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| NOEL JAMES M. BORN JULY 8, 1836 DIED MAY 29, 1904 ELIZA. BORN FEB. 13, 1838 DIED. AUG. 11, 1912 photo courtesy of Nancy Skinner White |
| This story was passed along to me from Nancy Skinner White, who says it was given to her by Chris West. This story was also told to Paul Litten a great-grandson of Virgil Noel, the son of James and Eliza. Coy Noel had told it to him when he was a very old man and not in good health. He was the son of Carlin Noel, son of James & Eliza. Kathryn Sims Martin also corroborated the fact that there was a McGruder family near Alexander Hall in Shelby Co. KY in the 1850 census: Alexander Hall was born in 1806 in Scotland. He was a painter. He married Nancy Kendall, who was born on March 25, 1813 in KY. He died on Dec. 11, 1872 in Owen Co., IN. He was buried in Adel Cemetery, Owen Co., IN. Nancy died on Feb. 6, 1896 in Bartholomew Co., IN. She was buried in Columbus City Cemetery, Bartholomew Co., IN. Their children were: 1. Eliza Hall was born on 13 Feb 1838 in Shelby Co., KY. She died on 11 Aug 1912 in Adel, Owen Co., IN. She was buried on 13 Aug 1912 in Troy Cem., Owen Co., IN. 3. Albert Hall 2. Margaret Hall. Alexander and Nancy's first child, Eliza, was born in Shelby county, Kentucky, along with brother Albert and sister Margaret. For some reason, the family moved to Mississippi. When Eliza was 6 years old, Alexander kidnapped her and Albert, leaving Nancy with baby Margaret, and fled to Kentucky, near Elizabethtown, where the children were raised by "Grandma Magruder" (probably a Scottish relative). During the Civil War, Alexander became uneasy living in Kentucky, since he was a Union man and Kentucky was a Confederate state, so he moved to Indiana. Eliza had met James Noel in Kentucky, where she and James were married when she was 16 years old. The newlyweds moved to Indiana, where James Noel's family had gone (which is probably why Alexander went there). All this time, Nancy Kendall had never given up hope of finding her 2 kids. She even moved back to Indiana because she figured that's where Alexander would have taken them. She remarried to Thomas Wise, on Jan. 9, 1837 in Jefferson Co., IN, and continued to raise Margaret with her new family. Forty years after Eliza and James had married, he went to Freeman to get supplies. There he read a newspaper account of a steam engine that had blown up, killing a man. There was an accompaning picture of the victim`s wife, who James immediately recognized from an old tintype Eliza had of her mother. He rushed home and told his wife, "I am building a covered wagon and we are going on a trip." Near Nashville, Indiana, just outside of Columbus, he asked if they could camp all night in a lady`s yard. She was reluctant, but he said, "Come and meet my wife". When the lady saw Eliza, she cried ,"It`s my daughter, Elizabeth!!" Nancy had made her way to the area some years earlier with her family (she had 2 children with Thomas Wise: Jennie and Isaac). Later, she went to Owen County, Indiana and stayed a year with Eliza and James. Note: it says that Alex Hall was buried in Adel Cemetery, when Nancy Skinner White looked there for his stone, she never found it. |
| The Hall Story |
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| America V. Noel 1858-1947 Grandview Cemetery, Bloomfield, Indiana (buried beside sister, Stella Noel Roudebush) |