Frank Norcross

Frank Gasabert “Yankie” Norcross (1851-1928) was the general manager of the New River Lumber Company operation at Norma, Tenn., and the man for whom Norma was named for a brief period of time.

Biography

Born March 5, 1851, in Massachusetts, Frank G. Norcross was the son of Isaac W. Norcross (1822-1901) and Christina T. Nash (born 1825). His parents were both originally from Maine.

He married Imogene Rose “Emma” Rowe (1856-1933) in Boston, Mass., on May 3, 1881, and they had two children: Gertrude Norcross Fee (1884-1975) and Clifford Coffin Norcross (1892-1954).

New River Lumber Company

Norcross was named general manager of the New River Lumber Company’s operation at Norma and moved to Scott County at some point in the 1880s or 1890s. He was living at Norma when the 1900 census was taken. Under his leadership, the New River company manufactured up to 125,000 feet of lumber per day, and Norma became Scott County’s largest town. From 1915 to 1919, the town was known as Norcross, the name of the post office.

Norcross still lived in Scott County when the 1920 census was taken, his occupation listed as lumber manufacturer. His son, Clifford, age 27, lived with him and his wife at the time.

Late Life and Death

At some point prior to 1928, Norcross moved to Chattanooga, Tenn. He and his wife lived on East 7th Street there.

Norcross died in Chattanooga on Feb. 7, 1928, at age 77. The cause of death was pneumonia. He was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga, where his wife would also later be buried in 1933.

Gertrude Norcross married Dr. Frank E. Lee and moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where she lived until 1975. She had a son, Frank Fee, who died in infancy in 1913, and a daughter, Christine Fee McGlasson.

Clifford Norcross married Nancy Emma Smith, who died in 1925. The couple lived in Florida prior to his wife’s death, after which he returned to his parents’ home in Scott County. Following his parents’ deaths, he remained in Chattanooga until his death in 1954. His two children, Nancy Norcross Davis (1923-2017) and Imogene Norcross Williams (1925-2022), both married and settled in Meigs County, Tenn.