On the list of Hancock County's [Illinois] honored dead appears the name of Dr. William H. D. NOYES, who for many years was recognized as on of the prominent members of the medical profession in Carthage. His parents were Michael J. and Elitha (TATE) NOYES, the former a native of New Hampshire and the latter of Rock Castle county, Kentucky. Dr. NOYES was born in Bowling Green, Missouri, January 24, 1834, and was reared in Pittsfield, Illinois, to which city his parents removed in his early boyhood days, his father and mother spending the remainder of their lives there. In their family were twelve children, all of whom are now deceased, with the exception of John NOYES, who is still living in Pittsfield.

Dr. NOYES acquired his preliminary education in the schools of Pittsfield and after completing the high school course entered Shurtlef College, at Upper Alton, Illinois. His literary education being finished he then prepared for his chosen profession by study in the Missouri Medical College, at St. Louis, from which he was graducated in the class of 1861. In the same year, however, he put aside professional cares in order to aid his country then engaged in the Civil war, joining Company K of the Sixteenth Illinois Infantry. He was with that command for only a few months, however, when he was transferred to the navy as assistant surgeon on the Bark Braziliera from the Brooklyn navyyard. Later he was transferred to the steamer Southfield, also doing service on the Atlantic coast. This Vessel proceeded southward to Norfolk, Virginia, and up the James river. Mrs. NOYES still has in her possession the letter from John G. NICHOLAY, private secretary to President LINCOLN, transferring Dr. NOYES from the infantry to the navy.

He had the rank of lieutenant and messed with the wardroom officers. In December, 1862, on account of ill health he was at home for a short time and afterward went to St. Louis, where he did duty in the Fifth Street Hospital and later, on the Hospital Steamer, "City of Memphis" on the Mississippi river, where he again acted as surgeon, remaining on duty until the later part of 1863.

Following his connection with the army Dr. NOYES practiced medicine for a year in Pittsfield and in 1864 removed to Carthage, where he continued in active practice until his demise. He was in ill healthy, however, for several years prior to his death and he passed away at Hot Springs, South Dakota on the 12th of June, 1894. He was long accounted one of the leading and able physicians of Carthage and for many years resided on Wabash avenue and Fayette street. . .

Dr. NOYES was married in the fall of 1863 to Miss Lizzie LYNDE, of Griggsville, Illinois, in which city she was born. They had no children but adopted a daughter, who is now Mrs. D. G. BERRY, of Carthage, Illinois, and has one child, Catherine. Mrs. NOYES died in July, 1872 and her remains were interred in the cemetery at Griggsville, where she was visiting at the time of her death. Dr. NOYES afterward married Miss Laura MILLER on the 27th of October, 1873. She was born in Huntsville, Pennsylvania, June 30, 1849, and was a daughter of Captain Thomas C. and Martha Mary (McCULLOGH) MILLER. The ancestors of the MILLER family came from Scotland, settling in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in 1720. Her great-great-grandfather was John MILLER. He was a most prominent and influential man of his day and married Isabella HENRY, a sister of the father of Patrick HENRY, whos eloquence did so much in arousing the colonist to make the attempt to throw off the yoke of British oppression. Isabella (HENRY) MILLER died a few months before her husband and both lie buried in the cemetery, which thirty years before he had dedicated to "ye congregation of the Presbyterian church" of Neshaminy. He was also a large landowner in Bucks county, Pennsylvania. William MILLER, Jr., great-grandfather of Mrs. NOYES, was a captain in the Revolutionary war, having the following record: Appointed ensign June 9, 1776, first lieutenant March 20, 1777, captain on February 2, 1778, and colonel April 17, 1779, in the Seventh Pennsylvania Regulars Commanded by Captain William IRVINE. He also commanded at the battle of Hackinsack and was camped at White Plains in 1778. His regiment was paid off at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in April, 1781. His father-in-law was Colonel Thomas CRAIG, also of Revolutionary war fame. He was second lieutenant in Captain Abraham MILLER's company, Colonel THOMPSON's battalion of riflemen. In November, 1775, he was promoted to first lieutenant and quartermaster of the battalion; afterwards as quartermaster of the Ninth Pennsylvania of the Contenental Line. In 1780 he was commissary of purchases for BUCK's company. He was born in 1740, passing from this life in 1843. He was married in 1790 to Dorothy BRINER.

General T. C. MILLER, grandfather of Mrs. NOYES, was a resident of Gettysburg, Pennsylvnia, and served in the war of 1812. He also had brothers who were in active duty in prison ships, one passing away on the Jersey. General T. C. MILLER was a warm, personal friend of Francis Scott KEY, who was the author of The Star Spangled Banner.

From the Pennsylvania Statesman, published at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, September 28, 1843, on file in Hamilton Library, Carlisle:

(General T. C. MILLER was at that time a candidate for associate judge of the district of Cumberland, Franklin and Perry counties.)

"General MILLER. -- We learn from Franklin county that the friends of General MILLER are confident of giving him 600 majority. Let Cumberland do her duty and the General will be elected by a handsome majority."

The military career of this gentleman deserves some notice, and we think gives him additional claims on the favor of his fellow citizens. A volunteer, who served with the General during the last war, has furnished us with a full history of their services and hardships, from which we shall make a few extracts, in order to show that, whatever the "volunteers" may call General MILLER, he has given strong proof that he is at all events, an American and a patriot.

To the Editors of the Pennsylvania Statesman, Gentlemen:--

I have been acquainted with General MILLER from the late war to the present day, and can aver that his whole course of life, which has fallen under my observation from that day to this, has been unexceptional. Of his civil services I need not speak - neither need I I say a word in relation to his character as a man. But I have a soldier's felling for a fellow-soldier - and I must say that if the man who serves his country faithfully in the hour of danger deserves the gratitude of his countrymen, then will General MILLER in the present contest in your district, be surrounded and supported by a host of friends. I will tell you of some of the services he rendered.

In 1814, when the news reached us that the British had burned Washington [D. C.], he mounted his horse and never ceased his exertions until he had raised a volunteer rifle company, which he marched to Baltimore in forty-eight hours. Besides leaving his home and business, he incurred considerable expense in raising and marching the company, for which he never asked of received remuneration, further than his monthly pay. That night after the battle of North Point, the main body of our army having been driven back into their entrenchments, a fragment of the army was cut off from the main body by the risingof the tide in an arm of the bay, and could not reach the entrenchments without passing through the British lines; they were, moreover, destitute of provisions, and were in a very bad way. In this emergency Colonel COBEAN roade along the line asn asked who would volunteer to go and bring the men up? Many marched out and offered, but General SMITH and Comodore ROGERS forbade their going, saying that every man would be wanted in the morning. Part of Captain MILELR's company being among those cut off, he and William McCLELLAN, not of Gettysburg, although the night was wet and dark, procured horses, and each taking a bag of bread and some canteens of whiskey, stole through the lines of the British sentinels, reached the men, and after giving them something to eat and drink, marched them safely by a circuitous route into the American quarters before daylight.

For this daring feat the General was nicknamed Jasper and McCLELLAN was called McDonald, after the town famous partisan soldiers of the Revolution - in truth among his fellow-soldiers General MILLER is, to this day, called Old Jasper.

His conduct throughout the whole campaign met the approbation of this companions in arms, and he was elected by a unanious vote major of the battalion composed of his own company. Captain COBEAN's company of Gettysburg, Captain CAMPBELL's company of Gettysburg, Captain EICHELBERGER's company of Billsburg, Captain _____'s company of Peach Bottom and Captain McKINNEY's company of Shippensburg, very many members of which companies are living witnesses of the fact. He has since been elected to several important military offices in his brigade.

Immediately after the close of the last war, he was elected colonel of the Eighty-sixth Regiment at Gettysburg. When his term expired, he was elected brigade inspector and after that was twice elected brigadier general, which commission I believe he held until his removed into Cumberland county in 1840.

As a politican, I differ in some respects from General MILLER, but I have so much confidence in the patriotism and integrity of the man, and so many good reasons to believe him the true friend of his county, that I am sorry I am not a citizen of your district, so that I might be able to give him a lift at the next election.

The General was elected.

David CRAIG, one of the great-grandfathers of Mrs. NOYES in the paternal line, died in 1776. Of this family Colonel Thomas CRAIG, son of Daniel CRAIG, received his commission October 23, 1776, as captain in the Revolutionary war and rose to the rank of colonel. He married Jean JAMISON and his daughter, Margaree, married William MILLER, great-grandfather of Mrs. NOYES, who founded Millerstown, now Fairfield, Pennsylvania, and was for many years representative and senator of a district in the state legislature and was a very prominent and influential man. In the fall of 1814, T. C. MILLER raised a rifle company and marched to Washington to defend the city after it had been attacked by the British. he was elected a few years later, brigade inspector of the military section, performing his duties with capability and honor and was afterward general of his division. In 1824 he was elected high sheriff of the county and in 1835 he was appointed by Governor WOLF registrar and recorder to fill a vacancy in that office. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity and at his death was buried with military honors, the remains being escorted to the grave by a military organization known as "the Blues" and also by the fraternal societies to which he belonged and a great majority of the citizens of Gettysburg.

He owned at one time the ground on which Evergreen cemetery (a part of National cemetery) at Gettysburg was laid out. . . .

Captian Thomas C. MILLER, father of Mrs. NOYES, was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 1, 1827, and having arrived at years of maturity wedded Mary McCULLOCH, who was born in Dickinson, Pennsylvania, July 22, 1826. He served as a soldier of Company F, Seventh Missouri Cavalry, in the Civil war and won the rank of captain but was obliged to resign on account of an attack of typhoid fever, after which he returned home. he re-enlisted, becoming a lieutenant of Company K, One Hundred and Forty-sixth Illinois Infantry. His regiment rendezvoused at Camp Butler and was on duty at Springfield, Illinois, at the time of the funeral services of President LINCOLN.

Captain MILLER died June 21, 1905, and was buried at Moss Ridge cemetery in Carthage [Illinois]. For a number of years prior to his death he lived retired and was a most respected and worthy man, who enjoyed the unqualified confidence and esteem of all who knew him. His widow died March 22, 1906. In the family four children: Laura, now Mrs. NOYES, J. Oliver, who is living in Baconsfield (sic), Iowa; Anna, the wife of R. Herron JOHNSON, of Adams, Kansas; and Margaretta, the wife of Rev. T. S. HAWLEY, of Trinidad, Colorado.

Unto Dr. and Mrs. NOYES were born five children, four of whom yet survive. Fannie is living with her mother. Mary Coyle is the wife of Ralph Harper McKEE, professor of chemistry at Lake Forest University near Chicago. Helen MILLER is now a teacher of languages at Synodecal College, at Fulton, Missouri. Julia Tate was a graduate of Wilson College at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, June 7, 1906. . .

[Mrs. NOYES] and daughters are members of the Presbyterian church. Mrs. NOYES organized the society of the Daughters of the Revolution in the fall of 1897 and was regent therein for three years. She is a lady of innate culture and refinement, of superior intelligence and of most kindly purpose and the family have long occupied an inviable postion in social circles in Carthage.

SOURCES:
Biographical Review of Hancock County, Illinois, Pp. 215-20. Hobart Publishing. Chicago. 1907.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, March of 2009

Biographical Sketches Pages Index: A - F,   G - L,   M - R,  S - Z