Anthony Banning Norton

Anthony Banning Norton

Full Name: Anthony Banning Norton
Date of birth: May 15, 1821
Date of death: December 31, 1893

Terms of Service top

Chamber District Dates of Service Legislatures Party City/County Note Counties in District
H 19 Nov 7, 1859 - Nov 4, 1861 8th (1) (2)     Malakoff / Henderson   Henderson, Kaufman
H 19 Nov 2, 1857 - Nov 7, 1859 7th (3) (4) (5)     Athens / Henderson   Henderson, Kaufman
H 67 Nov 5, 1855 - Nov 2, 1857 6th     Malakoff / Starr   Starr

(1) "In April 1860 two seemingly unrelated meetings of Unionists occurred . . . The newly created Constitutional Union party met in the Tyler courthouse to nominate delegates to that party's national convention. A.M. Gentry, . . . Anthony Bannon Norton, Benjamin Holland Epperson, and Lemuel D. Evans, completed a quartet made up of two Whigs, a Know-Nothing, and a Union Democrat. "Origins of Early Texas Republican Party Leadership," Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 444. Journal of Southern History.
(2) [In late 1860 and early 1861] legislators Micajah Lewis Armstrong, John L. Haynes, and Robert H. Taylor mailed circulars to their constituencies defending their unpopular Unionist positions. They joined other Unionist legislators and convention delegates on February 6 in issuing an address entreating Texans to reject secession." "Origins of Early Texas Republican Party Leadership," Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 447. Journal of Southern History.
(3) Members of the Seventh Legislature, Biographical Notes - Members, April 1937 issue. Southern Historical Research Magazine, 1937.
(4) Norton "was elected a representative in the Texas legislature from Henderson and Kaufman counties in 1857 and 1859 as a Know-Nothing." Handbook of Texas Online.
(5) Norton is not included on list of "Texas Know Nothing Leaders with a Summary of Biographical Data Taken from the . . . United States Eighth Census, 1860." The Know Nothing Party was active at the state level in Texas in 1855 and 1856. "By 1857 the party had virtually disappeared in Texas." "An Analysis of the Texas Know Nothings," The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, Number 3, January 1967, pp. 414-423, crediting Texas State Historical Association. Portal to Texas History (University of North Texas Libraries).

Terms of Service top

House District 19
Nov 7, 1859 - Nov 4, 1861
Legislatures: 8th (1) (2)  
Home City/County: Malakoff / Henderson
Counties in district: Henderson, Kaufman
House District 19
Nov 2, 1857 - Nov 7, 1859
Legislatures: 7th (3) (4) (5)  
Home City/County: Athens / Henderson
Counties in district: Henderson, Kaufman
House District 67
Nov 5, 1855 - Nov 2, 1857
Legislatures: 6th  
Home City/County: Malakoff / Starr
Counties in district: Starr

(1) "In April 1860 two seemingly unrelated meetings of Unionists occurred . . . The newly created Constitutional Union party met in the Tyler courthouse to nominate delegates to that party's national convention. A.M. Gentry, . . . Anthony Bannon Norton, Benjamin Holland Epperson, and Lemuel D. Evans, completed a quartet made up of two Whigs, a Know-Nothing, and a Union Democrat. "Origins of Early Texas Republican Party Leadership," Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 444. Journal of Southern History.
(2) [In late 1860 and early 1861] legislators Micajah Lewis Armstrong, John L. Haynes, and Robert H. Taylor mailed circulars to their constituencies defending their unpopular Unionist positions. They joined other Unionist legislators and convention delegates on February 6 in issuing an address entreating Texans to reject secession." "Origins of Early Texas Republican Party Leadership," Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 447. Journal of Southern History.
(3) Members of the Seventh Legislature, Biographical Notes - Members, April 1937 issue. Southern Historical Research Magazine, 1937.
(4) Norton "was elected a representative in the Texas legislature from Henderson and Kaufman counties in 1857 and 1859 as a Know-Nothing." Handbook of Texas Online.
(5) Norton is not included on list of "Texas Know Nothing Leaders with a Summary of Biographical Data Taken from the . . . United States Eighth Census, 1860." The Know Nothing Party was active at the state level in Texas in 1855 and 1856. "By 1857 the party had virtually disappeared in Texas." "An Analysis of the Texas Know Nothings," The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, Number 3, January 1967, pp. 414-423, crediting Texas State Historical Association. Portal to Texas History (University of North Texas Libraries).

Biographical Information top

Resolutions and Journal entries

Biographical Sketches

  • Mentioned as opposing the creation of a state university, Volume II, p. 444: "Mr. Norton protested against taking the land and money of the people,—four hundred thousand dollars and four hundred and forty-two thousand eight hundred acres of land,—as the Senate proposed, to establish one mammoth university for the benefit of a privileged class, that the children of the rich may be educated and those of the poor neglected. He would favor appropriating the entire fund contemplated for the University to the common schools of the State." A Comprehensive History of Texas, 1685 to 1897.
  • Biographical sketch, A.B. Norton, pp. 228-230. The Encyclopedia of the New West, 1881.
  • NORTON, ANTHONY BANNING (1821-1893). Handbook of Texas Online.
  • Biographical sketch, "Knox County Authors." Knox County Historical Society, 2009.
  • Anthony Banning Norton. Texas Burial Sites of Civil War Notables: A Biographical and Pictorial Field Guide, 2002.

Other Resources

  • Portrait and obituary, "Judge A.B. Norton," 1/2/1894, p. 7. Galveston Daily News.
  • ". . . one of four delegates representing Texas at the National Constitutional Union Conventions commencing May 9 at Baltimore." Baggett, James Alex, "Origins of Early Texas Republican Party Leadership," The Journal of Southern History, Vol.40(3), August 1974, p. 444. Journal of Southern History.
  • Anthony B. Norton, Austin publisher and former Whig, mentioned in "The Constitutional Union Party in Texas," The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 82, Number 3, January 1979, pp. 240-241, 247-248, crediting Texas State Historical Association. Portal to Texas History (University of North Texas Libraries).
  • Portrait. Texas Album of the Eighth Legislature, 1860.
  • Delegate to Constitutional Convention, 1866. Journal of the Texas State Convention: Assembled at Austin, Feb. 7, 1866. Adjourned April 2, 1866, pp. 3-5. Texas Constitutions Digitization Project (Tarlton Law Library, The University of Texas at Austin), 2009.
  • Listed in "History of Legislative Representatives From This County [Henderson] Compiled," from Athens Weekly Review, 11/10/1938. Henderson County, TXGenWeb Project.

Photographs

Committee Information top

8th R.S. - 1859
Claims and Accounts  
Education  
Joint Indian Affairs  
Public Lands  
Retrenchment and Reform  
Roads, Bridges and Ferries  
7th R.S. - 1857
County Boundaries  
Finance  
Public Buildings  
6th R.S. - 1855
Indian Affairs  
Protection of Western Frontier, Select  
Public Buildings  
Public Lands  
State Affairs  
Surveying Public Lands, Select  

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