Norton Clizbe Younglove’s parents were married in Bath, Steuben County, New York and it seems Norton was born there. By the time he was eight years old, his parents had died, leaving him and his sister in the care of a relative. As a young man, he went to Rochester, Minnesota. He married Sarah Napier on May 13, 1859 in the town of Quincy in Branch County. Sarah and Norton had three children including Albert Norton in 1867 and Frederick in 1874. They moved to Riverside in 1892 and in the city directory of 1893, Norton was listed as a horticulturist living on Brockton Avenue.
In addition to growing citrus, Norton was involved in the oil business. He, and a consortium of other businessmen, purchased 640 acres in the Bakersfield area and formed the Aetna Oil Company. The directors were J. R. Johnson, president; S. Masters, vice–president; R. W. A. Godfrey, treasurer; Shirley C. Ward, director; and Tom Hays, secretary. Tom Hays would later be revealed as a fraudulent real estate dealer and also an embezzler, bringing down the Orange Growers National Bank. Other Riversiders who became involved in Aetna included W. G. Fraser, G. E. Bittinger, W. S. Collins, and H. W. Bordwell. The venture prospered and the company, capitalized at $640,000, soon held land that alone was valued at $2 million. The Bakersfield oil boom proved very profitable to these Riverside businessmen.
Norton lived at the Brockton Street address until 1907, when he moved to live with his son, Albert, at 3943 Tenth Street. He lived there until his death in 1912.
