John Norris Drake

John Norris Drake was born to Elijah Drake and Martha E. Bull on February 2, 1854, in Clarkson, New York. The Drakes noted that they descended from English explorer Sir Francis Drake. 

John N. Drake attended the Brockport Normal School and was a founding member of the Gamma Sigma Society, formed on October 11, 1869. Two years later, John Drake was part of a small group of students who followed Professor William J. Milne from Brockport to Geneseo, New York to help open a new normal school. 

At the Geneseo Normal School, Drake, who was one of the first four graduates of the school,  was 16 years old when he became a founding member of the Delphic Society. 

Societies were locally based around this time, so the idea of forming the Beta Chapter of Gamma Sigma at Geneseo was not in consideration. The society at Geneseo was instead named the Delphic Society, most likely to continue the legacy of the Delphic Society at Rochester, of which Professor William Milne was a member. 

After Geneseo, Drake became a prominent lawyer in Brockport and wrote legal books and journals. He was the Village Clerk of the Board of Trustees at Brockport and the Trustee of the West District School for many years. 

Drake was a member of the First Presbyterian Church and a Sunday school teacher. He was married to Louise Graley and they had four children. 

Drake later became a Mason and was the lodge secretary at the time of his death on March 11, 1899. He died after a lingering illness at the age of 45. One of Drake's obituaries referred to him as a prominent citizen of Brockport.