Charles Sherwood Noble - Early Life

Early Life

Charles was born in State Center, Iowa in 1873, the eldest of six boys. His mother died when he was very young and Noble left school when he was age 15 to assist his father in supporting the family. In 1896 Noble took out a 160-acre (0.65 km2) homestead near Knox, North Dakota.

In 1902 Noble moved to the Claresholm, Alberta area in what was then part of the Northwest Territories. The next year, he married Margaret Naomi Fraser. In the following years Noble purchased large tracts of land southeast of Claresholm. He constructed many of the area’s first buildings and the hamlet of Noble (later renamed Nobleford) was established in 1909.

By 1922 Noble had accumulated about 30,000 acres (120 km2) of land but a series of poor crops, falling prices and too much debt meant he was unable to keep up the payments on the land. In the autumn of that year the Spokane Trust Company to whom he owed $600,000 foreclosed on the Noble estate and he lost all his holdings.

By 1930 he had regained some of his holdings and was farming approximately 8,000 acres (32 km2) of land.

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