Norma
Norma is an unincorporated community in eastern Scott County. It was the sight of a major lumber operation in the early 20th century, and was once one of Scott County’s largest towns, with its own high school. It was originally known as Skullbone, then Norcross, and finally Norma.
See Also: Communities of Scott County
Geography & Demographics
Norma is situated on the banks of New River, east of Huntsville. It was also located on the Tennessee Railroad. It is generally defined as everything along Norma Road from S.R. 63 south to the old Montgomery Junction, or even further south to Smokey Junction.
Major tributaries of New River in the Norma area include Roach Creek, which empties into New River at Montgomery Junction.
Today, Norma is part of the 37756 (Huntsville) zip code. It is a part of Scott County’s 1st Civil District.
Post Offices
Norma is served by the Huntsville Post Office today. Norma Post Office opened in December 1878, although it was originally called Skullbone. The first postmaster was Joseph F. Hatfield. The name changed to Norma in March 1887. The post office closed in July 1964 and moved to Huntsville. The last postmaster was Luther Pennington.
There were also two post offices at nearby Montgomery: Roach Creek opened on Sept. 9, 1924, with Frank J. Tighe serving as postmaster. It was discontinued on Nov. 15, 1929, and moved to Norma. Dean Post Office opened on Oct. 12, 1931, with George E. Wright serving as postmaster. It was discontinued on Aug. 31, 1955, and moved to Norma. Ralph W. Lowe was the last postmaster there.
Business & Commerce
The only businesses in Norma today are a Mountain People’s Health Councils Inc. medical clinic, the Big Nickel store that is located at the intersection of Norma Road and Mill Branch Road to the north of the former settlement, and Skull Bone Campground, which caters to ATV riders.
The old Sharp’s Cash Store was a long-time landmark in the community. The store dated back to 1904 and was originally called Norma Union Store.
Norma’s primary industry was the New River Lumber Company. The town was called Norcross for a while, after Frank G. Norcross, the general manager of the lumber company.
Schools
Norma was the site of one of three long-lasting high schools in the Scott County School System prior to the construction of Scott High School in 1971. The other two were at Robbins and Huntsville. In 1971, all three schools consolidated at Scott High. The Norma School continued to be used for several more years as a K-8 school. The old building still stands, though it has been severely vandalized.
Other schools at Norma included a school at Roach Creek and at Mill Branch. There was also a school at Glendale, between Norma and Bull Creek.
Today, K-8 students at Norma are served by Fairview School.
Churches
Norma Missionary Baptist Church was the primary church in the Norma community, located on a hill just above the heart of town. Nearby churches include Antioch Baptist Church near Montgomery Junction, and Mill Branch Baptist Church at Mill Creek.
Origins
Settlement along this part of New River began well before the railroad was built or the lumber industry boomed. The first post office was established in 1878, and was named Skull Bone. Its name changed to Norma in 1887, though it’s not clear why that name was chosen.
It was just after the turn of the century that Cincinnati-based New River Lumber Co. purchased what were known as the “Bird Lands” along New River for their vast stands of timber. It was estimated that there were 85 million board feet of chestnut trees in the valley, and total timber reserves of 485 million board feet.
In 1905, the New River Lumber Co. purchased the Paint Rock Coal & Coke Co. railroad, which ran from Oneida to Stanley Junction near Paint Rock. The company rechartered the railroad as the Tennessee Railroad and began constructing it towards Norma. The railroad followed Paint Rock Creek to New River, then up New River to Norma. From there, it continued to follow New River to Fork Mountain in Anderson County, a distance of some 41 miles.
The New River company established a saw mill at Norma that was capable of churning out 125,000 board feet of lumber per day when operating at full capacity. It was powered by a steam engine that turned a 20 ft. by 45 ft. belt. According to Jennings Hatfield, writing in the first edition of the FNB Chronicle, 10 steer hides were used to build the leather belt.
The New River company built homes connected by five-foot sidewalks that were constructed of oak lumber. The town had its own electric lighting and a street light system. All the main buildings had running hot and cold water, and steam heat.
At its peak, it was estimated that nearly 400 students were served by the public and private schools at Norma.
Nearby, the Dean mining community sprang up on Roach’s Creek near Montgomery Junction. The coal mines there were active from the 1920s to the 1950s, and were served by a spur line of the Tennessee Railroad. The Dean community was called the most modernized mining operation of its day.
When the timber and the coal played out, Norma (and Dean) began to decline. The Tennessee Railroad continued to be used into the early 2000s, and was eventually sold to National Coal Corporation, then to R.J. Corman. The railroad was abandoned in 2020, and was scrapped. A current proposal is to turn the old rail grade into a recreational trail for bicycling.
First Families
Some of the earliest families to settle Norma included the Byrds and Hatfields. The Byrds were especially prominent in this community during its earliest days.
The Hatfield family
Mary Hatfield (1826-1895) was the first person buried at the Norma Baptist Church Cemetery. She married Henry Thompson. She was the daughter of Joseph Fowler Hatfield and Elizabeth Gibson, and was born in Kentucky. Mary and her family lived in Campbell County when the 1850 census was taken. She and Henry were married on July 11, 1853, in Campbell County. She first showed up in Scott County census records in 1870.
This was not the same family of Hatfields in Scott County that descended from Revolutionary War veteran Joseph Hatfield.
Mary’s father, Joseph Fowler Hatfield, appears to have moved his family to the Norma area in the 1830s. His son — Mary’s brother — was Joseph “Fowler” Hatfield Jr., who served as sheriff of Scott County in the 1870s and was the first postmaster at the Skull Bone Post Office.
Another of Mary’s brothers was James Hatfield (1834-1929), who married Lucretia Low (1839-1925) in 1854. She was the granddaughter of Mikel Low, the first settler of Scott County.
The Byrd family
It was because of the Byrd family that the land along New River became known as the “Bird Lands.”
The family dates back to William M. Byrd, born in 1804 in Buncombe County, N.C. He was the son of Jordan Delk (1756-1810) and Martha “Patsy” Byrd (1775-1831). When he moved to Scott County, his brothers Joseph (1807-1894), Jesse (1802-1882), and John (born 1799) all came with him, as did a sister, Isabell Bird Cook (1811-1861).
William Byrd married Elizabeth Shoopman (1806-1871) and had eight children. Jesse Byrd married Nancy Shoopman (1803-1888) and had eight children. Joseph Byrd married Mourning Cross (1807-1872) and had at least three children (but likely more). Joseph may not have made the move to present-day Scott County until after his children were grown and his wife had died. John Byrd did not marry.
The Hughett family
Although not one of the first families at Norma, the Hughett family became quite prominent there during Norma’s heyday.
Freeman William Hughett (1889-1967) married Johanna Marie Hansen (1896-1963).
The Hughett family was originally from Bull Creek, near Winona. Allen Hughett, son of William Hughett (1813-1865) and Jane Jeffers (1808-1905), married Nancy Goad, daughter of Robert Goad (1803-1872) and Mary Brown (1806-1890). One of their children was James “Jim” Hughett (1854-1920), who married Mary “Polly” Phillips (1858-1944). Jim and Polly’s seven children included Freeman William Hughett, who settled at Norma after marrying Johanna Hansen, an immigrant from Norway, in 1915. The Hansen family had sailed from Liverpool, England, to Boston in 1913, and it was in Massachusetts that Freeman and Johanna were married. They lived at Bull Creek for a while after returning to Scott County, then moved to Norma. Their children included Elmer Lee Hughett (1916-2008), Robert C. Hughett (1918-2006), Margaret Ruth Cranford (1920-2007), James A. Hughett (1922-1942), John Arthur Hughett (1924-1995), William H. Hughett (1929-1931), Ralph Freeman Hughett (1932-1961), and Mae Esther Summers (1935-2015).