Dr. James Busby Norris
Dr. James Busby Norris was born on his father's farm in Troy Township in 1849. His father was Judge William G. Norris, who was a pioneer of that township. He was graduated at Kenvon College in 1869. After his graduation he studied medicine with his brotherin-law. Dr. J. H. Van Deman, then entered the Miami Medical College, and also took private instructions from the famous Dr. Carson of Cincinnati. He went to Detroit, where he was graduated at Detroit Medical College in 1872. After his graduation he went to Chattanooga, where he commenced the practice of his profession. He labored faithfully and fearlessly in the cholera epidemic of 1873, and in 1874 in the smallpox epidemic. In August, 1878, the chairman of the Howard Association published a call to the country for physicians to come to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where an epidemic of that fearful disease, yellow fever was raging. Dr. Norris, with that true heroism which goes wherever duty calls, saw the call, caielully consulted the subject, and determined to volunteer his services. On the 28th of August, he left with a corps of fifteen nurses, arrived the 1st of September, went to work at once, and had at one time one hundred and eighteen cases under his care. He was taken with the dread disease, September 6th and breathed his last September 9th. He died a hero, and so highly was his martyrdom considered, that on the recommendation of the President of the United States, the War Department issued an order, permitting his remains to be buried in the National Cemetery at Chattanooga; and he is the only one not a soldier who was ever buried there. The President thought his brave life and heroic death well fitted him to lie among the 18,000 other heroes who died in the call of duty. Dr. Norris was a member of the Episcopal Church and was never married. He was a son of Delaware County, and though he never practiced here, the memory of this great sacrifice honors the county of his birth, and he is worthy of a place among her medical heroes.
20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Edited and compiled by James R. Lytle, Delaware, Ohio, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1908