Della Whitney Norton (b. Peterson) (1840-1937) was born in Fort Edward, New York, and died in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was a poet, author, and prolific writer of hymns. She began publishing her work in several Boston and New York magazines around the age of twelve. Norton was also actively involved in her community throughout her life, working for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Woman's Suffrage Association, Woman's Relief Corps, and Woman's Industrial Exchange, as well as serving on hospital boards and private charities. In 1874 she married Henry B. Norton. He was a Civil War veteran, serving in the 42nd Regiment of the Ohio Infantry. After the war he was an artist and photographer. They divorced in the early 1900s. Having suffered ill health since she was a teenager, Norton found healing through Christian Science treatment. In 1886 she wrote to Mary Baker Eddy to order Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and she was acquainted with Elizabeth J. French, a student of Eddy who was active in Minneapolis at that time. From 1888 to at least 1928 Norton frequently lectured on Christian Science topics and also taught Christian Science classes and held Christian Science services in her home. She regularly advertised these activities in The Minneapolis Journal and The Minneapolis Daily Times and listed herself as a Christian Science practitioner in the Minneapolis City Directory and in census data, although she was not listed in The Christian Science Journal. Norton was profiled in the collection of biographical sketches, A Woman of the Century, by suffrage leader Frances E. Willard, published in 1893.

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