November 11, 1922

Death Last Evening of One of Lowell's Oldest and Best Known Citizens.  "The Lowell Daily Sun"

Nicholas Warren Norcross, Civil war veteran, one time widely known Lowell contractor, always an active participant in important campaigns for the improvement of his home city, as well as closely affiliated with social and religious welfare movements for many years, passed away last evening after a long illness at the home of his son, Nicholas G. Norcorss, 227 Nesmith street. He was 90 years of age. The funeral service and burial will be private and friends of the bereaved family have been requested to kindly omit flowers.

Mr. Norcross had a fruitful and almost unique career in Lowell business life rarely squalled in many ways. Splendidly educated with a wonderful health reserve at all times and vigorously interested in all things pertaining to the welfare of his home city and his upbringing, this citizen familiar to many old Lowell history makers rounded out a long and highly useful record of activities that will be remembered.

Coming to Lowell in 1843 from Bangor, Me., where he was born Nov. 7, 1833, the son of Nicholas G. and Sophronia P. Norcross, he was educated in the public schools of Lowell and after graduating from the high school entered historic Groton academy where he completed his academic course.

At that time wood-paving was being tried out to solve certain street construction problems. Mr. Norcross took up the business at its very beginning and because a member of the firm of Fisk & Norcross which later became Norcross, Saunders & Co.

In 1860 Mr. Norcorss married Miss Ellen G. Crosby, daughter of Judge Crosby. Four children were born of this union, namely Nicholas G., Rebecca C., now Mrs. E. N. Burke; Josiah C., who is now located in Boston with the Edison Electric Illuminating Co., and Nathan C., who died in Tepic, Mexico, while employed in the engineering department of Mexican Central railroad.

In 1862, with the North and South engaged in the great struggle that was eventually to end in the reuinion of the warring states, Mr. Norcorss enlisted as a paymaster in the United States army, serving in that capacity throughout the war.

During his career as an active member of the firm of Norcross, Saunders & Co., this firm had the contract with the city of Lowell for the laying of the new wooden paving on many important Lowell thoroughfares. In those days the wood blocks were considered not only the "very latest," but the finest paving material possible for a city to use on its principle streets.

Mr. Norcross was always a deeply sympathetic participant in all social and religious affairs of St. Anne's church, and was also a member of the Vesper Country and the Longmeadow Golf clubs.


Nicholas Gaubert Norcross was a lumber baron, the "New England Timber King", who apparently fell on some financial hard times, and then moved to Lowell in 1844 to take up lumbering operations there. He opened a sawmill and planing mill with one John Fiske, operating as Fiske & Norcross. He also had a woodworking machinery retailing operation, Norcross & Co. He sold the latter business in 1848 or '49 to a competitor, S. C. Hills, and worked on designing a new circular sawmill and a planer. Both of Norcross's designs were quite successful. The innovation in his sawmill design was an arbor that could move laterally to accommodate small sideways motion of the log. There were two important innovations in his planer: first, the air currents from the movement of the cutter-head directed the shavings into a chute; and second, the then-traditional pressure rollers were replaced by a pressure bar that could be placed much closer to the cutter-head and hence prevent tearout. The major flaw in Norcross's design is that adjusting the lumber size required inserting or removing spaces between the cylinders and the platen. In that respect, it was inferior to the other planers that had been developed to compete against the Woodworth planer, but those other planers had been all either lost in court against the Woodworth cartel, or they had been bought out by them. The market was eager for a legitimate competitor to the Woodworth planer.

Norcross began by building one planer that was operated by his own planing mill. It was no surprise when the Woodworth cartel promptly filed suit against Fiske & Norcross for patent infringement. But to the astonishment of all, Norcross ultimately prevailed (after a nearly four-year court battle) in the U. S. Supreme Court, even though his machine was a more direct infringement on Woodworth's patent than some others that lost infringement lawsuits. According to Charles Tompkins' 1889 book, The History of the Planing-Mill, the owners of this Norcross patent had quietly made a deal with the Woodworth cartel: they would support the cartel's attempt to get another patent extension if the Norcross planer could "compete" in the same marketplace. This was a good deal for the Woodworth owners because the Norcross machine was, overall, not much better than the Woodworth planer, and the presence of competition in the marketplace might tame the growing resentment against the Woodworth cartel. Apparently it was not difficult to control the outcome of the court ruling. Even before the lawsuit was finished, quite a few Norcross machines were sold, with the Norcross patent owners indemnifying the purchasers for any damages if the Woodworth cartel prevailed in court.

In both the Norcross planer and the Woodworth planer, a pair of upper and lower feed-rolls were mounted to a frame (Norcross's rolls were somewhat larger than Woodworth's). The feed-rolls were geared using star gears that allowed a certain amount of adjustment to accommodate different stock thicknesses. Different sized gears were also provided as necessary. A slotted bedplate was situated close behind and below the rolls, with the planing cylinder beneath the slot so that the knives could protrude slightly through the slot. This contrasts with the Woodworth planer and all modern planers where the cutter-head is above the bed rather than below it. In this respect the Norcross planer works somewhat like a modern jointer. An upper press-plate provided a surface to hold the wood down against the cutter. The cylinder bearings were attached to this upper press-plate via arms passing down through the main bed-plate. To adjust the machine for different thicknesses of lumber, cast-iron strips were inserted between the press-plate and the cylinder boxes. This adjustment method was clunky but effective and solid. Once the Woodworth planer cartel lost its monopoly in 1856, however, the Norcross tonguing and grooving machines quickly fell into disuse, replaced by integrated planer-matchers. That helps explain why the Norcross cartel had supported the Woodworth cartel.

Information Sources

Livermore 1   Livermore 2  Livermore 3   Livermore 4
Livermore 5   Livermore 6
Livermore TimeLine
Norcross Info
Supreme Court Case
 Janet Hounsel Article
James Frederick Howarth Post Cards
 Peter Crane Book "Glimpses of Livermore"
Source Material

The Lost Constitution

 By William Martin

Page 401 has a description of Daniel Saunders and his son and reference to Elkins Grant