Norris Family.

The papers of the Norris family cover four generations, 1815-1960, in the lives of an Ypsilanti and Grand Rapids family. The first member of the family represented in the papers is Mark Norris (1796-1862). Mark Norris was born in Vermont, but by 1820 he was a businessman and postmaster in Covington, New York where he married Roccena B. Vaill (1797-1876). She was the daughter of James and Helen Compton Vaill and taught school in Covington. Mark and Roccena had two children, Elvira (b. 1821), who married Benjamin Follett in 1841; and Lyman Decatur (1823-1894).

Around 1828, largely because of anti-Masonic sentiment, the Norrises moved to the Ypsilanti, Michigan area. Roccena taught school briefly and Mark worked as postmaster while conducting other business interests. When his health failed in the late 1850's, the Norrises' son, Lyman Decatur, took over the family's business affairs.

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