Biography - Pete Norris
PETE HOCHE NORRIS, of the firm of Starkes & Norris, proprietors of the Massac Journal-Republican, was born near New Grantsburg, Johnson County, Ill., September 24, 1864, and is a son of Dr. John H. and Martha (Mc Mahon) Norris. He received his early education in the log schoolhouse, but afterward attended school in Metropolis four years. At the age of seventeen he left the parental roof and found employment on the farm for three years, when he returned home, he attended school one year and then worked in the office of the Massac Journal one year. Since that time he has been in the newspaper business most of the time. On the 9th of March, 1892, he bought the office and good-will of the Metropolis Republican, and afterward consolidated it with the Massac Journal, and formed a partnership with A. N. Starkes, under the firm name of A. N. Starkes & Co. Mr. Norris assumed the management of the business of the consolidated paper, and Mr. Starkes of the editorial department. Their paper is a weekly publication devoted to the interests of the Republican party.
Mr. Norris was married on the 27th of November, 1891, to Lizzie Lukens, who was born in Massac County, and who is the daughter of Charles F. Lukens. Mr. Norris is a member of the order of Chosen Friends, Lodge No. 86, I. O. O. F., and of Egyptian Encampment No. 45, of Canton Metropolis No. 67, and of Orestes Lodge No. 268, K. P. He is a Republican in politics, and was appointed Postmaster at Metropolis November 19, 1892.
Extracted 16 Dec 2016 by Norma Hass from 1893 Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope, and Hardin Counties, Illinois, pages 549-550.
