Otis Norcross

The Honorable
Otis Norcross
Mayor of Boston
In office
January 7, 1867[1] – January 6, 1868[2]
Preceded byFrederic W. Lincoln Jr.[3]
Succeeded byNathaniel B. Shurtleff
Member of the Massachusetts Governor's Council
In office
1869
GovernorWilliam Claflin
Chairman of the Boston Board of Aldermen[4]
In office
January 4, 1864[4] – January 2, 1865[5]
Preceded byThomas Coffin Amory[6]
Succeeded byGeorge Washington Messinger[7]
Member of the Boston Board of Aldermen
In office
January 6, 1862[8] – January 2, 1865[5]
Personal details
BornNovember 2, 1811
DiedSeptember 5, 1882(1882-09-05) (aged 70)
Alma materMiss Davenport's School [9] Boston English High School [10][11]
ProfessionCrockery Importer & Dealer[10]

Otis C. Norcross (November 2, 1811 – September 5, 1882) served as the nineteenth Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, from January 7, 1867 to January 6, 1868 during the Reconstruction era of the United States.[12] Norcross was a candidate (1861) for the Massachusetts State House of Representatives; served as a member of the Boston Board of Aldermen from January 6, 1862 to January 2, 1865; chairman of the Boston Board of Aldermen from January 4, 1864 to January 2, 1865;[13] and served as a trustee of the City Hospital, 1865 & 1866;[14] and a member of the Massachusetts Governor's Council, under Gov. William Claflin (1869).[15]

As a politician, he was "very pronounced" in his views; a Webster Whig Party member, with a "most consistent temperance." At the onset of the American Civil War his political views were aligned with the Republican Party.[16]

The sentiment of Norcross' spirit was reflectively shared upon his death:

He brought to our service the sterling qualities which marked his whole character and career. He was a man of great intelligence, of remarkable firmness, and of the highest integrity, never weary in well-doing, and one whose counsel and co-operative, in all the concerns of this Association and of the community in which he lived, were as highly valued as they were cheerfully and generously afforded.

— Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, President, Annual Address, 18 June 1883, Annual Meeting Bunker Hill Monument Association [17]

It is with this in mind, that "[h]is failure to receive the customary re-election for a second-term was due, perhaps, to a certain stiffness of virtue, which in political life at least, seldom receives the reward it merits."[18]

His distant fourth cousin Jonathan Norcross served as fourth ante-bellum Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, as candidate of the Moral Party.[19]

In his civic life, Otis Norcross was one of the Boston Committee (1871) to relieve sufferers of the Great Chicago Fire. In 1872, while the Boston Fire was raging, he was made treasurer of the Relief Committee. His legacy includes serving as a member of the Water Board (1865) that helped to promote the construction of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir.[20]

  1. ^ Anonymous (1909), p. 257
  2. ^ Anonymous (1909), p. 258
  3. ^ William Richard Cutter, New England Families Genealogical and Memorial, A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation, (New York: Lewis Historical Pub. Co., 1913), pp. 670–671.
  4. ^ a b Anonymous (1909), p. 254
  5. ^ a b Anonymous (1909), p. 255
  6. ^ Anonymous (1909), pp. 253, 258
  7. ^ Anonymous (1909), pp. 255, 258
  8. ^ Anonymous (1909), p. 252
  9. ^ Anonymous (1883), p. 7
  10. ^ a b Anonymous (1914), p. 27
  11. ^ "The English High School". Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  12. ^ Anonymous (1909), pp. 257–258
  13. ^ Anonymous (1909), pp. 251–255
  14. ^ Anonymous (1909), p. 379
  15. ^ Chapman, Jacob Chapman & Fitts, James Hill, comp. Lane Genealogies. Exeter, NH: The News-Letter Press. 1897, Vol. II, p. 240.
  16. ^ Anonymous (1883), p. 82
  17. ^ Anonymous (1883), pp. 71–72
  18. ^ Anonymous (1883), p. 90
  19. ^ Kaemmerlen, Cathy J. The Historic Oakland Cemetery of Atlanta: Speaking Stones. The History Press, 2007, p. 26.
  20. ^ Anonymous (1914), pp. 27–29