Butte County
Biographies
JAMES IRA NOBLET
JAMES IRA NOBLET.—At the time of the persecution of the Huguenots in France, many of its best citizens were driven out of that country because of firm adherence to their religious convictions. Among these was the Noblet family, who settled for a time in the north of Ireland, soon removed thence to America, the haven of so many who sought homes wherein they could worship the God of their fathers according to the dictates of their conscience, and settling in Delaware. James Ira Noblet belongs to the branch of the family that is represented on the Pacific Coast, being a resident of California since 1856, coming with his parents when a child four years of age. He was born September 30, 1852, at Lanes Prairie, Maries, County, Mo.
The father, William Berry Noblet, a native of Tennessee, born near Knoxville, came to Maries County, Mo., where he was married to Elizabeth Young, a native of the Blue Grass State. He was a lumberman by occupation and ran rafts of logs down the Gasconade River. In 1856, he crossed the plains with ox teams, coming, on August 15, to Sierra County, where he engaged in mining for two years. He then went to North San Juan, Nevada County, in 1858, where he was employed in hydraulic mining, later removing to the Sierra Valley, where he engaged in farming, afterwards, in 1879, going to Washington, where he was a carpenter and farmer, and where he and his wife died. Of their five children three are living. The oldest, James Ira Noblet, was brought up in the Sierra mountains, principally at North San Juan, where he attended the public school. His schooling was limited. When a boy he did some mining, and at fifteen years of age went to work at the blacksmith trade in North San Juan. Three years later he went to the Sierra Valley, where he was with W. T. Hamilton, a well known horseshoer. He remained with him for six years and learned the trade of blacksmithing and horseshoeing thoroughly. In 1880, he removed to Reno, Nev., where he worked at his trade for four years, going from that place to Hawthorne, Esmeralda County, where he worked in a blacksmith shop for nine months, until the Mount Corey mine closed down. He then returned to Sierra Valley, Cal., and started in the general blacksmith business in Sierra City, remaining there for three years. Afterwards removing to Grass Valley, he was a blacksmith at the mines over three years, going from there to Amador County and working as blacksmith at the mines for two year. Mr. Noblet shod horses for twenty years, and in all that time never had to tie a wild horse down while shoeing him. In 1903, he located in Chico and worked for the Diamond Match Company at Barber for one year. When the sugar factory was built at Hamilton he became blacksmith foreman, doing all the heavy blacksmith work for seven months, until the factory was started. November 5, 1906, he returned to Chico, and on November 7 of that year entered the employ of the Northern Electric shops as blacksmith foreman, which position he has held ever since. He was married in Sierra Valley, in July, 1876, to Miss Mary J. Perry, a native daughter of Sutter County, Cal., whose father, Charles Perry, was of French ancestry and was born in San Florisant, Mo. (the French form of the name is “Paira”). In 1856, Mr. Perry crossed the plains and at Green River joined the train that the Noblets were in. Mr. Perry was married, in Idaho, to Margaret Murphy, a native of Ireland and an orphan who was crossing the plains from Portage City, Wis. They farmed in Sutter County for a time, soon removing to Sierraville, Cal., where they farmed until they sold their place and located in Sacramento. Mr. Perry returned to Sierra Valley, where he died. Six girls and three boys were the result of his marriage. Five girls and two boys are living, Mrs. Noblet being the third child. Mr. and Mrs. Noblet have three children living, namely: Mrs. Belle Clayton, of Chico, who has one child, Lester B., attending Santa Clara College; James Edward, a natural mechanic, a blacksmith with the iron works in San Francisco; and Fayette Ira, a graduated of the Chico State Norman, who was a teacher at Roseville, but is now in the United States service, as an instructor at the Letterman Hospital, in San Francisco.
Mr. Noblet is the owner of Bessie, a standard Arabian mare, which he has owned for eighteen years. He is a charter member of L. O. O. M., in Chico, in which he is Past Dictator. His wife is a member of the Woman’s Benefit Association of the Maccabees and is a member of the Degree of Honor and is Past Chief of Honor; she is also a member of the Neighbors of Woodcraft and of the Women of Mooseheart Legion. In politics, Mr. Noblet is a democrat.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1153-1154, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies