Way Back Wednesday in Calhoun County---June 20-26

Anniston is facing another birthday in a few weeks. She looks very different than she did in 1883. An Englishman created a reconstruction city built on iron in a dense Alabama pine forest in 1873 then opened his city to the public. The man who created her as his vision of a Model City did not survive to see her sixth birthday.

Samuel Noble was born November 22, 1834, in Cornwall, England. He was the fourth son and fifth child of James and Jenifer Ward Noble. Samuel was christened on Valentine’s Day 1835 at Camborne, a Cornish tin and copper mining center. Ultimately, the Noble’s had twelve children, ten survived to adulthood. When Samuel was about three years old, his family left England and immigrated to Pennsylvania. The family lived first in Pottsville then moved on to Reading, PA. While in Pennsylvania James learned the iron trade and all of his sons including Samuel, who trained as a boiler maker, following the same career path.

In 1855, the Noble family moved to Rome, GA. where James established an iron foundry. Samuel and his brother William brought the machinery down by boat and docked at Savannah. The machinery was brought overland to the site of the foundry in Rome. The business was profitable and expanded over the years. Samuel learned about the iron deposits of Georgia and North Alabama through exploration of the terrain.

Rome was where Samuel Noble’s life changed considerably. At 9:00 PM on July 10, 1861, Samuel and Matilda Christine Stoeckel of Philadelphia were married by Rev. Charles Todd Quintard, Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee, in the home of the groom’s parents. Matilda was the daughter of Theobald and Christine Stoeckel who had immigrated from Germany and settled in Philadelphia. Matilda’s father died on New Year’s Day 1856. The newlyweds settled in Rome, GA. While Samuel ran operations at the family iron plant, Matilda kept house and tended to their own growing family. Matilda and Samuel had three daughters, Kate, Addie and Josephine and one son, Samuel E.

During the Civil War, Noble Iron Works built munitions for the Confederacy. After the war, the Nobles wanted to expand their iron works. Samuel was looking for a new source of iron. He was aware of an area in Northeast Alabama with dense pine forests and a good supply of iron. Samuel wanted to build an iron foundry on the site but he did not have the financial means. In 1872, Samuel was on a business trip to Charleston, SC and met General Daniel Tyler in the South Carolina Railroad office of Tyler’s son Alfred. The men organized the Woodstock Iron Company and planned to build it on the site in Northeast Alabama. The iron furnace went into operation in 1873.

For the next ten years, Samuel Noble nurtured his Woodstock Iron Company town. He worked to create a post-war utopian city. A textile mill was added to the town to employ the wives and children of the iron workers. By 1883, Noble decided it was time to open his city to the public. He brought in craftsmen from England, Germany, and other parts of Europe to build his planned Model City. Anniston had Noble’s steady hand for her first years. Noble hired a gardener from Paris’ Tuileries Gardens to create a botanical garden on Quintard Avenue. Noble sent recruits to Europe and other parts of the U.S. to bring back new settlers as well as industrials who could finance the building of a town. Samuel Noble had a limited education so he made sure educational opportunities were available for female and male students.

On August 10, 1888, Samuel was surveying a railcar with the latest products from the iron foundry. The railcar was in Oxford and rather than wait for a driver to take him to his home on Christine Circle, later Woodstock Avenue, he walked. It was a hot day so Noble stopped at Wikle’s Drug Store for a tall glass of ice-cold milk. After the refreshing drink, Noble continued walking home. When he arrived home, he ate a large dinner. That night he had an acute attack of indigestion. The newspapers of the day reported Samuel Noble was dead at the age of 53 from what they termed “nervous prostration brought on by a severe attack of cholera morbus.” Samuel Noble died from stress and severe gastroenteritis on August 13, 1888 three days after his initial attack.

In 1895, the citizens of Anniston wanted to honor the town founder who put so much of himself into the city. The town decided to erect a statue of Samuel Noble in the median at Quintard Avenue and 11th Street. For many years, the town celebrated Samuel Noble’s November 22nd birthday as a holiday. Over time, that practice faded, but Sam Noble can still be found on the median of Quintard Avenue looking over his Model City.

To learn more about the history of Calhoun County pick up a copy of Images of America: Calhoun County (ISBN 978-0738589985), Anniston (ISBN 978-0738506012), or Anniston Revisited (ISBN 978-1467114752) by Kimberly O’Dell.