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Home My WebLink Aboutnobles family history (2).pdf SOME OLD FAMILY HOUSE LOCATIONS IN ENFIELD Source -- Byron D. Noble in 1937 (born 1865) l., The original log cabin of John Nobles and family from 1810-was located "across from the schoolhouse" in a clearing. 2. Then a house was built just west of the last and presently existing "homestead house" by Squire J. Nobles around 1816 1818. Arthur S. Nobles was born there. John Nobles conveyed this 100 acre farm to Squire J. in 1825. Squire J. and family lived there until his death in 1878. Hie- wife, Hannah, died in 1879. Then Anson Nobles, oldest son of Arthur, lived there with his first wife (nee- Ada Howser.) before he later left' her and went west to North Dakota and Michigan. Then this house apparently was left vacant until demolished. ' 3. There was another house built at .some time just east of the last mentioned house, just to the east of the later "Homestead House" lane- Arthur S. Nobles and family lived there and Anson, Byron and Truman Nobles were born -there (1857, 1859 and 1865). 4. On March 11, 1873, Arthur S. Nobles purchased of-;the Moses' Wafer `Estate :the farm down the road to the east,on Military Lot 67 (dater the Anson Nobles farm) and moved there. My father, John A. Noble, was born there on October l.' 1875. The house mentioned in No. 3 above was- torn down sometime later. 5. When Squire J; died January: 12, 1878, he- left the%100 acre homestead farm to Arthur 5. .Nobles with the provision that he pay certain cash amounts to his brothers and sisters. Then Anson Nobles and-family lived there as stated above, until Anson left for the west. Then the house was left vacant and in a decaying state for some years. In the 1890s, Anson came back from the; west to build a new house for his father, Arthur S. The vacant Squire J. house was torn down and Anson, who .was a builder, built the existing "Homestead House" of Victorian style, started in, 1895 and finished in 1896. Arthur and family'' lived there until his death in April, 1913. His. widow; Frances Ann, soon moved to Trumbuils Corners and the house remained vacant until it was sold .in 1919 and came into the possession of Fred W. Smith. 6. On October 11, 1906, . Arthur S. sold and conveyed the "Wafer, Place" (No. 4 above) . to .Anson Nobles and wife, Hattie Hone Nobles, then of Toledo, Ohio, and they lived there until Hattie, then a widow, sold the farm in 1939 to the Sherman. Grover family. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, HOUSES. Source: Hulse Smith in 1973 (He was born 1887) As early as Hulse can remember: Arthur S. Noble& and family lived in the Wafer house until the Victorian "Homestead House" was built in 1895-6. Before it was built, the old Squire J. house was still there, located about 25'-30' west of the location of the new "Home- stead House". As far back as Hulse can remember,, the old Squire J. house, a story-and-a-half structure, was vacant until finally torn down by Anson.. He said that the doors Were open and it, was-in a poor state for years before it was demolished. He also said that there were no remains of the other house that was located east of the old Squire J. house.. 1 According to "Landmarks of Tompkins County", the y A 4 i f �r e road running in front of the "Homestead House" Iry d/c Q. Z;�0 v was once known as " bles-- Street". i"a y 4 h m Q v ? C�k; tiy�ZN[[On y `� • Noel-Gs STRa art, XQ N $PPRoX• LCug)lorr X 3"oHuN'o�i�s L-S.H. CAV(it- j')jed t e- - gs.HatlL� logtabi�L.j� �� ur+cie 3ohr, q QUESTIONS RAISED17, ysy ,eft ��°'iF, ;q k IN . ,10 .ram" '.F..lr%'. .a.up,--.•-.. . L Lumber sawing bill presented to Squire J. -Nobles- apparently relates to material for building a house since it includes "one seller dore fram" . Does it relate to the old Squire J. house or the one east of it? Was Squire J. house built in 1833, not 1818 or 1819? Fr OY for— jG moo_ 1 An account written out by Squire J. Nobles. Raises question- - Who- was - "moving to Chenangof'? ,'KK�''' • 1' _Gell& � gsl�iit;'+'#�\�!��1 �t��j� `'Ai� E'4i��lbkF �� t qti yt§St '�. LL 'tl�i�l u2 ON s\k��t : `• p .y tql��\��C,tt�i1t� illllaikkk � d � _ ..ar.aiersw e� ��ti'L'"$5 Vi a� M ® ` PAR X -a �s'R �► w® .sw! a4.. ea►I�1f� }p`' YAK, 0�m A- jj- trt i :. • - a ` • / + 1 JI' • - e :� 6 r •. �'�r try �f2. di '�'^f,t•/` x i� 1 'R k�,� ��E �� rZ j+ '/ill u(fv.t �'tef � •,�tr � 1 � .f�t v l �1 �� R f,4 `� 1 rrr r�¢y/Off �; <� jf'r� �S� t�'tvx` ;{S;��So}, ` � �AE.,a s1 ?� � E�"4 �' ` '�1•lr ``�1.�'s � )�l� <<'��'�+[ ♦ .E I 5 T o a n sn� `�slyer' 'y5.e .st`G30'Alyi e 5 �!I �! �.�g? .� R �°e ?E 19 r x x { p!4 � g��t'� �:� ayP k i.mr. f`. e EARLY MOTORING IN ENFIELD Shortly after moving to Ithaca from Chicago in 1911, my father invested in his first motorized vehicle, a gray Harley-Davison motorcycle. To this was fitted a seat behind the driver for my mother and a small seat between the handle- bars for me, on which I was held by a strap. The one and only "long" trip taken by the family on this contraption took place one Sunday when the family decided to try the journey up to 'my grandfather's home in Enfield. At that time, the Enfield Falls Road was a dirt road with a goodly mixture of clay, making the trip slow and difficult. At "Teeter Hill" , the machine balked and the belt drive began to slip so that it was necessary for both my father and mother ,to dismount and push the motorcycle the whole dis- tance up the hill while I remained perched on my handlebar seat. We finally arrived at the Arthur S . Nobles residence and my father spent some of the time there "showing off" the machine in the side yard and giving rides to Winifred Taggart, the little girl who was being brought up by my Uncle Anson' s family. The motorcycle proved to be unsatisfactory for any practical purposes and in 1912 my father purchased from The A. W. Davis Garage a "Model T" Ford touring car. This proud possession was adorned with brass acetylene headlights, run by a tank of 'the gas mounted on the running board, brass radiator, dash lights and windshield struts,` with a crank out front with which to start the thing. The starting pro- cedure was somewhat dangerous and complicated, consisting of first setting - the gas and `spark levers, located just under the steering wheel, just so, getting out and crank- ing the motor out in front, then, if the motor finally runni ng bank to adjust the as and and started J g coughedg � sP ark levers so that the motor did not stop. Since there I was no real front door on the driver's side but only a stamped out door shape in the sheet metal, the adjustment , had to take place by standing on the running board and reaching over into the car. The cranking procedure had its perils since the crank could jerk back with great force and break the operator's arm, a result which my father fortunately avoided. Of the quality of the early tires , the less said, the better. Tire irons, blow-out patches, manual pumps and main strength and force were the order of the day. When my father bought this car, he had no idea about its operation. Mr. Davis suggested that one Robert Mandeville, who, worked around the garage, go out with him and instruct him. My father and mother decided that this first jaunt should be up to Enfield to the home of my Uncle Anson. We all started out, Mandeville giving his instructions to my father as we went along. Arriving at the farm, Aunt Hattie put on a real country meal as only she could prepare it. Mandeville was an odd character but that. did not interfere with his appetite. He wolfed down helping i after helping of stewed chicken and biscuits until fear began to be felt for the crockery, topping it off with a large hunk of elderberry pie. When he was asked whether he would care for another piece of pie, Mandeville replied, "Don' t care if I do :" , and took up a tin containing half a pie, slid it onto his plate and polished it off in short order. My aunt later remarked that he had outdone anyone who had ever been at her table, including the threshers. One April day in 1913, word came to my father over the country crank-telephone that my grandfather was in a serious condition and not expected to live the day out . We were then living at 202 East State Street in a third-story apartment over the T . D. Sullivan store. My parents hastily ' arranged for my care at home and started out for Enfield in the "Model T" . The spring rains had done their work and the road up was in an unusually bad condition,"Teeter Hill" a near disaster and the going was slow and treacherous . After grinding and churning through the mire they finally reached my grandfather' s house only to be informed that he had passed away Just before they drove into the yard. A few years previously, my father had bought from my grandfather our present twenty-one acre parcel known as "The South Place" which was being farmed by my uncle. During a Sunday visit to the area, my father drove us over to the place to look over the crops. The road up from .the main dirt road was little more than a lane, hedged in by trees and bushes. Halfway up the lane the figure of old Frances Griffin appeared before us, brandishing a cane and demand- ing that we halt, blasting us with some well-chosen, color- ful imprecations . She would not let us pass on until she had gone by. Her attitude reflected the suspicion and hostility still directed by some country people toward the growing "Motor Age" . This "Model T" , despite some shortcomings and its numerous tire troubles , did carry us safely over largely unimproved roads to Chicago and back in the summer of 1914. It came to a sad end, however, when it was stolen one night by two Cornell students and taken for a "Joy-ride" which ended when they crashed it into a tree over in Danby. My father bought another "Model T" and was talked into "customizing" it, which did nothing to improve its appearance. Fortunately, he did not have this very .long because it ended up in front of the old mill up in Newfield Village with a broken axle. The mill hands brought' out rollers and dragged it off the road and it was ignominiously towed off to Ithaca. At this point, my father gave up on the "Model T" and "graduated" to a 1916 Chevrolet. Another event concerning Enfield and the early Fords i relates to a Jewish fellow named Finklestein who started to drive up "Eliza Jane Hill" and stalled his "Model T" -at the I foot of the hill by the bridge. He cranked it up, got in, drove backwards and backed off down into the creek gully. After he was pulled out, he was asked by his rescuers how it had all happened. Replied Finklestein in his fractured English, "I thought I had it in mutual and I had it in go-back 1".. My Uncle Anson, who had never driven anything but horses, finally decided to take the plunge and purchased a "Model T" in 1917. During a visit one Sunday, my father undertook to teach my uncle to drive it. They started out along the country dirt road, my uncle at the wheel nervously trying to follow instructions. Finally, sighting a horse and wagon approaching from the opposite direction, he a promptly drove off into the ditch and, with the car still jerking along, jumped out over the door on the driverts side, shouting over his shoulder, "Here, you take the j son-of-a-bitch :" He never attempted to drive again and the car remained housed in its pristine beauty for years until he finally disposed of it. - u .:t.. 31 .. .� � ..� •ram �.-��`"� p� • :::111 y, 6Ow - c777 1 s p i � �•E i � - ,fir' r 4 y .: ^- �•:; t ,ilk �- t yy z s -s {s k J�Ir m i4 ( it Jig nt 3k NOR 16 �+,�.�'4Y. �•�G�?T'-ham %d`��:�. `-" � � "h4 �'K ♦... r co 6- 'T � Zo In -0_oa ro Z C t Z 4 py• a (Ym `2' " `�' p� `Vc'o %4�v co ;4<� y S.SS�l SOYL. MAR 7yb �PQ�`�a �� lv //4�9ZF� +S°c15jP2dK eo�6H5 �1 Ivor z, V"�dS ;�yO 91y�1 eb1[35 ;/ Uei NM 5 NZlk ertiP. Voeis b1OJbyoQ UM)ry �� sr 9 -'o sel�1 K.a'ep(a6Jes e 3 7 E c ? 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