HENRY HORBART NOBLE   (brother of Edwin S. Noble)
DEXTER & NOBLE COMPANY

son of Nathaniel and Harriet Lucretia (Stilsen) Noble, the former of whom was born in New York state and the latter in Vermont, while they resided at Geneva, New York, for some time after their marriage.

The original progenitor of the Noble family in America was Norman Noble, who came from England to the new world in 1653, his death occurring in Westfield, Massachusetts, in 1704. Nathaniel Noble, who was a surveyor by profession, came to Michigan in the territorial epoch, in company with Judge Samuel Wirt Dexter, whose name is prominently identified with the early annals of the state, the town of Dexter, Washtenaw county, having been named in his honor.

Mr. Noble did a considerable amount of surveying in the early days, and it is interesting to recall the fact that he filed entry on the land upon which the great University of Michigan is now located, at Ann Arbor. He later resigned this claim and secured another tract on the river bottoms of the same county. About one year later, however, he located in the embryonic village of Dexter, ten miles west of Ann Arbor, where Judge Dexter had already settled. The latter was the father of Wirt Dexter, who was long one of the most eminent members of the bar of the city of Chicago, while he was also a member of the firm of Dexter & Noble, whose operations in Antrim county were of magnificent scope, the firm continuing unchanged until his death.

This firm organized the Elk Rapids Iron Company, with Henry Horbart Noble in charge of the operative and executive affairs. Mr. Dexter became the owner of extensive landed and timber interests in northern Michigan, and in association with Henry Hobart. Noble established large sawmills and conducted extensive lumbering enterprises in Antrim and adjacent counties, while the firm also established a large general store in Elk Rapids, of which town they were numbered among the founders.

They also erected a gristmill in this place and promoted many other enterprises which aided materially in bringing about the growth and material advancement of this section. They were associated with the late Wilbur F. Storey, the well known founder of the Chicago Times, in the organization of the Elk Rapids Iron Company, whose furnaces here were erected in 1873, being the largest charcoal furnaces in the United States. This enterprise was inaugurated in order to utilize the hard wood timber in this section, where the pine timber had been practically exhausted. Mr. Story was later succeeded by N. K. Fairbank, another prominent citizen of Chicago, and Edwin S. Noble

BEGINNING OF THE DEXTER AND NOBLE ENTERPRISE.

In September, 1855, Mr. Henry Horrbart Noble came to Elk Rapids, as an employee of M. Craw & Co. He was born in Palmyra, N. Y., in 1823, and two years later his parents removed to Washtenaw County, Mich., where subsequently Mr. Noble engaged in the mercantile business.

In the fall of 1856 the firm of M Craw & Co. was dissolved, and a new one was organized, under the name of Dexter & Noble, with Samuel Wirt Dexter and Henry Horbart Noble being the only partners. The stock of goods and the saw-mill of the former firm passed into the hands of the latter. In the course of the winter the saw-mill was rebuilt, and in the spring the new firm commenced the manufacture of lumber with facilities for making 3,000,000 of feet annually. The business was continued on this very moderate scale till 1861, when a gang saw-mill was built, with a capacity of ten millions. For several years the operations of this firm covered the entire business of any consequence at Elk Rapids, and to the present time their enterprises are the most extensive in northern Michigan.

Henry Horbart Noble, was born in Palmyra, New York, on the 25th of August, I823, and accompanied his parents on their removal to Michigan, being reared to manhood in Washtenaw county. In 1856 he came from Dexter, that county, to Antrim county, and identified himself with the founding and up building of Elk Rapids, where he began the manufacture of charcoal, pig iron etc., and also engaged in the general merchandise and lumbering business, as has been outlined in foregoing paragraphs. He was a man of lofty integrity and marked intellectuality, and he filled a large place in the civic and business annals of Antrim county during the long period of his residence here. His death occurred on the I4th of February, I897, and the village and county lost one of their most valued and honored pioneers and generous and public-spirited citizens. On the 27th of December, 1847, Henry Horbart Noble married Miss Clarissa C. Sears, daughter of Dr. Thomas Sears, of Lima, Washtenaw county, and she died on the 4th of February, I868. On the 9th of June, I870, he wedded Miss Margaret Ewing, who now resides in the city of Chicago.

His eldest son, Thomas Horbart Noble, is engaged in business in Gladstone, Michigan, and Charles E. and Edwin S. are residents of Chicago.

Deceased - 14th/15th of February, 1897

SEE:  Edwin S. Noble and Samuel Wirt Dexter