Joshua Abraham Norton was born in England in 1818. When he was two, he and his family moved to South Africa. He was 27 years old when his father’s business became insolvent, and in 1845 Norton sailed to Liverpool, then to Boston, then to San Francisco. He arrived in the City in 1849. A year later he had established the Joshua Norton Co, a real estate and imports firm. He became prosperous and a respected member of higher society. Two years later, he lost his fortune investing in Peruvian rice. His public prominence faded and by 1858 he was living in a boarding house on Kearny. On September 17, 1859, he became a local celebrity when he proclaimed himself Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, Emperor of the United States. In 1863, he added the title “Protector of Mexico”. Over the next 20 years, Norton would issue “decrees” which were always published by City newspapers, and were well before their time. They included building a bridge and a tunnel that would connect San Francisco and Oakland, anti-corruption acts, fair treatment and equal rights for immigrants and people of color, separation of church and state, women’s right to vote, and fair taxes for City improvement. Unfortunately, many of his other “decrees” were actually written by the various papers editors, either for amusement or for political purposes. In 1867 Norton was arrested for vagrancy, and there was such public outcry over his detainment that the Police Chief not only released him, but issued an apology. After that, policemen saluted Norton whenever he passed by.
Norton wore Civil War uniforms: sometimes Union and sometimes Confederate. He would get whatever he could find at the local Salvation Army. For formal occasions, he would add oversized gold epaulettes, a sword, a carnation and a beaver hat with an ostrich plume. While everyone agreed that Norton was either beyond eccentric or maybe crazy, he became a beloved and respected figure for his kindness, humbleness, and humanity. Merchants capitalized on his notoriety by selling souvenirs bearing his name, but Norton lived the life of a pauper at 624 Commercial Street, reading the newspapers in the morning, visiting the library or playing chess in the afternoon, and attending lectures and debates at night. To make a living, he took “taxes” from citizens by printing and selling currency which was honored at the establishments Norton frequented. Theaters reserved the best seat for him on opening night. The Board of Supervisors once voted to buy him a new set of clothes. One of his first avid followers was the Morning Call’s Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. Twain’s character “The King” in Huckleberry Finn was based on Norton. In Robert Louis Steven’s novel The Wrecker, Norton appears as himself.
On the evening of June 8, 1880, aged 61, Norton collapsed and died at the corner of California and Dupont (now Grant), across the street from the Academy of Natural Sciences which was hosting a debate that Norton was on his way to attend. 10,000 people lined the streets to pay homage at Norton’s funeral. He was buried at the Masonic Cemetery, but when his remains were moved to Woodlawn Cemetery in Colma in 1934, the reburial included a full civic ceremony with military honors, despite his never having served in the military. His gravesite remains a pilgrimage destination to this day.
