“BROTHER NORRIS, born about 1793, was a highly successful planter and legislator, having served in the Legislature and in the Senate from 1840-47. He received his degrees in Dale Lodge No. 25 in 1838-39. He became the Charter Master of Liberty Lodge No. 65 in 1845 and in 1849 he became the Charter Master of Fulton Lodge No. 98. In 1859 he became the Charter Master of Mt. Pleasant Lodge No. 266 and remained a member there until about 1866 when he and his family sailed for Brazil from the Port of Mobile aboard the Ship “Talisman.” He had purchased a farm in Brazil in 1865 and later joined a colony of Alabamians who went to Brazil to make their homes there.

Most Worshipful Brother NORRIS was very active in forming new lodges in Alabama and continued his great interest in Masonry by forming in 1874 the George Washington Lodge at Santa Barbara, Brazil. This lodge was constituted under the Brazilian Great Orient with special dispensation to function using the English language. This lodge is not in existence today and records are vague as to the date it ceased to function. Indications are that the columns made by Col. Norris for George Washington Lodge are in use today in a Blue Lodge in Santa Barbara, Brazil.

Brother Norris’s farm was a settlement approximately ten miles from Santa Barbara. The settlement is now called the Village of Americans and is presently a city of 200,000. In February 1972 there was formed in the Village of Americans the Loja Simbolica Coronel WILLIAM HUTCHINSON NORRIS No. 151 (Symbolic Lodge Colonel Norris). This lodge presently has forty-four members, one of whom is a great grandson of Brother NORRIS. Most Worshipful Brother Norris died July 13, 1893 at the age of 93 years, in his home at Santa Barbara, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, leaving behind a devoted wife, nine children, thirty-nine grand-children and twenty-three great-grand-children. Both are buried in the American Cemetery near the village of Americans. ”