Атлантаның төртінші мэрі Джонатан Норкросс өмірі мен қызметі

American politician

Jonathan Norcross (April 18, 1808 – December 18, 1898) was elected in 1850 as the fourth Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, serving the customary term at the time of one year. Dubbed the "Father of Atlanta" and "hard fighter of everything" by publisher Henry W. Grady, he followed three mayors elected from the Free and Rowdy Party.

Born on April 18, 1808, in Orono, Maine, Jonathan Norcross was the second son of clergyman Jesse Norcross, a Baptist minister from Penobscot, and his wife Nancy (née Gaubert) from Dresden, Maine. He had six siblings, including older brother Nicholas Gaubert Norcross (see last section below). His younger siblings include: Livonia (b. January 1810), brother Jesse (b. June 3, 1812), Nancy Gaubert (b. March 2, 1816), who married Moses M. Swan of Augusta, Maine; Maria (b. February 1818), and Louisa Norcross (b. October 1823). After the death of Nancy, his second wife was Mary Ann Hill. Their paternal immigrant ancestor was Jeremiah Norcross from England, who settled in Watertown, Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638. The immigrant owned land in Cambridge before 1642, and was a freeman of that town in 1652. The branches of the family became established early in New England. Norcross attended common schools and was taught the trade of millwright. As a young man he went to Cuba, where he helped construct a mill for processing sugar. While attending lectures in mechanics at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Norcross principally studied arts and sciences.

As a businessman, Norcross supported railroad construction to link Atlanta to other cities and coastal ports. "[T]he key issue before inland cities like Atlanta was transportation, and the railroad was the key to commercial prosperity." On April 3, 1856, Norcross was among 16 founders of the Air Line Railway, for which he served as president.

In 1876, near the end of the Reconstruction era, Norcross ran as the Republican nominee for Governor of Georgia. He was defeated by Democrat Alfred H. Colquitt, at a time of intense efforts by Democrats to disrupt and suppress Republican voting, especially by freedmen, with a combination of fraud and violence. White conservative Democrats took back control of the state legislature and governorship. Norcross made an impassioned speech, from which The New York Times printed an excerpt.

The last surviving antebellum mayor of Atlanta, Norcross died at his home in Atlanta on December 18, 1898, at age 90.

Nicholas G. Norcross, the older brother of Norcross, was born December 25, 1805, also in Orono, Maine. He married Sophronia Pratt and moved to Bangor, where he established a career in the lumber industry. He finally settled in Lowell, Massachusetts, also an area for lumber, as well as textile mills that became increasingly important to the economy. There Norcross was known as "The Lumber King" of Lowell. His daughter Caroline married Charles Wesley Saunders, who also became known in the local lumber industry and in politics.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1902 book Atlanta And Its Builders by Thomas H. Martin