Norris North, Waterbury and Torrington, Connecticut.

It is speculated that Norris North was born in Goshen in 1790. His parents were Dr. Joseph North and Abigail (Loomis) North. Noris had a brother, Ethel, born in 1800, who also made clocks. In 1812, he married Lurian Grilley of Waterbury. In 1813, he enlisted in the Connecticut State Guard and served two tours in the War of 1812 when the British Navy threatened New London and New Haven.

Norris’ first shop was in Waterbury by 1820. It was a short distance from Eli Terry’s Ireland Factory, where he may have learned clockmaking.

Norris was one of the first to circumvent Terry’s patents. Instead of arranging his movements vertically, North laid out his design horizontally in an East / West fashion. Today, these movements are identified as East/West movements.

His earliest clocks were made in Waterbury and featured a four-arbor setup. It appears that sometime after 1822, he moved to Torrington and changed the setup to five arbors. Other Torrington Makers copied this layout arrangement.

In Torrington, he sets up shop on his Father’s land along the bank of the Naugatuck River in Cotton Hollow. Norris was constantly in debt and eventually signed over his property to Erastus Hodges and Aaron Smith in 1825. Under these two, North remained in charge of Clockmaking.

A series of geographical shifts marked Norris North’s life. After leaving Torrington, he embarked on a journey that took him to various locations. In 1835, he was in Oswego, NY, and then in Mexico, NY. From 1836 to 1866, he resided in Canada, and also in Roscoe, Illinois. His final move was to Grundy Center, Iowa, in 1867, where he spent his remaining years until his death in 1875.