Benjamin White NORRIS, Congress, AL (1819-1873)

NORRIS, Benjamin White, a Representative from Alabama; born in Monmouth, Maine, January 22, 1819; prepared for college at Monmouth Academy, and was graduated from Waterville (now Colby) College, Maine, in 1843; taught one term in Kents Hill Seminary; engaged in the grocery business in Skowhegan, Maine; delegate to the Free-Soil Convention at Buffalo in 1848; went to California in 1849, remaining one year, then returned to Skowhegan, and studied law; was admitted to the bar of Somerset County in January 1852 and commenced practice there; land agent for the State of Maine 1860-1863; delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1864; served as paymaster in the Union Army in 1864 and 1865; appointed major and additional paymaster in the Bureau of Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, serving from May 1 to August 2, 1865, at Mobile, Ala.; resided on a plantation in Elmore County and in Wetumpka, Ala., until 1872; member of the constitutional convention of Alabama in 1868; upon the readmission of Alabama to representation was elected as a Republican to the Fortieth Congress and served from July 21, 1868, to March 3, 1869; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1870 to the Forty-second Congress; died in Montgomery, Ala., January 26, 1873; interment in South Cemetery, Skowhegan, Somerset County, Maine.

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