Yaphank
From: Yaphank As It Is and Was
by
Beecher Homan
SAMUEL F. NORTON.
AS A NEIGHBOR AND FRIEND-IN THE CHURCH-AT HOME.
Mr. Norton was born at Selden, Suffolk Co., in 1814; he is, consequently, 60 years of age. He married Eliza Sweezy, a daughter of Christopher Sweezy, Yaphank, and settled here in 1847.
AS A NEIGHBOR AND FRIEND.
If smiles and jokes scatter flowers along Life's rough path, Dea. Norton is a benefactor to mankind. His kind words mid ever-smiling face have lightened the burdens of' many weary travelers on the Great Highway - and where thorns would have grown, he planted the sweet rose by his cheering words and generous deeds.
If a neighbor or friend is in distress, succor and aid can always be found in Dea. Norton. Whether you meet him on the street or in- the social circle, a pleasant word and smile will greet you. He never changes. He wears the same geniality under Winter's dark and lowering clouds as in the sunny days of June. When clouds obscure the sun, his jokes are just as pithy. While the storms of life are raging without, he has an Eden within. God bless such men! If more fathers were like him, and more husbands imitated his example, less tears would be shed, and less anguish be suffered!
IN THE CHURCH.
Dea. Norton is purely Presbyterian in his religious belief. He has been an elder in tile Yaphank Presbyterian Church for many years, and the position he will probably hold until he is borne to his grave. The same sympathetic cheerfulness characterizes his movements in the church that makes him popular without. No man in Yaphank possesses the qualifications, or could give the universal satisfaction that is annexed to his connection and relationship with the church and its affairs.
He is elastic and sprightly in his disposition; cheerful, open-hearted, and honorable. The honor of Yaphank, his adopted village, is always dear to him; and the spiritual and physical wants of his townsmen find a home in his heart.
As long as Yaphank has a being, his name will form an important part of its historic interest.
AT HOME.
In the family he is jovial and genial. To appreciate his true merit, he must be seen "At Home." His primitive occupation is " tilling the soil," but lie is ingenious at anything, and worked for a long period in the shop where Alfred Ackerly is now settled. In the phrase of the country, he is a jack-at-all- trades.
Mr. Norton is well versed in the history of his age, and is an interesting conversationist, not dignified and ostentatious but social and instructive. An evening could not be whiled more integrally pleasant than with Samuel F. Norton.