Norval, John W., Hon.

The following data is extracted from History of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and Washington, 1889.

HON. JOHN W. NORVAL. - Mr. Norval, at present state senator from Union and Wallowa counties, was born in Knox county, Illinois, June 5, 1840, and is the son of James and Mahala Applewhite Norval. He resided upon a farm at his native place until the age of twenty, having while a mere boy suffered the loss of his father, and being a member of a family of four brothers and one sister. In April, 1860, he came west to Alexandria, Missouri, where he joined an emigrant train and came across the plains to California, arriving at Stockton November 6, 1860. He first found employment in teaching school until August, 1861, after which he came to the Northern mines in British Columbia, and for five years followed mining in Idaho, Washington and British Columbia, meeting with varying success.

In the fall of 1866, he located a farm near Summerville, Oregon, and resided there for two years. In 1868 he located upon his present place, three and a half miles east of Summerville, where he has five hundred and sixty acres of choice land in Wallowa county. During the Bannack war he enlisted in a volunteer company, and was elected captain. In 1878 he was appointed, by Governor Thayer, major of the Third Brigade of the Oregon militia. Mr. Norval was candidate three times for the state legislature, but, from the fact that Union county was persistently Democratic, he was defeated until June, 1888, when he was elected to the state senate for Union and Wallowa counties, a position that he has ably filled.

Mr. Norval was married in Union county in 1867 to Miss Catherine J., eldest daughter of Honorable Terry Tuttle, who is a native of Iowa. They have two sons and one daughter.

Source: History of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and Washington, 1889

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