Born February 3, 1857, being the youngest of a family of six children. His parents coming to Iowa in 1861, his youth was mainly spent in this state, one year in Delaware county, the remainder in Linn county, whither his parents moved after their first year's residence in the state. He grew up on the farm, and his time, in his earlier years, was divided between his duties as a farm hand and his attendance at the district schools where he received the rudiments of an ordinary English education. He remained on the farm until he was seventeen, entering Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa, at that time, 1873, where he began a course of instruction which was calculated to fit him for a profession he was destined to fill. His course in college however was not unattended by those numerous hindrances which the aspiring youth of limited means encounters in his toilsome progress to one of the learned professions. His studies were frequently interrupted and he was forced to earn by school-room labor the means with which to pay his way through college. Alternately teaching in the district schools of Linn county and attending college as his means would allow, he mastered the greater part of the curriculum of Cornell College, graduated from the Commercial College of Davenport, Iowa, and entering the law department of the State University at Iowa City in 1881 received his diploma from that institution a year later, graduating in a class of one hundred and thirty students and being selected as one of ten to represent his class on commencement day. In 1882 he removed to Manchester and began the practice of his profession. The next year he formed a partnership with A. S. Blair, which continued about four years, when it was terminated by mutual consent, Mr. Norris continuing in the practice alone. He was alone till 1888, when the firm of Blair, Dunham & Norris was formed, and which was one of the leading law firms of Manchester as well as one of the tenth judicial district of Iowa. Mr. Norris is a republican, stanch in the support of the principles of his party and their able defender on the public platform. He stands well in the councils of his party and has been its trusted representative many times. He was the chairman of the republican central committee of Delaware county. He has attended all the republican state conventions of Iowa for twelve years, and he has been an active attendant also at all the district conventions. In 1884 he was a delegate from the third congressional district of Iowa to the Republican national convention at Chicago which nominated Blaine and Logan for President and vice-president of the United States. He was a member of the republican state central committee from the third congressional district of Iowa. He was elected to represent Delaware county in the Twenty-fourth Iowa General Assembly, 1892. On March 15, 1886, Mr. Norris married, taking to wife Miss Martha B. Toogood, a native of Manchester, Delaware county, and a daughter of Thomas Toogood, one of Manchester's earliest settlers. Being of a social disposition and having a deep sense of his obligations to his fellowmen, Mr. Norris from time to time connected with different benevolent orders. He was a zealous Mason and had taken all the degrees in the York rite masonry up to and including that of Knight Templar. He was the worshipful master of Manchester Lodge, No. 165, A. F. and A. M.; he was past high priest of Olive Branch Chapter, No. 48, R. A. M., at Manchester; he was past captain general of Nazareth Commandery, No. 33, Knights Templar, at Manchester; he was a member of DeMolay Consistory, No. 1, at Lyons, Iowa, and was a member of El Kahir Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is also a member of Manchester Lodge, No. 149, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of Hyperion Lodge, No. 186, Knights of Pythias, of Manchester.