Bio: William E. Noel,  Caddo Parish La
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890
Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker




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     WILLIAM E. NOEL is a planter of Ward 3, Caddo, Parish, and was born here
on January 4, 1844, to Richard T. and Hettie (Burch) Noel, natives of Virginia
and Alabama, respectively.  In 1838 the father removed from his native
State of Louisiana and located on a farm near where the subject of this
sketch is now living, where he resided until his death, which occurred in
1873 at the age of fifty-eight years.  He had been an officer in the State
Militia, and was a very successful planter, being the owner of 150 slaves,
which of course he lost during the war, his loss in other respects being
also heavy.  He was always economical and energetic, but the secret of his
success was close attention to every detail of his business.  Although
formerly a Whig in politics he afterward became a Democrat.  His wife came
to this parish from Alabama about 1838, and in 1840 she was married her to
Mr. Noel, their union resulting in the birth of four children:  William E.,
Jennie (wife of R. T. Cole, present representative of this parish in the
State Legislature), Taylor (who is a farmer of this parish), and Sudie
(wife of W. A. Elliott, also a planter here).  The mother of these children
makes her home with the subject of this sketch, and is now in her
sixty-fourth year.  William E. Noel received his primary education in the
schools of Louisiana, but finished his education in  William and Henry
College in Virginia.  At the breaking out of the war he came home and
joined the Seventeenth Louisiana Infantry, the company being known as the
"Caddo Lake Boys," with which he served three years, when he was
transferred to the Third Louisiana Cavalry, which was disbanded in
Concordia Parish.  He was captured shortly after and held a prisoner for
about three months or until Lee surrendered when he was released.  While
with the Seventeenth he was in the battle of Shiloh and all around
Vicksburg, being also in the siege of that place.  He was never wounded but
had some narrow escapes.  Soon after the war he commenced to farm for
himself, and also managed his father's affairs until the latter's death.
He was married in 1869 to Miss Bettie, daughter of Jacob Hoss, of this
parish.  She was born in this precinct and has borne her husband nine
children--six sons and three daughters--all of whom are living.  Mr. and
Mrs. Noel are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he is a
Mason, and in his political views a Democrat.  He is the owner of extensive
tracts of land, of which 1,500 acres are under cultivation, this being one
of the largest plantations in the parish.  His maternal grandfather, Jesse
Burch, was a Methodist minister, and came to this State as a missionary in
1839, at which time there were but very few people living here.