Alfred Noble
Pioneer of Livonia Township
Wayne County, Michigan
Alfred Noble, was one of Michigan's most promenient citizens. He was born in Livonia Township on August 7, 1844, the son of Charles Noble and Lovina (Dauw) Noble. His grandfather was Norton Noble, a veteran of the War of 1812, and an early settler of Livonia Township, having come here in December of 1832.
Charles Noble, was active in local politics and became Inspector of Common Schools and Overseer of Highways around 1836. He later became a tax assessor and also served four terms as Township Supervisor in the 1850's. One of Charles's aunts, Polly Noble was one of the first teachers in Livonia, having taught at the Schwarzburg School in 1833.
Alfred Noble spent his early years working on his father's farm. He helped his father and brothers in clearing, cultivating and draining the land which his family had purchased in Section 29. He attended the Newburgh School and after he learned to ride a horse, traveled to the Union School in Plymouth.
Two days after his 18th birthday, On August 9, 1862, Alfred enlisted in the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry, a regiment made up largely of Wayne County men, over fifty of them were from Livonia. Their first important engagement was at Fredericksburg, however, their most important was at Gettysburg, where they suffered 80% casualties, but stopped the Confederate forces. The Michigan 24th was transferrred to Camp Butler near Springfield, Illinois in February 1865, to guard draftees. The regiment acted as honor guard at the funeral of President Lincoln.
After being mustered out of service, he became a clerk in the War Department in Washington. He then later enrolled in the University of Michigan in 1867 and graduated with the class of 1870. In 1873 he was appointed United States Assistant Engineer, in charge of building a new lock, he named Weitzel Lock.
From 1882 to 1892 he spent a majority of his time designing and building numerous bridges. In 1892, he was appointed by President Cleveland to the Nicaragua Canal Board. Here he helped determine that this canal was not feasible to be built and was then appointed by President McKinley to the Isthmian Canal Commission. He was later made Consulting Engineer on the building of that canal.
One of his most outstanding accomplishments was the building of the approaches of the Pennsylvania RailRoad Terminal, in New York City. This project cost hundred of millions of dollars and resulted in the tunneling under the North and East Rivers and the Borough of Manhattan.
Alfred Noble received all the major honors that can be earned by engineers and was referred to in the Engineering Newsof April 23, 1914 as ".... the leading American civil engineer of hs time....."
On February 4, 1916, Representative Slayden of Texas, introduced a proposal to Congress to erect a memorial fountain in Washington, DC, in Nobles' honor. It was adopted by both houses of Congress however, it was never erected. They later elected (about 1926) to set up an award fund for outstanding papers or articles written in the field of engineering.
In 1967 Livonia built the Alfred Noble Public Library in honor of their local citizen who became internationally famous.
