Ashley County
Biography of George Norman
"Centennial History of Arkansas," 1922
Among the prominent attorneys of Hamburg is George Norman, who was born here on the 4th of May, 1869, a son of George W. and Eliza J. (Sharpe) Norman. The Norman family came from England to America prior to the Revolutionary war and located in Virginia. George W. Norman was born in Bibb county, Georgia, and in 1858 came to this state, locating in Union county. He had graduated from the University of Georgia in 1849, with the LL, B. degree, and immediately started to practice law. In 1858 he moved to Union county, Arkansas, where he remained until 1860. In that year he came to Hamburg. He was in active law practice for sixty-eight years. He became one of the leading attorneys of the state and was also numbered among the oldest practicing lawyers in the state at that time. Mr. Norman was a member of the constitutional convention in 1868, as a representative from Ashley county and he served in the state senate for several sessions after the reconstruction period. At Forsyth, Georgia, on December 11, 1860, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Norman to Miss Eliza J. Sharpe, a native of that state, and to their union five children were born, three boys and two girls. George, whose name initiates this review, was the youngest child. Mrs. Norman died in Hamburg in 1900, when sixty-eight years of age. At the time of Mr. Norman's demise in 1918, he was in his ninety-first year and was the oldest living graduate of the University of Georgia.
In the acquirement of an education, George Norman attended the public schools of Hamburg and later enrolled in the University of Arkansas, taking a two year literary course. He then entered the law office of his father and remained there until 1893, when he started into practice on his own account. He has continued in active practice here and has gained an enviable reputation among his professional brethren in the state.
In Little Rock, Arkansas, on the 17th of April, 1911, occurred the marriage of Mr. Norman to Miss Mattie Watson, a daughter of E. D. Watson, a well known resident of this community. She has many friends here and is active in all club and social affairs.
The religious faith of the family is that of the Presbyterian church and fraternally Mr. Norman is identified with the Masons, holding membership in Prairie Lodge, No. 465, A. F. & A. M. and Olive Chapter, Royal Arch Masons of Hamburg. He is also a member of Albert Pike Consistory and Sahara Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Pine Bluff, and the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Norman has remained a constant student of his profession and is a member of the American Bar Association and the Arkansas State Bar Association. During the World war he was chairman of the legal advisory board of Ashley county and chairman of the county council of defense and received recognition for his services during the war from the secretary of wan and Governor Charles Brough of Arkansas. Mr. Norman is an alert and enterprising citizen and although a great part of his time is taken up by his professional duties, he is never too busy to aid in the furtherance of any movement for the development and improvement of the general welfare.
