- DAVID NOGGLE was born in Franklin, Franklin Co., Penn., October
9, 1809, and was the son
- of Joseph and Mary (DUNCAN) NOGGLE, natives of the same place.
His father belonged to that class known as Pennsylvania Dutch,
while his mother was of Scotch-Irish descent. When he was sixteen
years old, with his father's family he moved to Greenfield, Ohio.
Here he experienced, as a farmer, the hardships and privations
of frontier life. His educational advantages had been limited
to a few weeks of each winter spent at the district schools of
his native State, before the age of sixteen, where, however,
he developed a taste for literary pursuits and a controlling
desire to become a lawyer; but, owing to the limited means of
his parents, he was somewhat discouraged in his ambitious desires.
At the age of nineteen, he left home in quest of a more remunerative
employment, and was for four years employed in a manufactoring
establishment at Madison, N.Y. In 1834, he returned to Ohio.
With a younger brother, he assumed the liabilities of his father,
who had become embarrassed in his financial matters, and the
brothers improved a water-power by the building of a saw-mill
that proved a success, furnishing the means for more extended
operations.
- On the 15th of October, 1834, he married Miss Anna M. LEWIS,
of Milan, Ohio, and two years
- later, he moved with his wife to Winnebago Co., Ill., making
the long journey with an ox team. Here they made a home in the
wilderness, and made the preparation for the profession he so
ardently desired to pursue as a life's calling. In 1838, after
a rigid examination by the Supreme Court of Illinois, he was
admitted to the bar of that State, without having spent an hour
in a law office or having received direction in his studies from
any member of the profession. In 1839, he sold his farm in Illinois
and removed to Beloit, Wis., where he opened a law office, and
at once entered upon the practice of his profession, and enjoyed
from the outset the patronage of a large clientage in the counties
of Winnebago and Boone, in Illinois, and in Rock, Walworth, Green
and Iowa Counties, in the then Territory of Wisconsin. In 1840,
he was appointed Postmaster at Beloit, a position he retained
some five years. In 1845, he removed to Janesville, and, in 1846,
he was elected a member of the first Constitutional Convention,
and was recognized as among the leaders of that body. He stood
with the progressive elements of the Convention in favor of homestead
exemption, an elective judiciary, and the rights of married women.
In 1854, he was elected to the State Legislature from the Janesville
district, and at once took a leading position in that body. He
was again elected in 1856, and was emphatically the leader of
the house during the session of 1857.
- In 1858, he was elected Judge of the First Judicial Circuit
of Wisconsin, composed of the counties
- of Kenosha, Racine, Walworth, Rock and Green, and held the
office for eight years, discharging its duties with acceptability
and establishing for himself an enviable reputation as a sound
jurist and an impartial administrator of the law. He retired
from the bench in 1866, and, for a short time, resided in Iowa,
where he was engaged as attorney for the Milwaukee & St.
Paul Railroad Company. He afterward returned to Beloit, where
he purchased an elegant home and built up a lucrative practice.
In 1869, he was appointed by President Grant to the office of
Chief Justice of the Territory of Idaho, a position he retained
until 1874, when failing health obliged him to resign. For a
time, in search for health, he resided in San Francisco, Cal.,
and returned to Wisconsin in the autumn of 1875, to his old home
in Janesville, where he resided until his death, which took place
on the 18th of July, 1878. He was in the sixty-ninth year of
his age.
- In politics, Judge NOGGLE was identified with the Democratic
party, until the organization of the
- Republican party. In 1844, he was a delegate to the National
Convention which nominated President Polk, and, in 1852, to the
Convention which nominated President Pierce. He was likewise
a delegate to the Convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln,
in 1860, and was ever after an uncompromising Republican.
- The name of Judge NOGGLE is indissolubly connected with the
history and progress of Wisconsin.
- He was a gentleman of fine presence and commanding appearance,
earnest and impressive as a public speaker, possessing great
natural force and mental power. His life illustrates what can
be done by a well-directed purpose, by a determined will, even
though one be thrown upon the world in early manhood without
influence, friends or pecuniary resources.
-
- Taken from "The History of Rock County, Wis."
(c)1879; pp. 431-432.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|