Judge Van Norman

Judge Van Norman
Died	1878-06-19

Judge Van Norman (died (1878-06-19)19 June 1878) was a resident of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The newspaper index notes: Ft. Wm. Burying Ground (referring to Fort William Cemetery).

In the Papers of the Thunder Bay Historical Society

In the early summer of 1873, Van Norman was appointed as one of three delegates — alongside lawyer Macher and Peter McKellar — tasked with presenting evidence to the federal government in favour of Thunder Bay as the terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway, in response to reports that government engineers were surveying Nipigon Harbour for that purpose.

Van Norman was also present at the inauguration of the Kaministiquia River wharf improvements, an event organized by contractors Henry Sefton, Thomas Cochrane, and I. Ward & Co., attended by upwards of five hundred people who arrived by steamers from Prince Arthur's Landing. He was called upon to preside over the proceedings on a platform erected on lot No. — on Water Street in the town plot of Fort William. Van Norman then formally invited Mr. Oliver, M.P.P., to cut the first sod of what was described as the great national undertaking, which Oliver performed using a spade and wheelbarrow provided by the contractors.

The 1873 delegation's mandate lapsed with a change of government; in 1874 a new committee — E. B. Brown, Adam Oliver, P. J. Brown, Thomas Marks and Peter McKellar — was named to gather information on the location of the Red River Railway. Van Norman presided as judge at the sod-turning ceremony on 1 June 1875, at which Adam Oliver and T. A. P. Towers were among the speakers.