Roswell C. Norton of Sidney Plains - 1879

Roswell C. Norton of Sidney Plains

Bainbridge Republican, April 10, 1879

Sidney Plains [Delaware Co., NY]:  Roswell C. Norton--Those who have but a limited acquaintance with this place, can scarcely realize the difference between the Sidney Plains of today and the Sidney Plains of some 40 years ago.  Then there was but one hotel, of very ordinary accommodation, and one small store, a blacksmith shop, and a wagon shop, while the district school was taught in the basement of the Methodist chapel, which then stood on the present site of the Mitchell House.  There was no railroads, no telegraphs, and no daily paper taken here.  Our mails were carried in the old lumbering  coaches, and were usually a week in arriving from New York.  The stage driver was really the most consequential man in the country.  He was supposed to know all the news quite in advance of the press, and whenever he entered town he was surrounded by an eager crowd, anxious to hear of what was transpiring in the outer world. The store was kept by Rogers & Cotton, and was a general resort for town people on rainy days and evenings, who, seating themselves upon the counters, would smoke and tell some exciting story about hunting or fishing, etc.  to the great amusement of one another.  And here were gathered the Avery's, the Edgerton's, the Newman's and many others, who have long since gone to their "final rest."  The store was an emporium in miniature, and contained not only dry goods, groceries, crockery, glassware, drugs, medicines, paint and oil, but also grain and provisions etc., and they received in exchange for their merchandise, all such commodities as the people could well spare from their farms.  The wagon shop, which was carried on by the late Mr. Samuel Kellogg was also a coffin shop where they were made when required, and usually from pine or chestnut lumber, stained and varnished and without handles.  There was no hearse, but a "bier" was employed for conveying the dead to the place of interment.  And the undertaking business of those times contrasts strangely with that business as now conducted by Mr. Roswell C. Norton, whom we propose briefly to mention this week.  he was the son of Milton and Lovicy Norton, who emigrated from Connecticut some seventy years ago, and settled in the town of Guilford [Chenango Co., NY], when it was nearly a wilderness.  His father was a member of the society of "Friends," or Quakers, and several of the same creed came to Guilford and settled about the same time.  His parents raised a family of eight children, but he and one sister (Mrs. S.G. Ives) of Guilford who is now in the 64 year of her age, are the only ones living.  Mr. Norton was born Jan. 12th, 1821, and well remembers when those "Friends" used to meet on the "Sabbath" at the house of David Harris on the hill where the George Knapp farm lies, and many a time he says, "when a child he had been there with his father, in the old lumber wagon, to that primitive church, (before public opinion rendered it unpopular) and often looked up to the old clock ticking in the corner, and which was the only speaking thing in the room, waiting for the silent hour to pass, when he should be liberated from his confinement, and enjoy a welcome ride through fields and lanes to his home."  His father was an excellent carpenter and millright for those days, and also owned a good farm cleared and under cultivation at the time of his death which occurred in 1832 at the age of 46 years.  His mother was a member of the Methodist church, and was married the second time to Paris Winsor, who committed suicide four years afterwards, his mother then lived with her relatives till her death which took place at her daughter's in Guilford in 1878 in the 93d year of her age.  Mr. Norton after his father's death labored as a farm hand for two years, in summer, and attended district school winters; when he commenced work for a house builder, during summer and teaching school winters for three seasons when he commenced work of a builder employing help through the summer, till 1863 when he purchased and fitted up a machine shop in Guilford, running it till 1874, when his health failing, sold out and came to Sidney Plains and purchased a fine residence, and in loaning money to Abner Whitney, was compelled to take the present furniture store to save his debt.  Mr. Norton was married in 1832 to Miss Haynes, daughter of Archibald Haynes of Guilford, who died two years afterwards.  He was again married in 1847, to Miss Youmans daughter of Wm. Youmans of Otego, by whom he had six children' two sons and one daughter now living.  Mr Norton, from a boy, has repaired clocks and watches at every leisure moment, and having taken instructions, has become an excellent workman, and has recently constructed a m-d-e clock, having in part a wooden and metallic pendulum, to obviate the usual variations in the measurement of time, caused by the expansion and contraction of metals.  The clock is finely cased up in mahogany, and shows the skill of superior workmanship.  Mr. Norton in person, is tall and of a slender form, with "silver grey" hair and whiskers; he is warm and social in relation with his fellow men, and fond of society.  In his religious views he is what may be termed a "Liberal," believing that every man should be his own church and teacher, devoid of popular "pharisecism", and that his life should be regulated and governed by that high standard of moral ethics, which admits of no fellowship, or compromise with those crimes and immortalities which now prevail in communities.  Mr. Norton is also strictly temperate in his habits, and one who is respected as an honorable and worthy citizen.