Benjamin White Norris
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Benjamin White Norris (January 22, 1819 - January 26, 1873) was a U.S. Representative from Alabama.
Born in Monmouth, Maine, NorrisPrepared for college at Monmouth Academy, and was graduated from Waterville (now Colby) College, Maine, in 1843. He taught one term in Kents Hill Seminary. He engaged in the grocery business in Skowhegan, Maine. He served as delegate to the Free-Soil Convention at Buffalo in 1848. He went to California in 1849, remaining one year, then returned to Skowhegan, and studied law. He was admitted to the bar of Somerset County in January 1852 and commenced practice there. Land agent for the State of Maine 1860-1863. He served as delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1864. He served as paymaster in the Union Army in 1864 and 1865. He was appointed major and additional paymaster in the Bureau of Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, serving from May 1 to August 2, 1865, at Mobile, Alabama. Resided on a plantation in Elmore County and in Wetumpka, Alabama, until 1872. He served as member of the constitutional convention of Alabama in 1868. Upon the readmission of Alabama to representation was elected as a Republican to the Fortieth Congress and served from July 21, 1868, to March 3, 1869. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1870 to the Forty-second Congress. He died in Montgomery, Alabama, January 26, 1873. He was interred in South Cemetery, Skowhegan, Maine.
