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Parents: Joseph and Esther (Emerson) Noyes

Married #1 Hester "Hettie" Ann Stanley on 21 October 1835(Link # 9341779)

Children:

Mary Jane (Link # 10958845) married Clark Ruffcorn
Sarah Catherine married James Chamberlain
John H. married Mary Catherine Work
Lafayette (Link # 11089216)
George Washington (Link # 11080548) married Rebecca A. Culver
Zachary

Married #2 Mary Starks (Link # 11088989) in 1848

Children:

Esther
Zachery Taylor
Mary Virginia (Link # 9341782)
Millard Fillmore
Locert Courtley (Link # 9341784)
william "Willie" (Link # 11089008)
Hester "Etta" Ann (Link # 9341779)
Maria Z.

Capt. Noyes was involved in many things. He is attributed with the name Mondamin, was he was a very large grower of corn in the area and the local Indian name for corn was Mondamin.

His horse was struck by lightening, causing an eletctrical charge to course throughout his body. He was never the same and due to financial losse and the strain on his mind due to the accident he was finally sent to the asylum in Mt. Pleasant. He was there for 3 months, came home and died three months later.

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JOHN NOYES, (or Captain Noyes, as he was familiarly called during his lifetime), by virtue of his long residence and close identification with Harrison County’s every interest, is justly entitled to more than a passing notice in this connection. From May, 1856, up to the date of his death, he was a central figure as well as one of the prominent factors among the hardy band of Harrison County pioneers. He had a part in the earlier, as well as later development of what has come to be one of the banner counties of the commonwealth of Iowa. He bore a conspicuous part in tho history of the Missouri slope, being actively engaged in various capacities, and always had the respect of all within the range of his extended acquaintance. It would require a volume to contain the actual record of the events of a man’s life possessed of such ambitious and energetic qualities as those of Capt. Noyes; but for the purpose of handing down to coming generations, some of the more important events which transpired in his career, perhaps the subjoined will in a measure suffice.

Mr. Noyes was born in the State of Maine, February 27, 1812. His parents, who were also natives of the Pine Tree State, were Joseph and Esther (Emerson) Noyes, of English descent. In the father’s family there were fifteen children -- Esther, Joseph, Almira, John, Peter, Robert, Ruth, William, Maria, Jonathan, Washington, Julian, Lydia, LaFayette and Hannah. Four of this number still survive.

When three years of age our subject, John Noyes, accompanied his parents to Guernsey County, Ohio, and subsequently to Athens County, the same State. When yet quite young he went to Morgan County, Ohio, where for some time he was engaged in the salt works. He also followed the great rivers as a flat-boatman, assisting in the transportation of salt and flour to New Orleans. We next find him the proprietor of a large mercantile establishment at Hooksburg, Ohio, in which business he remained until 1856, during which year he sold. Believing in the future of the great and then but little developed West, he emigrated to Harrison County, Iowa, coming by boat to St. Joseph, Mo., where teams were engaged to convey the company, which was composed of a goodly number, to their new home.

Mr. Noyes and family located on the southwest quarter of section 20, of what is known as Morgan Township. He at once began turning over the rich virgin soil, and assisted by his sons, succeeded in getting in a crop, as it was in May when he arrived. About 1858 he placed in operation the second steam sawmill in that portion of the county. It stood about a mile and one-half to the north and west of the present sprightly village of Mondamin. He operated this mill, which was highly prized by the early pioneers, until about the close of the Civil War period, and then sold to his sons, who operated it a few years longer, when it was sold and a part of the machinery taken to Nebraska. This mill cut large quantities of lumber, which provided building material for scores of the settlers, who previous to this were compelled to either draw lumber from the mill on the Pigeon River, in Pottawattamie County, or hew timbers and puncheon in the primitive manner by the use of score-line and ax.

Mr. Noyes being a man full of life and manly energy, he soon accumulated a large tract of land, at one time having four thousand acres within Harrison County. Having the financial means, he was variously engaged, and in consequence employed many men, in fact the most of his neighbors looked to him for employment during seasons when they must have been idle had it not been for his thrift and enterprise. By reason of this, together with his strict integrity, he naturally won the confidence and genuine friendship of his community, the members of which never lost an opportunity of speaking complimentary words regarding him.

Early in the 70s, Mr. Noyes became interested in the Woodbine Woolen Mills (a thorn in many a man’s side in Harrison County), which business proved a great loss to him. He also lost heavily by going security for friends, and thus much of his hard-earned property slipped from him.

Mr. Noyes as first married in 1833, to Hettie Stanley, by whom five children were born. They were: Jane, afterward Mrs. Ruffcorn, now deceased; Catherine, who became the wife of Mr. Chamberlain, but now deceased; John H.; LaFayette, deceased; and Washington, now residing at River Sioux, Iowa. Mrs. Noyes, the mother of these children, passed from the scenes of this life, in 1847. In 1848 Mr. Noyes married Mary Starks, daughter of Charles and Susan Starks, of Pennsylvania. By this union three sons and two daughters were born: Esther; William, deceased; Z. Taylor, now a merchant of Mondamin, Iowa; Fillmore and Maria Z.

In 1883, while driving in a thunder shower, Mr. Noyes was unfortunate in having his horse struck by lightning and killed. At the same time Mr. Noyes received a heavy charge of the electric current, the effects of which he never fully recovered from. This accident, coupled with the mental strain, brought about by reason of his financial losses, caused a derangement of his mind, and he was sent to the asylum at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, in hopes he might, under proper treatment, recover He remained there about three months was brought home, and only survived until February 23, 1885, when all that wan mortal of John Noyes, passed from the shifting scenes of this life. His had been a busy, useful life. In addition to his extensive mill and farm-life in Harrison County, he also operated a large steam sawmill in Texas, where he sawed hundreds of thousands of railroad ties. He engaged in merchandising at Mondamin in 1868. His son being associated with him, succeeded him, and is still the leading merchant of the town.

To Capt. Noyes is largely due the honor of naming Mondamin, the busy trading mart of Morgan Township. Mr. Noyes was an extensive raiser of, and dealer in Indian corn. His township came to be the banner township in the county for corn, and so very appropriately, the railroad station, from which so many thousands of bushels of this product was annually shipped, was given the Indian name for corn, which is “Mondamin.”

In sketching the career of this pioneer’s eventful life, possessed as it was, with so many sterling traits of noble manhood, and whose influence was felt in almost every branch of business and every political, as well as social circle, the writer is baffled to know which particular part of his well-rounded life to emphasize the most. It is certain, however, that his early manhood; his domestic relations; his hardihood in becoming a pioneer in this section of Iowa, in 1856; his official duties as Drainage Commissioner as well as his connection with the Harrison County Agricultural Society have all proven the late Capt. John Noyes to have been possessed of far more than the ordinary ability found among the rank and file of earth's busy workers. He was generous, kind-hearted and true in every position he was placed. His name will go down to posterity as prominent among the vanguard of Harrison County pioneers.

source of portrait and biographical sketch: “History of Harrison County, Iowa”, 1891, biographical sketch on pages 441 - 443, portrait on page 440
Contributor: Genie Nuts 1976 (47118364)