The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-06-24

Death has. claimed another shining
mark, e3tinguiehed another beacon light.
Last Saturday evening at 20 minutes past
three o'clock, at his home in Walhalla,
surrounded by his loved ones, in the full
possession of his faculties, the unsullied,
inviolate spirit Of Ex.Judge j. J.. Norton,
freed fAom its environs, winged its way
back to the God who gave 1t. Gently the
golden cord was clipped from Its moor
ings, noiselessly the pitcher was broken
at the fountain, quietly and peacefully as
he had lived, eloquently 80 the dying
strains ofan oratoric, ebbed away 8 life
serene as q Summers day and as pure as
9 snow-drop Of the upper air. Born at
Old Pendleton ID 1885, educated by the
distinguished teacher, Rev. J. L. Kenne-
dy, at Piokens, and graduated at the Uni
versity Of Georgia, studied law at Green
Vile In 1855 under E1-Gov. B. F. Perry,
commenced alone the practice at Pickens
and was emipently successful. His
strict. infleIiblel parental training was re-
fected In his high moral and religious
character from his early youth, he having
become an elder in the Presbyterian
Church et the age Of 81, and for forty
years his interest and his love for the
Church made him 81 pillar Of strength
u%nstintedly giving Of his means to its
support. In 1860 be was married to Ia
bitha A. Campbell, Of Laurens, who with
two Daughters and one SOD, survive him.
His ~gentleness, his affection, the Chris.
tianity Of every day life, filled his home
with Arcadian beauty, and 1oated out
into LIES desert places. Generous, lib
eral and chsritsble.:h his hand wa never
stretched forth but SC. succor and to save.
He early espopsed his countTy's cause.
going out at the head Of Co. @, Of Orr's
Rifles, rose to the. rank of Major, and at
Fredericksburg, Va, in 1852, lest his left
arm aud received four other wounds. The
rank OF Lt.-Colonal was conferred upon
him. but being disabled he returned
home and served his country with no less
devotion. Without ~canvassipg he was
elected 8 Representative from Pickens
District, served with credit to himself and
County and declined denomination on
account Of his distasts for. politics. The
-al1urements of official ambition could lot
tempt him, though the siren notes Gere
never more seductive, Though young
linen, Destiny set its seal upon him, see-
ing ssaat the temporary passion Of popular
clamor could not move him against the
dictates Of his own conscience, that he
was 8 man of the people and not Of the
purple, and when the judicial ermine fell
upon him he wore 1t gracefully and with
dignity. just, equitable, studlous, cour-
tsous and courageous were all attributes OF
his. and in exercising: them be adorned
the Bench as a pure gem the ring. An
evidence Of his strong. unconventional,
elementary common sense and almost
unerring Judgment Ia the fact that few of
his decisions were ever reversed by
the higher Court. Since his retirement
from the Bench he has been engaged in
his profession, and at the time of his
death enjoyed o large and lucrative prso-
tioe,/As y practitioner, he was compan-
i01able with his %brsthren, gifted in at
tsinments, learned I'm calling, faithful
and efficient, painstsking and laborious,
lucid In thought, forceful and elegant IN
dictiop, and in brief . sound aud excel
Tent lawyer. It was so In his every rela-
ton of life, the native, innate nobility of
his character has asserted itself. His in
fiuence will ever live, his voice. though
hushed, will still counsel to higher deeds,
and the bright words he always had for
struggling soul will resound to all eter-
nifty, down the fretted halls OF troubled
hearts. The generous, nobls-hearted
gentleman sleeps now beneath a mound
of fragrance, but "if every n for whom
he had done q kindness would come and
drop one flower upon his grave, to night
he would sleep beneath q wilderness of
ofcoses." God rest thee; noble gentle
man,