James Albert NORTON, Congress, OH (1843-1912)

NORTON James Albert , a Representative from Ohio; born in Bettsville, Seneca County, Ohio, November 11, 1843; attended the district schools and was graduated from the Tiffin High School; during the Civil War enlisted in the Union Army in August 1862; sergeant of Company K, One Hundred and First Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry; promoted to first lieutenant and adjutant of the One Hundred and Twenty-third Regiment, United States Colored Infantry, in 1864; mustered out of the service in 1865; studied medicine and commenced practice in Iowa in 1867; continued in that profession until 1879; studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1874; member of the State house of representatives 1873-1879, serving as speaker in 1877 and 1878; chairman of the State Democratic committee 1887-1892; county auditor 1885-1892; commissioner of railroads and telegraphs from 1889 to 1895, when he resigned to accept a position in the legal department of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co.; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth, and Fifty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1897-March 3, 1903); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1902 to the Fifty-eighth Congress; resumed legal service with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co.; died in Tiffin, Ohio, July 24, 1912; interment in a mausoleum in Green Lawn Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present