NORRIS FAMILY
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Robert Cicero Norris: Private, Company F, 15th Alabama Infantry & 1st Lieutenant company A, 60th Alabama Infantry. He was alive in 1913, age 75. He was born on March 7, 1837, in Perry County, Alabama, but was a resident of Dallas County, Alabama. He was the son of William H. Norris, and was educated at Fulton Academy & Mobile Medical College. He enlisted on January 28, 1861, under Capt. Theodore O’Hara to take Pensacola Navy Yard. On July 3, 1861, he enlisted in Co. F, 15th Alabama Infantry, in Stonewall Jackson’s Brigade. In 1862, he was appointed Sergeant Major, and in 1864, was appointed 1st Lieutenant of Co. A, 60th Alabama Infantry. He was wounded 4 times and fought at Malvern Hill, Cold Harbor, Ced Run, 2nd Manassas, Sharpsburg, Gettys-burg, Chickamauga, Wilderness, Petersburg, etc. He was captured at Hatcher’s Run & held at Ft. Delaware until June 17, 1865. He went to Brazil in 1865, but returned in 1890 to finish his medical degree. He returned to Vila Americana, Brazil and practiced medicine. He was a master mason. He died on May 14, 1913 in Brazil.
Robert Cicero Norris (l) with son Charles. Robert was an original settler in what would become Americana. His son Charles would die fighting for the US in World War I.
In spite of being unreconstructed, descendants of Os Confederados maintain sentimental attachment to the US as well as the Antebellum South, just as for-mer Confederates in the States created a post-war Southern culture that featured a strong allegiance to the United States.
In 1915, one Vila Americana-area resident Cicero Jones wrote of Os Confederados, “All are more or less content and would fight for the Stars and Stripes as we would for the Stars and Bars.”
Since the Stars and Bars saw no more action, that part of his statement remains untested, but within three years of Jones’ statement, the Confederados had lost one family member, Charles Norris, grand- son of the community’s founder who had married a “local” woman and had several daughters. Although he’d never been to the United States, he “went” home to serve in the American Army during World War One and was killed in France.
Georgia-born Col. William Norris, a former Alabama state senator from Dallas County, was one of the principal participants and leaders of the movement. Norris arrived in 1866 and purchased between 400 and 600 acres and most likely planted cotton. His farm in the central São Paulo state became the focal point of the dominant settlement area. In 1870, the local railroad reached the vicinity, and the terminus became known as the "Village of the Americans." It would evolve into the city of Americana.
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The Norris family consisted of William, his wife Mary, and their 11 children. Son Robert, who was a Confederate veteran, later returned to the United States to study medicine and then went back to Americana, where he followed in his father's footsteps as a community leader. Among other early families said to have originated in Alabama were the Moores, Daniels, Whitakers, Townsends, Broadnaxes, Prestridges, Andersons, Brownlows, Ezells, and Provosts. Later arrivals included the Northrups, Capps, Bentleys, Campbells, and Kennerlys. In addition, Benjamin and Dalton Yancey, two sons of secessionist leader William Lowndes Yancey, immigrated to Brazil and spent some time there, perhaps 13 or 14 years in the case of Benjamin.
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I
WILLIAM HUTCHINSON NORRIS
In 1891, physician Cicero Jones moved from Troy, Pike County, to the Americana settlement, where he married a descendant of the Norris clan. His daughter, Judith MacKnight Jones, became a historian and the author of Soldado Descansa: Uma epopeia norte americana sob os céus do Brasil(Soldier, Rest: A North American Saga beneath the Skies of Brazil) the most comprehensive description of the Confed-erados in the Portuguese language. Immediately after the Civil War, Texan Frank McMullan, physician James Gaston of Montgomery, former Alabama state representative Charles G. Gunter, and others also gathered together groups of emigrants and took them to new settlements along the coast of southeast Brazil. Lansford Hastings, an early explorer of California, established a colony in Santarem along the Amazon River in the north. Although some of the settlers remained in Brazil, all of the early colonies, except for Norris's, failed. Inadequate transportation, poor soil, floods, and a general unfamiliarity with tropical agricultural conditions were among the causes of the failures. Many settlers returned to the United States, but those who stayed gravitated to the interior of the state of São Paulo, where the Norris family had relocated.
House of the first Confederate family in Americana, NORRIS FAMILY
William Hutchinson Norris ( Oglethorpe ,Georgia , 1800 - Americana , Sao Paulo , 1893 ) was an Amer-ican colonel, lawyer, and senator from Alabama . He arrived in Brazil in 27 of December of 1865 , in the port of Rio de Janeiro and was the first American emigrants to settle on land which at the time belonged to the municipality of Santa Barbara d'Oeste and are now part of the current town Americana . He fought in the Mexican-American War , where he received his Colonel rank.
William Hutchinson Norris was born in the state of Georgia but spent most of his life in Alabama in the city of Mobile . He fought in the Mexican-American War , where he received his colonel rank . His sons Robert, Frank, Reece, and Clay Norris fought in the American Civil War. Robert Norris was named sergeant major and fought in several battles, not being hit by luck. He was promoted to lieutenant in the 60th Alabama Regiment and discharged on September 20 , 1864 . At age 65, Colonel Norris came to Brazil to plant cot-ton along with his son Robert Norris.
In 1866 , William and his son climbed the Serra do Mar , stopped in São Paulo and speculated lands. They were offered free lands where today is the neighborhood of Brás , but he did not accept because it was swamp. They also offered them the land where St. Caetano is today , and refused for the same reason. They decided to go to Campinas , but at the time, the railroad was only 20 kilometers beyond São Paulo , and it was no advantage to catch it, and Campinasis 90 kilometers from São Paulo. Then the Norris bought a ox cart and headed for Campinas. It took them 15 days to reach the city, and there they stayed for a while look-ing for land, until they cast their sights on the plain that stretched from Campinas to Vila Nova da Consti-tuição (now Piracicaba ).
The Norris bought land from the sesmaria of Domingos da Costa Machado and settled on the banks of Ribeirao Quilombo , where today it is the center of the city of Americana . As soon as he arrived, Colonel Norris began to teach practical agricultural courses to farmers in the region, interested in cotton culti-vation and new agricultural techniques. The plow he brought from the United Statescaused so much sen-sation and curiosity that, in a short time, they already had a practical school of agriculture, with many students who paid him for the privilege of learning and still cultivating his fields. The Colonel wrote to his family that he had gotten $ 5,000 from that. In the middle of 1867 the rest of his family arrived accompanied by many relatives.
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On a very hot day in January, 1866 in Rio de Janeiro, capital of the Empire, when the two men met at the Hotel dos Estrangeiros. Both were tall, light-skinned and integrated with Freemasonry. The similarities stopped there. One of them was Dom Pedro II, the proud monarch of the tropics. His interlocutor, Colonel William Hutchinson Norris, maintained the guise of an officer in the Confederate army and a senator from Alabama, a US state. Arriving in Brazil on December 27, 1865, he still carried on his body marks of the war that his country had fought against Mexico. His sons Robert, Frank, Reece and Clay had fought in the Civil War , which cost the lives of more than 600,000 compatriots. And it could not be said that the situation of the emperor was better: the Paraguayan War had begun about a year earlier, which would bring to death a similar number of Brazilians, Paraguayans, Argentines, and Uruguayans.
The rest of the Norris family would come four months later, with 35 more immigrants, on the Talisman, a sailing boat, which had left the port of New Orleans. The saga of US immigration to Brazil began at that meeting - a contingent of about 2,700 people, the largest migration currently in US history. The Brazilian monarch was very interested in the arrival of these men, so much that he had installed an immigration office in New York, under the command of Quintino Bocaiúva.
The cotton fields of the Confederate states, as a result of the war, were devastated, and Pedro II wanted the immigrants to repeat in Brazil the success with this culture in their native homeland. A certain ideological identification between the Empire and the South of the United States - slave and the agrarian culture, in contrast to the north, industrialized and abolitionist - helps explain the preference for Brazil. After being defeated, the Southerners saw, with horror, the invasion of their lands by the victorious soldiers, who dest-royed the plantations and also their aristocratic farms.
By train, most of the newcomers went to Santos and later to Jundiaí. From there, they went to the city of São Bárbara d'Oeste, where they founded the largest American community in the country, giving birth to the American neighbor - at that time Villa Americana -, 124 kilometers from São Paulo.
A rich man, with the gold he had brought, Colonel Norris would buy the hacienda Machado and the slaves Manuel and Jorge, to whom he would teach English, with a southern accent. The rest of the community could only acquire smaller areas and survive with more difficulty, knocking down the native forest to plant. In the beginning, the newcomers would only live among themselves, strangely speaking the lan-guage. The customs and even the physical appearance of the Brazilians, generally dark-haired, bulky, with dark eyes, contrasted with the Americans, blond and light- almost all thin and tall.
Almost 50 years later, the Americans would face other immigrants, who would presumably later become their mortal enemies. They were refugees from the 1917 Revolution in their land, who would settle in New Odessa, only three miles from Americana, where their compatriots had lived since the beginning of the century. But since the Americans were not Yankees and the Russians were not even sympathetic to com-munism, the contact between the two communities, both of which were made up of farmers, was always peaceful even in the Cold War.
About 1912, Americana, Brazil
JOSEPH WHITAKER & ISABEL NORRIS
Joseph E. Whitaker: 2nd Lieutenant and 1st Lieutenant, Company A and L, 24th Mississippi Infantry. He fought in the battles of Lookout Mountain, Chickamauga, and Franklin, at Walthall's Brigade. He was slightly injured in Franklin. also participated in the Battle of Bentonville, South Carolina, and was promoted during the final days of War for 1st Lieutenant of Company L of the 24th Mississippi Infantry. He surrendered in Greensboro, North Carolina in April 1865. He moved to Brazil and was alive in 1917, at the age of 81.
Robert Cicero Norris
http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~hollandinbrazil/genealogy/norris.html
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William Hutchinson Norris, Martha's father-in-law was born September 25, 1800 in Oglethorpe County Georgia, and died July 13, 1893 in Santa Barbara Brazil. He married Melinda Black December 23, 1821 in Wilcox County Alabama. She died 1832 in Wilcox County Alabama. Then he married Mary Black, his wife's cousin, June 28, 1832 in Wilcox County Alabama. She was born 1811 in South Carolina, and died August 1893 in Santa Barbara, SP. On 12-27-1865, William H. Norris and his son Robert Cicero Norris arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil aboard the ship South America Departure point uncertain, but probably either New Orleans or Mobile, Alabama. On 1-10-1867, the rest of the Norris families left New Orleans aboard the Talisman bound for Rio. After a bad storm, with damage to the ship, they wound up in the Cape Verde Islands and did not reach Rio until 4-19-1867. William Norris had sons in law; listed as Willie Daniel (married to Nancy Angeline), Edward Townsend and Joseph Whitaker. William Norris served in the Alabama State Legislature, both as a Senator and member of the House of Representatives from Dallas County during the late 1830's and early 1840's. He was elected Grand Master of the Alabama Grand Lodge on December 2, 1861. William Hutchinson Norris died at Santa Barbara Brazil on July 13, 1893.
Once Cicero Norris was praising his wife to his father-in-law, Henry Steagall, and saying she can do this and can do that, etc, but is not able to make a nest for her husband, and Henry replied: "It has to be something left to you to do, isn't that right?"
"Aunt Pattie", as Martha was called by the nephews, had a dream of writing a book, but only published a few articles in "The Alabama Historical Quarterly" The first called "Rich Memories of a Long Life" and the last "Thirteen years in Texas", both of which were published in 1920.
She tells us: " Every Sunday Rev. Ratcliff did lectures at the house of John Cole, from Mississippi, and we all, young ones, used to go there, walking, to heard him. Robert Norris was always my company during these rides and we became in love and engaged. We married August 12, 1869, by Rev. Ratcliff, after he got special permission from the authorities. We were the first couple to married in Santa Barbara, among the Americana Colony. Another marriage happened before ours, but they had to go to São Paulo, riding horses, to the ceremony.
"That time my husband was working in Mr. Titus Fonseca's farm, half way to Jundiai, almost 15 miles after Campinas. Mr. Fonseca was father-in-law of Guilherme D. Ralston, one well known American and one of the first ones to come to Brazil. He had been the owner of the fabrics plant later called Carioba, close to what became the city of Americana.
"My husband took me to this farm, where I stayed till December 24, and, spite the owner's family be extremely kind, I missed so much my home and family. I came back then to my Family, who lived close to the place where today is Americana, and then was a farm belonging to Capt. Bueno. We decided to be proper I stay at my fathers, since my husband intended to left his job anyway, what he did in April.
"Meanwhile, due to great insistence from the neighbors, I taught children who had no school or teacher. In May 1870 my first son was born. We named him after his grandfathers: William Henry."
When 80 years old, she went to visit her daughter Kennie in Washington, USA and died there in consequence of a pneumonia she got from the difference of climates. One of Pattie's great granddaughters is the famous Brazilian Singer Rita Lee Jones.
Children of Robert Norris and Martha Steagall are:
William Henry Norris
He was born May 7, 1870 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil, and died July 5, 1934. He married Otilia Benkenstein. Children of William Norris and Otilia Benkenstein are:
Aurelia Norris married Aldrovando Ribeiro
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Frank Norris married Missie Harris and Regina Hallier
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Mariel Norris married Luis Balesteros
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Thelma Norris married Carlos Schraeder
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Charles Norris.
Robert Clay Norris
He was born January 5, 1872 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil, and died December 10, 1906 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. He married Ana Candida Escobar 1895 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. She was born August 10, 1875. Children of Robert Norris and Ana Escobar are:
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Olga Dinorah Norris, born 7 Abril 1896. She married Alvaro Passos
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Hilda Norris, born 16 Agosto 1898. She married Carlos Nelsen
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Judith Norris, born 9 Fevereiro 1901.
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Mary Elisabeth Norris
She was born 26 of February 1874 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil, and died 2 Dezembro 1894 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. She married Cicero Byrd Jones 1 Fevereiro 1893 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. He was born 29 Setembro 1869 in Troy, Al, and died 19 Fevereiro 1924 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. On 29 Jan, 1891, Dr. Cicero Jones shot Dr. W. J. Head to death in Andalusia, Alabama. On 7 Feb, the Covington Times reported that the trial lasted 3 days, Murder 2nd deg. On 28 Feb, The Times reported that Dr Jones will resume practice of medicine On 7 Mar, the Times lists the death of Byrd Jones (Cicero's father) while plowing a garden site at his home in Troy. Byrd is buried, as is Caroline in the plot of John W. Bowers at Oakwood Cemetery, Troy Alabama. Cicero was an Alcoholic. Once he drank so much that was found falling in the streets in Campinas. They had a small daughter that time, and his wife said him "I cannot take this any longer, the next time you get drunk I'll kill myself". He got drank and she took poison. He was too much drunk to save her and she died. He used to say that he always drank in the anniversary of the death of the man he killed, but Cynthia Steagall always said that his was only an excuse. The only child of Mary Norris and Cicero Jones is:
Nanette King Jones, born Outubro 1893.
She married Otis Adams. After the death of her mother, Nanette was raised by her grandmother, who just had the daughter Kenny. Her aunt but almost the same age. And both girls married two brothers, Otis and Samuel Parker Adams. Otis was a compulsive gambler. She divorced and married him three times. She worked in the Washington Police as a police woman. Cicero Jones told Itamar Kitzmiller that one time he came to see Nanette and her hand was all bruised. As he asked "What is the matter with your hands?". "Oh don't worry, a prisoner resisted arrest".
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Martha Whitaker Norris
She was born 12 Julho 1876 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil, and died 25 Agosto 1933 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. She married Cicero Byrd Jones Julho 1896 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. He was born 29 Setembro 1869 in Troy, Al, and died 19 Fevereiro 1924 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. Their children were:
Robert Whitaker Jones, born 4 Janeiro 1897 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil; died in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He married Maria A Ribeiro and had three children. After he married Ema Mazzuco.
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Yancey Alvin Jones was born 8 Julho 1898 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil, and died in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He married Irene Terrell Abt. 1928 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. She was born 3 Agosto 1903. They had three children.
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Carroll Byrd Jones was born 17 Abril 1900 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil, and died 6 Outubro 1966 in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. He married Ruby Louise Simpson 24 Junho 1932 in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. She was born 8 Novembro 1910 in Java, VA, and died 21 Junho 1956 in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. He married Frances Stokes 1956 in Florida. She was born 1906 in Troy, Al, and died 1987 in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Children of Carroll Jones and Ruby Simpson are two.
Charles Finley Jones was born 15 Julho 1904 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil, and died in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He married Romilda Padulla. Three children.
Patricia Caroline Jones was born 13 Outubro 1908. She married Maurice Wilber MacKnight. Three children.
James Roderick Jones was born 17 Agosto 1910. He married Judith MacKnight. Three children.
Franklin Pyles Jones was born 21 Junho 1912, and died 31 Julho 1975. He married Euridice. Three children.
George Gooda Jones, born 16 Março 1902.
Mary Adelaide Jones, born 22 Julho 1906. She married Hans Rehder
Julia Louella Norris
She was born 8 Agosto 1878 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil, and died 2 Fevereiro 1968. She married Yancey Alvenia Jones 1896. He was born 27 Novembro 1873 in Troy, AL, and died in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. He was brother to Cicero Byrd Jones. Children of Julia Norris and Yancey Jones are:
Leonard Yancey was born 21 Agosto 1897 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. He married Ilka Canteiro 25 Janeiro 1927 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. She was born 12 Abril 1908. Children of Leonard Jones and Ilka Canteiro are three.
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Martha Yancey was born 11 Abril 1901 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. She married Green. She married D. D. Williams 25 Janeiro 1921 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. He was born 18 Agosto 1889 in Craig, Missouri. Child of Martha Jones and D. Williams is: D. D. Williams, Jr., born 7 Fevereiro 1923.
Cicero Carroll Jones was born 5 Dezembro 1908. He married Mary. She was born 26 Fevereiro 1874, and died 2 Dezembro 1894. Two children.
Robert Ingersol Norris
He was born 3 Março 1881. He married Santinha Santos. Children of Robert Norris and Santinha Santos are:
Victor Norris.
Osvaldo Norris.
Rupprecht Norris.
Dora Norris.
Orville Norris.
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Charles Bradlaugh Norris
He was born 7 Maio 1883 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil, and died 10 Outubro 1918 in WW1- France. He married Fileta Camponeza de Caldas 24 Dezembro 1904 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. She was born 7 Agosto 1879. Charles Bradlaugh Norris-Citing entry from the Norris Book by Harry Alexander Davis, page 955: "In 1917, he came to the United States and endeavoured to enlist for service but was not eligible. He went to Canada and joined the 13th Calgary Motor Cycle Corps, arrived in France October 7, 1918 and was killed in action October 10, 1918. Buried in England." Children of Charles Norris and Fileta de Caldas are:
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Marianna Yolanda Norris, born 8 Dezembro 1905.
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Wanda Mafalda Norris, born 4 Abril 1907.
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Beatriz Noemia Norris, born 22 Agosto 1908.
Amy Armstrong Norris
She was born 13 Novembro 1885 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil, and died 25 Janeiro 1924 in São José dos Campos, SP. She married Albert Leonidas Pyles 10 Março 1908 in Americana, SP, Brazil. He was born 10 Dezembro 1880 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil, and died 1 Dezembro 1975 in S¦o Paulo, Brazil. Children of Amy Norris and Albert Pyles are:
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Horace Frederick Pyles, born 28 Junho 1909. He lives in Bauru, SP. He never married.
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Ruth Calve Pyles, born 9 Abril 1911. She married Joseph White.
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Lucy Edna Pyles, born 3 Julho 1914. She lived with her sister in Phoenix, AZ. Married a John Hoffman whose father was a medical missionary in China. She met him in Brazil. His father had a school for missionary children there. She was in the foreign service and died in 76.
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Alice Jones Pyles, born 12 Junho 1917. She married Curley Lowry.
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Charles Wilson Pyles, born 17 Maio 1918. He married Maria Angélica Barreto.
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Thomas John Norris
was born 8 Dezembro 1887 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. He married Alzira Martins 16 Agosto 1916. She was born 1897, and died 9 Julho 1997 in São Paulo, Brazil. Children of Thomas Norris and Alzira Martins are:
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Adelia Martha Norris, born 7 Fevereiro 1918.
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Ivone Norris, born 1919.
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Melba May Norris, born 5 Abril 1923. She married Luiz Fleury Castanho
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Kennie Daguerre Norris
She was born 4 Outubro 1892 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil, and died Outubro 1980 in Danville, VA. She married (1) Samuel Parker Adams 29 Outubro 1915 in New York City, NY. He was born 31 Maio 1887, and died 13 Fevereiro 1917 in Washington, DC. She married (2) Maurice H. Bletz 12 Novembro 1921 in Brazil. He was born 7 Março 1890 in Lancaster Co, PA. Kennie was quite a brilliant woman. She was for several years Secretary of the Brazilian Embassador in Washington. Then she was interpreter in the Pan-American Union in the Medical department. Child of Kennie Norris and Samuel Adams is:
Milton Norris Adams, born 26 Agosto 1916 in Bristol Co, Mass.. Itamar Holland said that he has a lot of information and old papers of Steagll Family. Included Martha's Bible. Alice and Lucy Pyles told Itamar that he is a very bad tempered man and adviced her to do not ask anything from him.
Sarah McFadden, Patti Norris, and Cynthia Holland in New Orleans, during their travel to Brazil in 1867. Patti had sewed this dress herself and was so happy that she wanted to take this picture.
Robert Cicero Norris was born 7 Março 1837 in Perry Co, Al, and died 14 Maio 1913 in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil. He was son of William Hutch= inson Norris. He married Martha Temperance Steagall 12 Agosto 1869 in Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, SP, Brazil, daughter of Henry Steagall and Delia Peck. She was born 4 Fevereiro 1850 in Union City, Weakley Co.TN, and died 14 Setembro 1933 in WashinGton, DC.
Obituary of Robert Cicero Norris, Perry Co., AL, Dallas Co., A As it appeared in the CONFEDERATE VETERAN, November 1913, 21st Year, 11th Number.
Dr. Robert C. Norris departed this life on May 14, 1913. He was a son of Col. William Hutchison Norris, and was born in Perry County, Ala., March 7, 1837. his boyhood days were spent in Dallas County, Ala. From 1850 to 1856 he was a student at Fulton Academy, one of the best educational institutions of the State. Having finished the course there, he studied law under his father, though not intending to practice this profession; but he wished to inform himself concerning the laws of the country. Later, however, he did join his father in his law practice.
At the age of twenty he taught in a public school for a year, and then he went to Brundidge, Ala., where he studied medicine under Dr. J.H. Dewberry as preceptor. He matriculated in the Mobile Medical College (now University of Alabama). On January 28, 1861, his studies were interrupted when he went with other volunteers under Capt. Theodore O'Hara to Pensacola to seize the navy yards, which was accomplished. He then returned to his studies. On July 3, 1861, he enlisted in Company F, 15th Alabama Regiment, and went to Fort Mitchell for organization, and from there to Virginia, where his regiment served in Stonewall Jackson's brigade. He was engaged in all the campaigns of Stonewall Jackson except the last, in which the great general lost his life. His regiment was later assigned to a brigade consisting of the 4th, 15th, 44th, 47th, and 48th Alabama Regiments, under Gen. E.M. Law, Hood's Division. In 1862 he was made sergeant major, serving in this capacity until 1864, and acted as adjutant much of the time.
He was later assigned to Company A, 60th Alabama Regiment, and promoted to first lieutenant. In an engagement on Hatcher's run he was sent a prisoner to Washington and on to Fort Delaware, where he was kept until June 17, 1865. He arrived at his old home in Alabama on the 5th of July. During the four years' service he was wounded three times. Col. W.C. Oates states in his book: "He was one of the best soldiers of the regiment. He was made sergeant major, and discharged the duties of that office splendidly. He was always present for duty in all the battles." Comrade Norris often referred to his war experiences, of which he never tired. He was most remarkably endowed with ability to recall the names, even the nicknames, of his comrades. He spoke often of the drummer boy Pat Brannon, telling many laughable anecdotes concerning him. He was in many battles and skirmishes, some of which were at Front Royal, Port Republic, Harper's Ferry, Cross Keys, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, Cedar Run, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Brown's Ferry, Wilderness, Spottsylvania Courthouse, Second Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Darbytown Road, and Williamsburg Road.
At the end of 1865 he went to Brazil and settled in Villa Americana, State of Sao Paulo, being the first American to settle in that section of the country. Afterwards a flourishing American colony was established there. He returned to the United States in 1890 to finish his medical course. On his return to Brazil he was engaged in the practice of his profession during several years more in a charitable way than as a means of living. He retired from active life in 1911.
He was made a Mason in 1858 in the Fulton Lodge, Dallas County, of which his father at that time was Worshipful Master. In Brazil he took an active part in organizing a lodge, A.Y.M., in Santa Barbara, of which he was Senior Warden for two years, afterwards being elected to the position of Grand Master, which he held until his death. Comrade Norris's son, Charles B. Norris, would be pleased to hear from any member of the 15th or 60th Alabama Regiments who would kindly communicate anything concerning the war career of his father at his address in Rua do Rosario No. 3, Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Sketch by W.F. Pyles)
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Martha Temperance Steagall
Martha Temperance Steagall was born on February 4, 1850 in Union City, Obion County, Tennessee. She was the daughter of Henry Farrar Steagall and Delia Elizabeth (Peck) Steagall. She relocated with the rest of her family and her husband Robert C. Norris to Brazil in 1867. She and her husband had two daughters, Kennie and Julia and a son Robert Clay Norris. She died on September 16, 1933 in Washington, D.C.
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Robert Clay Norris
Robert Clay Norris was born January 5, 1872 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, Sao Paulo, Brazil. He studied dentistry in Sao Paulo and assisted in the practice of Dr. I. G. Baumgardner before his untimely death on December 10, 1906. He married Ana Candida Escobar 1895 in Santa Barbara d'Oeste, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
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John Ridley Bufird
Prior to relocating to the American Civil War, John Ridley Buford was a resident of Eufaula, Alabama. He enlisted in April 1862, at Eufaula, Alabama and was appointed Sergeant in Captain Reuben Koulb's Battery of the Barbour Alabama Light Artillery. He was transferred on November 6, 1864, with the rank of private to the Eufaula Battery of Alabama Light Artillery. He was in St. Mary's Hospital at Union Springs, Alabama from September 29,1864, until November 6, 1864. Buford took part in the battles of Kentucky Campaign, Hood's Tennessee Campaign, and Chickamauga, and was paroled at Meridian, Mississippi, on May 10, 1865. At his parole, he listed his residence as Eufaula. In late February of 1867, Buford moved to Santa Barbara, Brazil where he farmed tobacco. He was alive in 1913 at age of 72.
The sons of William Robert Daniel and Margareth Elizabeth Thomas Daniel - Grandchildren of William James Daniel and Nancy Angeline Norrs Daniel - Great-grandchildren of William Hutchinson Norris and Mary Black Norris. Standing: Ruffus Edward Daniel (1902) Albert Downing Daniel (1899), Arlindo Allen Daniel (1890), Almeida Fredeick Daniel (1905) Seated: Robert Francis Daniel (1879), Luiz Guilherme Daniel (1886). This photo is missing John Thomas Daniel (* 08/03/03). Daniel Family Photo