Charles Henry Noble

NOBLE RHOADS

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/23/2010 at 16:31:34

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Charles Henry Noble
By Anna Belle (Noble) Lamb

In 1904, Charles Henry Noble moved to a farm east of Sloan with his father and stepmother, a David Story and Harriet Noble. They had a daughter, LaDessa, born in Sloan. Charlie gained pride in his Irish heritage from hearing his grandfather, John Noble, telling tales of coming with his brothers’ to eastern Illinois. His earliest school memories were from a rural school near Paton. In the Sloan community he attended school during months when he was not helping his father with the farming. Both shared a great liking for good horses. The week when Charlie sold his last horses to be replaced by a tractor was a sad one.

In early childhood Charlie joined the Attica Chapter of the Masonic Lodge. He was proud when he received his fifty year Masonic pin. He always had a lively interest in Farm Bureau programs, drainage ditch effectiveness, and soil conservation practices.

He met Zelda Auda Rhoads when he was teaching high school Domestic Science in Sergeant Bluff. She had lived most of her lifetime in Bedford, Iowa, until she entered Iowa State College at Ames where she earned a BS degree in Domestic Science. They were married after her second year at Sergeant Bluff. Their first home was a quarter mile north of his father’s homestead.

Born during their years were: Anna Belle, March 17, 1923; David Charles, February 1927, died in infancy; Robert Henry, born February 11, 1926; John Baxter, April 14, 1928 and died November 12, 1973; Raymond Eugene, November 16, 1931.

In 1933 Charlie and Zelda rented a farm one mile west of Sloan to begin farming on their own. In 1935 they bought a farm four miles north of Salix. Both were very active in church and community affairs.

Charlie felt privileged to be a Liberty township trustee when Salix and the rural area bought a new fire truck together. Zelda was happy to participate in the Woodbury County Extension programs that had began with her sister. Edna Marie Rhoads as a home demonstration agent. These included years when the nearest neighbors felt free to borrow a cup of sugar or give friendly advice. The men exchanged machinery, labor, and tools. Threshing brought the greatest number together to share in hard work and happy fellowship as neighbors gathered to make up a work crew. The women helped each other prepare the sumptuous meals. Visiting city kids chased chickens. Practical jokes often provided relaxation at dinnertime.

In the spring of 1942, Leigh Westfall offered to sell his beautiful five-year-old home and farm buildings as the day was drawing near when the buildings must be moved or bull-dozed down in preparation for construction of the Sioux City air base for World War II training. Boards and bricks were sold. The house was moved approximately seven miles to replace the house that had been built with square nails and Civil War newspapers between the plaster-and-lathe walls. On a Saturday night the house halted just east of the ‘Godfredson Road’. Monday morning poles were raised so the house slid under the telegraph wire without interrupting vital war messages. No trains interrupted the process. Highway 75 traffic was re-routed. At last the two-story house was resting in its new location. Some weeks later it was positioned on its permanent foundation. A lot of living went on in this lovely house during the thirty-seven years when the Nobles called it home. Everett and Anna Belle Lamb and family helped keep these home fires burning for twenty-xix of these years.

Zelda died June 10, 1953, at the age of fifty-nine. Charlie spent winters in Texas as he and Zelda had planned to do together. HE died on October 3, 1978, at the age of eighty-three. Both are buried in the Sloan Cemetery with infant son, David, and daughter-in-law, Nancy Adams Noble nearby.