −3.13%
Plurality 586 12.20% +10.84%
Total votes 2,722 100.0% +23.45%
Republican hold

Wisconsin Assembly (1904, 1906)

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Wisconsin Assembly, Rock 2nd District Election, 1904[8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
General Election, November 8, 1904
Republican Pliny Norcross 1,687 53.35% −3.29%
Democratic James W. St. John 1,296 40.99% +0.49%
Social Democratic T. J. McKligne 179 5.66%
Plurality 391 12.37% -3.77%
Total votes 3,162 100.0% +17.59%
Republican hold
Wisconsin Assembly, Rock 2nd District Election, 1906[9]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
General Election, November 2, 1906
Republican Pliny Norcross (incumbent) 1,069 94.94%
Social Democratic John R. Horn 57 5.06%
Plurality 1,012 89.88% +77.51%
Total votes 1,126 100.0% -64.39%
Republican hold

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Homans, James E., ed. (1918). The Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. 8. The Press Association Compilers, Inc. pp. 352–353. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d "Capt. Pliny Norcross's Body Found in Race Shortly After Eight O'clock This Morning; Drowning, on Sunday Afternoon, Accidental". Janesville Daily Gazette. July 13, 1915. p. 11. Retrieved January 27, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "First Regiment Infantry (Three Months)". Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861–1865 (Report). Vol. 1. Office of the Adjutant General of Wisconsin. 1886. p. 310. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  4. ^ "Thirteenth Regiment Infantry". Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861–1865 (Report). Vol. 1. Office of the Adjutant General of Wisconsin. 1886. p. 766. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  5. ^ Quiner, Edwin B. "Regimental History–Thirteenth Infantry". The Military History of Wisconsin. pp. 590–597. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  6. ^ "Legislative Department". The Legislative Manual of the State of Wisconsin (Report). State of Wisconsin. 1867. p. 180. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  7. ^ a b "Biographical Sketches". The Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin (Report). State of Wisconsin. 1885. p. 439. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  8. ^ a b "Biographical Sketches". The Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin (Report). State of Wisconsin. 1905. p. 1115–1116. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
  9. ^ a b Beck, J.D., ed. (1907). "Biographical Sketches". The Blue Book of the State of Wisconsin (Report). State of Wisconsin. p. 1169. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
  10. ^ "Norcross Succeeds Utter". Racine Journal. February 19, 1907. p. 2. Retrieved January 27, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Briefs about Badgers". Portage Daily Democrat. October 9, 1901. p. 1. Retrieved January 27, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "23-25 W MILWAUKEE ST". Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved January 27, 2023.
[edit]
Wisconsin State Assembly
Preceded by
Allen C. Bates
 Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from the Rock 5th district
January 7, 1867 – January 6, 1868 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from the Rock 2nd district
January 5, 1885 – January 3, 1887 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from the Rock 2nd district
January 2, 1905 – January 4, 1909 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by
James W. St. John
 Mayor of Janesville, Wisconsin
April 1877 – April 1879 		Succeeded by
Samuel C. Cobb
Legal offices
Preceded by District Attorney of Rock County, Wisconsin
January 1, 1871 – January 1, 1875 		Succeeded by
John W. Sale
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