Page:One of a thousand.djvu/458

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

444 NO YES. NOYES. NOYES, Charles Johnson, the son of Johnson and Sally (Brickett) Noyes, of Canaan, Grafton county, N. H., was born in Haverhill, August 7, 1841. His ances- tors emigrated from England and were included among the first settlers of New England, landing in 1634, near the site of Newburyport, on the spot where the rail- road bridge now crosses the Merrimack. His early education was received in the public schools of his native town. He was prepared for college in the Haverhill Acad- emy, now known as the Haverhill high school, from which he graduated in i860 as valedictorian. He was president of the Alumni Association for five years, after which he declined to hold the position longer. In the fall of 1S60 he entered Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio, and re- mained there until the commencement of his junior year, when he removed to Sche- nectady, N. Y., entered Union College in that town, and graduated with the class of 1864. While at Union College he was orator on several important occasions, and during his second year there he commenced his studies of law in the office of Judge Johnson of Schenectady, having made con- siderable progress in legal study at the time of leaving college. Soon after graduation he entered the law office of John E. Risley. Jr., of Provi- dence, R. I., and was admitted to the bar in 1864. He immediately opened one office in Haverhill and another in Boston. Busi- ness in the former place accumulated so rapidly that he was soon obliged to give up the Boston office and confine his atten- tion to the Haverhill practice. Political aspirations were gratified at the unusually early age of twenty-four, by election to the lower House of the state Legislature in 1865. In the session of 1866 he served as a member of the com- mittee on the judiciary and committee on license law. Declining re-election to the House, he next became a successful candi- date for the Senate from the 3d Essex district. In that body, though the youngest member, he was appointed chairman of the committee on library, member of the joint committee on education and on amend- ment to the constitution. In 1867 he declined renomination to the Senate, in order to devote himself to the assiduous pursuit of his profession. In 1869 he again opened an office in Bos- ton, carried on his business there and at Haverhill for the space of three years, and then removed to South Boston in 1872, establishing his legal headquarters in Pem- berton Square. Mr. Noyes was again elected to the House in 1876 from the 14th Suffolk dis- trict. During the session of 1877 he served as chairman of the committee on mercantile affairs, and also as member of the committee on the Hoosac Tunnel, Troy & Greenfield Railroad. In 1878 he was re-elected to the House, promoted 10 the chairmanship of the last mentioned com- mittee, and also served on the committee on harbors. In 1879 he was again elected to the House. He was appointed by Speaker Wade to the chairmanship of the committee on constitutional amendment. Returned for the fifth time to the House in CHARLES J. NOYES. 1S80, Mr. Noyes was elected speaker on the fourth ballot, by a vote of one hundred and twenty-five. In this position he gained high repute by the dignity and judgment of his rulings. In 1 881 the electors of the 14th Suffolk district once more returned their old rep- resentative, and he was again elected speaker, anil this time unanimously. A seventh election to the Legislature of 1882, followed in due course, and he was once more elected speaker. Mr. Noyes was also elected to the House from this district, in 1S87, and again in 188S, and