Norris City was incorporated in 1901. The original plat of Norris City was filed in the White County Courthouse in
Carmi, Illinois on August 17, 1871. The post office at Norris City was established May 15, 1871, with William A. Johnson appointed as the first Postmaster.
Origin of the village name The name for Norris City had to have been decided prior to the time it was platted and prior to the opening of the
Post office. The question of how Norris City got its name has caused many debates throughout the years. The new community, for a short time in early 1871, was called "Popeye" or "Popeye's Station", after William A. Johnson, the first depot agent at the site, who had been given the nickname of "Popeye" by train crews or local schoolchildren because his eyes protruded. In some accounts trainmen said they were stopping at “Popeye” or "Popeye's Station." (This was long before the days of the
Popeye cartoon character, which was created by a native of
Chester, Illinois.) Stories about how Norris City got its name are varied. According to one story, when the people of the new village met to choose a name for their community they decided that the name would come from the person or family having the most land in the area. After the acreages were added up, the Norris family beat out the Johnson family by just a few acres. As the story goes William Norris, the head of the Norris family, went home from the meeting and told his wife, Emaline (White) Norris, who replied she didn't think it was such a big deal to have such a small place named after him. Another version is that the Springfield and
Illinois Southern Railway had been doing business with Norris and decided to name the town after him. In another account Thomas Ridgway, the President of the Springfield and Illinois Southern Railway, for whom
Ridgway, Illinois was named, was on a train going through the settlement. When he asked what the town had been named, John William Norris of
Fairfield, Illinois, either the foreman of the construction crew or the train's conductor or engineer, allegedly said the trainmen call it "Popeye" or "Popeye's Station." Mr. Ridgway, so the story goes, said that was no name for a town, to which the trainman supposedly replied, “Why don’t you name it after me?” Another version of this story is that the engineer of the work train constructing the railroad tracks to the site of Norris City boarded at the home of William Norris and his wife Emaline (White) Norris. In this account he suggested the name for the town because he was fond of Emaline Norris' cooking. The book, “Illinois, a Descriptive and Historical Guide,” compiled in 1939 by
Federal Works Agency,
Works Project Administration, states that Norris City, altitude 444, population 1109, a trading center for an agricultural and coal mining district was named in honor of a pioneer settler, William Norris. A reference report of the
Illinois State Historical Library states, “No information is available in our records as to the origins of the name, Norris City.”
The Big Inch pipeline During
World War II, the United States Government built the
Big Inch pipeline to move oil from
Longview, Texas to the Northeastern part of the country. The Big Inch pipeline helped relieve pressure on
oil tankers in the
Atlantic, which were being sunk by German
U-boats. In 1943, the pipeline had a temporary terminus in Norris City, where the oil was stored before being transferred to railcars; Norris City was selected for this role due to its access to the railroad. After the end of the war, the
government sold the pipeline to private companies, which now use it for natural gas transportation. An historical marker in Norris City commemorates the Big Inch's role in World War II. ==Geography==