Norris Family Genealogy

Surviving Confederate soldiers returned home to families in misery, their livestock consumed, money worthless, railroads and factories destroyed, boats swept from their waters, clothes and food gone. When some of these who were Masons heard of a “New South” with undeveloped land for 22 cents an acre, its emperor a Brother Master Mason, and better cotton than North America’s, they packed up and moved to Brazil. We know at least 154 families began the migration in 1865 from Texas, Alabama, and South Carolina to Brazil, and between 2,000 and 4,000 more moved to Brazil during the next 10 years. ....One was Colonel William H. Norris who had a small fortune in gold buried in his Perry County, Alabama, yard. A Union officer stopped his men from digging it up after Norris’s wife shook the officer’s hand Masonically. With that gold, Colonel Norris bought 500 acres and established an infant community. That spot in Brazil was to become the largest Confederate settlement in South America. It is near Santa Barbara, southeast of the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. ....Norris and his Brethren founded George Washington Lodge in their little village that was soon named Americana by their neighbors. What began this exodus as a Masonic event in history? Actually, a Mason named Robert W. Lewis of Virginia wrote Robert E. Lee asking his opinion about Confederates leaving the country. Lee answered, “The South requires the presence of her sons…to sustain and restore her.” Then he wrote, “In answer to your question as to what portion I hold in the order of Masons, I have to reply that I am not a Mason and have never belonged to the society.” ....Lewis and other Masons knew Freemasonry was alive and well in Brazil, living hand-in-glove with its Protestant community, especially Presbyterians. Encouragement came from Brother Charles Nathan, a member of the Brazilian immigration society who helped arrange passage for Southerners via New Orleans. Nathan was a British merchant in Rio de Janeiro who had lived in New Orleans, Louisiana. He apparently worked with Reverend Ballard S. Bunn who led migrants to another colony near Americana