Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/395

 bodies of forest lands in the far west embracing the source of many streams which furnish water for irrigation of arid lands.  REUBEN NOBLE was born on the 14th of April, 1821, in Adanw County, Mississippi, where his father was a planter. The father was opposed to human slavery and in 1833 removed to Illinois to rear his family in a free State. When the son was eighteen years of age he began to study law and was admitted to the bar at twenty-one. In 1843 he came to Iowa, making his home at Garnavillo, in Clayton County. In 1854 he was elected as a free soil Whig to the Legislature and upon the organization of the House was chosen Speaker, serving in the regular and extra sessions of 1854-5-6. At the first Republican State Convention of 1856 Reuben Noble was placed at the head of the ticket for presidential elector. Four years later he was a delegate to the National Convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President. Up to the time of the attempt of the Republicans to remove President Johnson by impeachment, Mr. Noble had been a prominent leader of that party. But approving of the policy of the President he left the Republicans and from that time became a Democrat. In 1866 he was nominated by the Democrats for Representative in Congress, but was defeated by William B. Allison. In 1870 he was the Democratic candidate for Judge of the Supreme Court but was defeated by Judge Day. In 1874 he was elected judge of the District Court and in 1878 was reëlected. In 1879 he was again the Democratic candidate for Supreme Judge, but was again defeated. In 1886 he was one of the organizers of the Pioneer Lawmakers' Association and was its first president, never missing a session during the remainder of his life. Judge Noble was the leader of the bar of northeastern Iowa from 1850 to the time of his death which occurred August 8, 1896. ADA E. NORTH was the daughter of Rev. Milo N. Miles, a Congregational minister, long and favorably known at Iowa City and Des Moines. In the fall of 1865 she was married to Major George J. North, Governor Stone's military secretary, during the latter part of the Civil War. In 1870 Major North died and his widow was left with two children to support. She procured temporary clerical work towards the close of the session of the Legislature and was one of the first women employed as a clerk in the State House. After serving a year as a clerk in various offices at the Capitol, a vacancy occurred in the office of State Librarian, by the death of John C. Merrill and Governor Merrill appointed Mrs. North to that position. She was one of the first women to hold a State office in the United States and many eyes anxiously watched her administration, to see whether a woman would prove competent for the position. Up to that time but little attention had been given to building up a creditable State Library. The appropriations had been small and the library was in its infancy. Mrs. North prosecuted the work of her new