• SAMUEL NORTON was born August 4, 1834 per his headstone,  is believed to have come to America with ISAAC around 1852.  He married ANNA LANDSBERG.  Information I received in 2010 from a cousin, Mel Roberts, provided the following.

  When he came across the Isthmus of Panama (took two tries), he came to the LA area.  He went to the area called El Toro where he grazed    sheep.  While there, a fellow with the Spanish land grant, asked him to move off the property that extended any direction as far as the  eye could see.  He traded sheep for what became 23 acres in El Toro.  Later, a drought occurred and he let the property go, and came up to the Hollywood   Hills.   Later he started businesses along LA Street.  He had a ranch at Washington and Flower where the kids grew up.  My Aunt Ester Norton told me she had to walk several miles to go to visit neighbors. 

  The offspring of SAMUEL and ANNA are:

  • Marco (born in San Francisco in 1869 because Los Angeles did not have a hospital); he married Beatrice Seldner of New York, and had two children.

  • Isaac ("Ike") - per Mel, he traveled a lot to Alaska - did not stay in LA much.

  • Golda (never married)

  • Minna (married a Cohen, and had a son, Edward.  Edward married Elsa, who later died, and he remarried.  Edward had no children)

  • Cilia (married to Saul Morris - they had no children; she lived around 532 S. Windsor with her brother, Ben)

  • Esther ("Sippy") - she was married briefly and - per Mel's recollection - had the marriage annulled

  • Sylvia

  • Benjamin (I) (married Grace, then divorced: they had two children.) \

    • Benjamin Norton, Jr. - he was married to ROSE.  He was also a World War II navy captain and Mayor of Beverly Hills California 1982-83. They had at least one child:

      •   Phil Savenick (Phil contacted me in 2019 to set up a channel to provide information and pictures for Samuel's tree).

       

  • Melville (married Lucille briefly, then divorced; he lived in a duplex at 110 S. Mansfield upstairs with Grace - his brother's Ex - and his sister, Golda).

Many of the brothers and sisters above lived in the Larchmont district circa 1950's.

Of interest in this story is that Benjamin Norton, Saul Morris (Cilia's husband) and Melville Norton formed Norton Brothers and Morris in 1904.  Finally, they had the business at 757 S. Los Angeles Street.  They also owned a parking lot at 6th and Main, which later became the Greyhound Bus Depot.

        I found some additional information on:

BERTHA'S father, EPHRAIM GREENBAUM, came to Los Angeles from New York in 1851 on a ship around the horn.  Her mother came the following year from the same city by the Isthmus of Panama. 

I also located additional information on ISAAC concerning his son, Albert:

Albert M. Norton, Los Angeles attorney and financier, was a son of the late Isaac and Bertha (Greenbaum) Norton, and in his personal career measured up to those standards expected of a representative of one of the oldest Jewish names in Southern California.

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Images for Samuel's tree (when completed, they will be on a separate page).

Ben as a 22 year old naval commander of an LST vessel.  Ben as Mayor of BH, his name is on a half dozen plaques around town on buildings he helped guide. Including City Hall and the Public Library.

Norton family reunion 2005 - names to come. 

The Norton Brothers and their brother in law had a clothing business in this factory.  Later, Ben Jr. leased the space to other designers. Their names are still in the sidewalk.