David Addison Noble

David Addison Noble (November 9, 1802 – October 13, 1876) was a nineteenth-century American lawyer, judge, and Democratic politician from Michigan who served one term in the United States House of Representatives from 1853 to 1855. Over the course of a long public career, he held a variety of local, state, and federal positions and was closely associated with the civic and political life of Monroe, Michigan.

Noble was born in Williamstown, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, on November 9, 1802. He attended a private school in Plainfield, Massachusetts, before returning to his native town for higher education. He graduated from Williams College in Williamstown in 1825, joining the ranks of that institution’s early nineteenth-century alumni. After college he pursued legal studies in Albany and New York City, then important centers of legal training and practice in New York State.

In 1831 Noble was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in New York City. That same year he moved west to Monroe, in the Michigan Territory, where he continued the practice of law. His relocation coincided with a period of rapid growth and political development in Michigan, and Noble quickly became a prominent member of the local bar and an active participant in civic affairs.

Noble’s public service in Monroe was extensive and spanned several decades. He served as city recorder in 1838, 1839, and again from 1844 to 1850, and he held two terms as alderman. In 1852 he was elected mayor of Monroe, reflecting his standing in the community. In addition to his municipal roles, he served as prosecuting attorney and probate judge of Monroe County, positions that placed him at the center of the county’s criminal and civil judicial business. At the state level, he was a member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 1847 to 1848, participating in the legislative work of the young state only a decade after its admission to the Union.

Building on this record of local and state service, Noble was elected as a Democrat from Michigan’s 2nd congressional district to the Thirty-third United States Congress. He served in the House of Representatives from March 4, 1853, to March 3, 1855, during a period marked by growing sectional tensions and debates over slavery and territorial expansion. In the 1854 elections he was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election to the Thirty-fourth Congress, losing in the general election to Republican Henry Waldron, who benefited from the emerging strength of the new Republican Party in Michigan.

After leaving Congress, Noble remained active in business and party affairs. In 1858 he was appointed manager of the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago Railroad, a position he held for four years, reflecting the increasing importance of railroad development to the regional economy in the mid-nineteenth century. He also continued his involvement in Democratic Party politics and served as a delegate to the 1864 Democratic National Convention, held during the Civil War.

David A. Noble spent his later years in Monroe, Michigan, where he had long been a leading figure in the legal and political community. He died there on October 13, 1876, and was interred in Woodland Cemetery in Monroe. He was the father of Henry Shaw Noble and John Savage Noble, continuing a family presence in the region he had helped to shape through his legal practice and public service.