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from Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa by Manoah Hedge The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1906
P. L. Norris, living on section 15, Spring Creek township, is an active and energetic man, now giving his attention to general farming and stock-raising. He owns and operates a farm of one hundred and eleven acres, and the place is neat and thrifty in appearance, indicating his careful supervision. He was born in Scott township, this county, April 26, 1867, and is a son of Shadrach Norris, whose history appears elsewhere in this work. Upon the old home farm he was reared and was educated in the Black Oak and Scott Center schools. He remained with his father until he had attained his majority and was married in Spring Creek township on the 22d of November, 22, 1899, to Miss Melissa B. Wassan, a daughter of S. B. Wasson, who is living on section 15, Spring Creek township. He was born and reared in county Antrim, Ireland, and when a young man came to the new world in 1853. He settled first in Washington county, Pennsylvania, where he worked on a farm for five or six years. In that state, in 1856, he. married Grace McBurney. He afterward removed to what is now known as Brue, West Virginia, where he followed farming for two years, living there at the time of the Civil war. In 1865 he came to Iowa, being in Oskaloosa on the 9th of April, 1865, when Richmond surrendered. He later bought a farm and located in Spring Creek township and subsequently took up his abode where he now resides. He has built a good house here, has fenced his land and has carried on the work of improving his farm. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Wasson were born the following: Mary, formerly a teacher; James, of Montana; Emma, now Mrs. A. D. Norris; Samuel B., of Colorado; John, of the state of Washington; William B., carrying on the home farm; Melissa, the wife of P. L. Norris; and Elizabeth, who died in 1886. After his marriage, P. L. Norris located where he now resides and after renting the land for two years he purchased it. He has since further improved the property, building here a neat residence and has fair outbuildings. The fields are well fenced and he is farming along modern progressive lines, annually harvesting good crops, while at the same time he raises full blooded Percheron horses and shorthorn cattie, and makes a specialty of feeding and fattening hogs. Politically Mr. Norris is an earnest democrat where national issues are involved, but at local elections votes independently. He has always been a resident of Mahaska county and has therefore witnessed much of its growth and development. He is well known in Oskaloosa and other parts of the county and his genuine personal worth as well as his business integrity makes him a man whom to know is to esteem and honor.
Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy