The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Noble, John Willock

NOBLE, John Willock, American lawyer: b. Lancaster, Ohio, 26 Oct. 1831; d. 1912. He was graduated from Yale University in 1851 and engaged in law practice. He was city attorney of Keokuk, Iowa, at the outbreak of the Civil War, when he enlisted and served through the war, rising to the rank of brevet brigadier-general. After the war he settled in Saint Louis; in 1867-70 he was United States attorney for Missouri at Saint Louis, and in 1889-93 Secretary of the Interior in President Harrison's Cabinet. He resumed his law practice in Saint Louis. His term as Secretary was rendered difficult by the questions attendant on organizing the Territory of Oklahoma and opening Indian lands to settlement by the whites.