Norris, Frederick
Frederick Norris, during the past thirty years of active connection with business affairs, has acquired the reputation of being one Victoria's most successful business men and the largest leather and trunk manufacturer in the province of British Columbia. He began his career by learning a trade and by his own persevering efforts advanced through the details to mastery and control of the workmanship of others, and in time built up a business which he can look upon with pride and which stands as an element of substantial worth to the industrial and commercial importance of Victoria.
Mr. Norris has lived in Victoria for forty years, and has known the city from its early days when it was boyhood home. He was born in Toronto, Canada, November 15, 1852, and is of old English ancestry. His parents, William G. and Mary (Dean) Norris, were both born in England. The father came out to British Columbia with his eldest son, John T., in 1862. He embarked in the hotel business on Yates Street in Victoria, and for a number of years ran the old Pioneer Hotel, a hostelry well known to the older inhabitants. He later engaged in the hardware business and continued it on an extensive scale and with much success until his permanent retirement from active affairs. He is now living in the eighty-fifth year of his life. His life partner died in 1902, when eighty years old. They were the parents of nine children, and the four living are: John T., Frederick, Mary, now Mrs. L. G. McQuade, her husband's history appearing elsewhere in this work, and Louisa, the wife of C. I. Todd, one of Victoria's prominent business men.
Mr. Frederick Norris was educated in Victoria, and when a boy began learning the harness-maker's trade and carriage trimming. He has since continued his activity along this line, but with constant progress and increasing success. He is now the proprietor of a large leather manufactory and trunk factory, and makes leather both for sale and for his own articles of manufacture. His trunks and harness and other leather products have gained enviable reputation in this province, and his wholesale and retail business totals up to large amounts every year, and has not yet reached its high-water mark
He built and owns the three story structure in which his trunk factory is located, and is also owner of much other city property, besides his beautiful residence, which is a representative among the many charming homes for which the city of Victoria is noted. He owns farming lands in the province, and assisted in the organization of the Agricultural Society, in which he is a member of the executive board.
Mr. Norris' wife is Mrs. Mary Ann (Elley) Norris. She was born in England. Their union has been blessed with three children. Frederick John, the eldest, is foreman in his father's harness factory. This son married Miss Allie Alfred, and they have two children. The other son, H. I., is also connected with this father's business, and the daughter Lottie Louise, is at home with her parents. Mr. Norris affiliates with the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows, and he and the family adhere to the Church of England.
R. E. Gosnell, A History of British Columbia, (Vancouver, B. C.: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906). pp. 381-382.