Curtis Noble was descended from Thomas Noble, an Englishman who reached Boston as early as 1653. Descendants of Thomas Noble make up a genealogical record filling a book of more than 600 pages. He settled in Westfield, Massachusetts, and there died in 1704. His eldest son, John, was the first white man who settled in New Milford, Connecticut, and there in 1750 was born John’s son Elnathan, and in 1754 his son Jesse.
Elnathan Noble in 1794 bought for $750 a farm of 100 acres in Otsego County on the Butternut Creek in what is now New Lisbon. When he moved to the farm in April of that year, there was a log house on it ten feet by twelve, with an elm bark roof and a chimney of sticks and clay. In a cart covered with tow cloth and drawn by two yoke of oxen he arrived early in May with Johanna Bostwick, his wife, and their one daughter and four sons, finding the land heavily timbered, the settlers few, and these chiefly Dutch or German.
Here Elnathan Noble lived until his death in 1824, his funeral being conducted by the Rev. Daniel Nash, known better as “Father” Nash, with whom he had long co-operated in support of the Episcopal faith. Jesse had followed him to New Lisbon, and Jesse’s son Thomas found in Unadilla a wife in Eliza Ann Beach, daughter of Abijah H. Beach, by whom he had eight sons, Whitney B., George N., Edward B., Thomas H., Carrington T., John Henry and Clark. Jesse’s daughter Hetty became the wife of the Rev. Russell Wheeler, the first rector of St. Matthew’s church in Unadilla.
Elnathan Noble’s eldest son Curtis did not go to New Lisbon with his father. He had already entered upon a mercantile life at New Milford in the store of Elijah Boardman, where also had been employed his future partner, Isaac Hayes, and there Curtis Noble remained until 1800 when he and Mr. Hayes formed their partnership and set out for Unadilla. In that year Mr. Noble married Mr. Hayes’s sister, Anna, who survived him until 1865 when she died at eighty-four.
Mr. Hayes was born in 1776. His father was Thomas Hayes of Ilminster, Somersetshire, England. Mr. Hayes in 1798 was sent by Mr. Boardman to the Western Reserve of Connecticut, now a part of Ohio, under contract to clear up a tract of land, sow grain and otherwise prepare the way for settlers. These lands were in the present township of Medina.
Early in 1800 Mr. Hayes had returned to New Milford and entered into his agreement with Curtis Noble to conduct a business “as merchants or shopkeepers in the State of New York at such place as may by them be thought most proper under the name and firm of Noble and Hayes for a term of time not less than ten years.” They contributed each at the beginning one thousand dollars. Mr. Hayes was soon afterwards to increase his amount, while Mr. Noble had the privilege of doing so. Each was to “devote his whole time and attention to the business, use and benefit of the said company.”[4] Instead of ten years this partnership continued for nearly forty. Formal settlement was finally made in 1841 with George H. Noble and Charles C. Noble as executors of their father’s estate.
These Unadilla pioneers came by way of Catskill, the turnpike being then in process of construction. On reaching the river they stopped at the Wattles’s Ferry hotel and soon concluded that the lands across the stream offered the most promising site they had seen for their enterprise. Here was the terminus of the turnpike over which their goods could be brought from Catskill and from here down the Susquehanna could be sent in boats the produce of the country which they expected to acquire in exchange for goods.
Their first stock of goods arrived on a Saturday, when they were living in the house afterwards called the Priest house, a close copy of the Gurdon Huntington house. It occupied the site of the present Horace Eells residence. In one of the rooms of this dwelling the goods were opened and on the following Monday Mr. Hayes on horseback made a tour of the Ouleout country and the upper Susquehanna, announcing to all the inhabitants that a new store had been opened. Solomon Martin, who had a rival store, predicted disaster for the new firm. But Mr. Hayes’s tour brought a crowd of customers at once and a large trade was soon secured.
In the following year the firm was able to send a large quantity of local produce to Catskill and Baltimore. Pearl and pot ashes, pork, bacon, wheat, cattle, dried apples and eventually whiskey became staple articles of export. An old account book records that in 1808 Mr. Noble, on one occasion, sold 30 barrels of pot ashes “for cash in York”, and in 1809, “588 pounds of rags.” Shipments to Catskill were made by well known residents of the town—John Pooler, John Carley, Aaron Axtell, James Hughston and others. The business eventually grew to large proportions. Wheat, rye and corn were grown in vast quantities and everyone was overburdened with the stock on hand. In a single week the firm was known to ship to Catskill 3,000 bushels of wheat, which meant 90 sleigh-loads. These circumstances forced the firm into distilling rye and corn into whiskey, and for this purpose the stone building, afterwards used as a tannery was erected.
Between Unadilla and Baltimore regular ark loads of produce made journeys down the river. As described to the author by the late Clark I. Hayes, these arks were from 20 to 30 feet long and from 15 to 20 feet wide, the depth being from 3 to 4 feet. Boats similar to them were in general use on inland waters at that period. On the Mohawk the favorite boat was called the Schenectady boat, which was “a broad and shallow scow some 50 feet in length steered by a sweep oar of 40 feet and pushed upstream by man power.” On these boats when the river was high 10 tons of freight could be carried.