Norval Douglass, Sr
Norval Douglass was born December 15, 1822, the third child of Dr. Elmore Douglass, a physician , and Elizabeth Savin Fulton, in Gallatin, Sumner County, Tennessee, joining brothers Edward (also listed as 'Elmore, Jr.) Douglass, who was 3 years old, and David Fulton Douglass, almost 2. His was a family who settled Tennesee in its earliest days- many of the members in law.

He was just twelve when his mother, sheltered from a tunderstorm with many of her children, was struck by lightning and killed while sitting in their home. This was the fourth time the one-story brick house had been hit.

Only days earlier, brother his brother Edward, 16, had drowned, and brother John J. White Douglass died the following autumn before his 4th birthday. These would not be the last of the misfortunes that beset this family and this young boy, but he would go on to live a long and adventurous life.

Norval's father, Elmore Douglass, finally married again 4 years later to Sam Houston's first wife, Eliza Allen. Eliza had moved home to help taker care of her siblings, and then later moved in with one or the other of her married sisters. Her mother had died following childbirth in 1832 (baby also died, two days later). The next oldest girl, Margaret, was retarded, and was cared for by Eliza and Elmore till she died in 1863. Eliza raised her siblings and her step children, and had 4 more of her own, only one of whom survived to marry, and that one and the daughter both later died during her life time.

Norval and two others were already out of the house before their father remarried the second Elizabeth, and he soon himself married into another well established family, to Mourning Shelton Miller on November 16, 1844, in Sumner County, Tennessee. How and when they left Tennessee and settled in Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, is unknown, but they were there with her mother by the 1850 census, with two little girls. The oldest was Anna Elizabeth [Gill] , and baby sister Mary Catherine [Young] . Noval is listed as being a farmer in Huntsville, Alabama in the 1850 census.

Mourning was a widow with a three year old boy (only a babe when his father died) when she and Norval married, so her life hadn't been easy, either. Mourning died in July, 1850, after the census, and Norval decided to drive his cattle to relatives in Mississippi and sell out. He then determined to take a band of brood mares and horses to Texas for sale, taking his girls with him.

The little girls , Anna and Mary, began liviing with their maternal grandmother, Anna Woods Miller, in Bastrop, Texas, where their aunts were married to ranchers. Norval left the girls in the care of Grandma Miller, and headed to New Orleans with cousin Grandison Saunders Douglass, to catch a ferry to California via Panama, where he's met by his brother General David Fulton Douglass and cousin Jesse Douglass Carr in December.

Making a stop at Canton, MS, where relatives resided, he received news of the great gold discoveries in California and determined to test for himself the truth of the tale. He disposed of his horses and then in company with a cousin, Grandison S. Douglass, who had been put under his care, he set out for California.
Norval traveled from Vicksburg to New Orleans on the floating palace BELLE CREOLE, from New Orleans to Chagres on the steamship ALABAMA, and up to San Francisco on THE CONSTITUTION. Arrived in California via the Isthmus of Panama on December 1, 1850.

Upon reaching California, Norval met his brother, General David F. Douglass, member of the Assembly from Calaveras, Colonel Jack Hayes, and Jesse Douglass Carr (the latter gentleman's mother and Mr. Douglass' father were cousins). Norval remained in San Francisco for four years, being appointed Deputy United States Marshal, under his brother, the General (an honorary title), who was appointed under Fillmore's administration the first Marshal of the State, ironic that the first Marshal of California had served prison time himself for murder. During these years Norval experienced wild gambling days and the stirring times of the Vigilance Committee. As a government officer he had to stand against the lawless. In the course of his duties, he had many occasions to face howling mobs of thousands of excited men, yet was recognized for never having flinched from duty and never had a prisoner taken from his hands.

In 1854, Norval decided to return to farming, went to San Joaquin County, and bought a ranch of 160 acres on the Mokelumne River, a piece of splendid fertile land. Here he remained until 1869, when he removed to Merced County, where he purchased a tract of 800 acres of wheat land and went extensively into farming. Many of his children were born there in what was referred to as O'Neal Township. A succession of dry years, however, proved disastrous, there being no irrigation then constructed, and, as a result, Norval faced severe financial losses. While farming in the San Joaquin Valley, Norval took an active interest in politics, being once, in 1867, a candidate for the office of County Assessor.
In 1876, he entered the employment of Wells Fargo & Company's express as a special or "shot-gun" messenger and, for three years, was stationed at Colfax, his route being over the Sierra Nevadas to Humboldt House, Nevada. In 1879, he was sent to Bodie, serving on the route between Bodie and Carson City. After leaving that route, Norval was sent to Nevada City with his route being to Sierra City, Downieville; etc. It is a high feather in his cap that never during his experience in the mountains had a robbery occurred while he had been along, although the region had always been the favorite scene of such operations. Robbers seemed to take careful note of the time when Norval was along and religiously avoided his stage. He had seen plenty of hardships and had been entrusted to his keeping an immense amount of bullion. In and through all of this, he had proved himself ever the worthy recipient of such responsibility. There is speculation he knew Black Bart- perhaps that was during his gambling days?.
With his first wife, Mourning, passing, he was married a second time to Joanna Dillon, a native of Independence, Missouri, and by her had seven sons and three daughters. Their names were Elmora (Worley) , David Fulton, Elizabeth "Bessie" (Read), Terry H, Norval Jr, Harry Lee, Howard Lightfoot (twins), Belinda "Birdie", Richard Ashe, and Norval R.
His son David Fulton Douglass served as Sheriff of Nevada County. His end-of-watch came in 1896 when he met a stagecoach robber north of town , shot him, but then was gunned down. A monument was erected on the site of the shoot out in the 1930's. There remain photos of it, but it has been said that it is no longer. Further investigation will determine this for sure. The full story is very interesting and worth looking up.
(Much of this information was written by Mary Gill, granddaughter of Anna Marie Douglass Gill, Norval's oldest child with Mourning)
Norval Douglass Sr resided in Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. He lived in San Francisco 1850-1854, San Joaquin 1855-1869, Merced 1870-1876, Colfax 1977-1879, Nevada City 1879-1899, San Mateo 1900-1910, and Sacramento 1910-1911. Where he is actually buried is not 100% clear, but some records show he and Johanna are buried in San Mateo, Coloma.