NOYES Josiah Marston^[1]

1904 - 1980  (75 years)

• Name	NOYES Josiah Marston
  Nickname	Si
  Birth	12 Dec 1904	Limestone, Aroostook, Maine   [2, 3, 4]
  	(born at home. Gravestone says 1904.)
  Gender	Male
  Census	29 Apr 1910	Limestone, Aroostook, Maine   [5]
  	(Age 6.)
  Census	28 Jan 1920	Limestone, Aroostook, Maine   [6]
  	(Age 15.)
  Occupation	Limestone, Aroostook, Maine   [7]
  	a farmer
  Social Security Number	004-32-0506  [8]
  _UID	1C5B0D38EB9ED5118A06444553540000EB0F
  Burial	1980	Limestone, Aroostook, Maine   [9]
  	(Episcopal Cemetery.)
  		Josiah Marston Noyes
  Death	21 Jan 1980	Caribou, Aroostook, Maine   [2]
  	Carey Memorial Hospital
  Notes	Josiah, according to a family story, sold cream and eggs and used the money to get married with. The following week they camped at the Presque Isle Fair where Josiah showed his sheep. Merle taught school in Limestone and boarded at the Alfred and Ethel Noyes' home. She taught his younger brothers, Philip and Gerald. They lived with Josiah's parents until after Richard was born and then bought from the "Long Girls" (half sisters of Josiah's mother) Josiah's grandfather Long's farm located on the Long road about one mile out from Limestone center. They built a house on a former house foundation and a shed barn. Josiah farmed at this location until he retired about 1967. He was a member of the local Masonic Lodge and the Rotary Club. He received Rotatarian of the Year Award in the 1970's. He was elected Town Councilman for several terms and served as chairman of the school building committee during the construction of Limestone's new High School, the only school in Aroostook County to have an Olympic sized swimming pool. He was a director of the Limestone Water Company for several years and elected selectman for the Town of Limestone He was also a long term member of Rotory Internation and a Mason. Si, as he was known by most people in the town, was widely sought after to help in barn risings and other building projects because of his carpentry expertise. Si was active in getting grants and building the senior housing in Limestone. Merle and Josiah were members of the Limestone Methodist church. During the summer of 1947 they built a camp on Cross Lake in Maine (forth camp north of Sandy Point). The camp is now (1996) owned by their daughters Barbara and Betty. Josiah died in 1980. Merle died in 1969. Barbara and Philip Leighton are the present owners of the farm home and out buildings. The farm land was sold during 1991. The following is a description by Betty Noyes Hopkinson of her parents: He loved children and was delighted with his children and grand-children and his great grandson, Josiah Leighton. All his life he loved candy and chocolate, chocolate donuts especially. He often had Canada mints and Boston baked beans (candy) in the car and in candy dishes. He liked popcorn, milk and molasses as a Sunday evening supper - something he had as a child. After Mama died, he got a reputation for making wonderful lemon pies by taking them to Rotary, Lodge or Church suppers. He was difficult to work alongside of as he forgot you were there and might swing a board round and it would hit you. Once, while shingling the end of the house with a hired man, he accidently swung and struck the hired man in the mouth knocking two teeth out. The hired man and he laughed about it and he told Dad the teeth had to come out anyway. He designed and built his combination barn and potato house during 1945-1946. It had a stall area for a few cows, a hay loft, a pig pin, a grain bin and a large potato storage area. He was extremely proud of it after going so many years with a shed for a barn. While building it, he was on the top of the rafters "tying" them when a slight breeze came up and the rafters that were up fell, he jumped, landing near a saw and saw horse which saved his life as the rafters could have crushed him. No one was hurt but my father came down and was "white as a sheet". He did not go back until the following day. He loved Christmas and always decorated the tree himself and was fussy about it - putting each piece of tinsel on separately - their tree was all blue for years with big blue balls and blue lights. Mama and Dad loved to entertain and they had large and small parties - large picnics at the camp and at home in the back yard (garage or cellar in event of rain) He loved to take pictures of everyone either from above by the potato house or above on the loft at camp. When his slides came back, he would look them over and if the slide was not good, he'd toss it into the fireplace. He loved taking pictures of the grand-children. He and Mama had each of Aunt Louise's three boys come to spend the summer with them and then each of their grand-children spent a summer with them or with Dad after Mama died. An experience each of them cherishes a great deal. Mama and Dad were both blue eyed and rather short in stature. Dad had dark almost black hair parted in the middle since high school days. His hair grayed vary gradually and was "salt and pepper" color for many years. Mama had a lot of grey in her dark blond hair from the time they were married and the story was that Grampy (Alfred) said at the time of their marriage that she had more grey than he did. Her hair turned a beautiful silver which softened her sharp facial features. She was considered a beautiful woman and was compared to a Gainsbourgh painting. She had many colloquial sayings in her every day speaking - such as "Crazy as a loon", "Awkward as a hog on ice". She belonged and was active in the Women's Civic Club for many years and helped form the library of Limestone through that organization. She loved to play "bridge" as Dad did and they played in a couples bridge club for many years. She was a worrier and use to worry when Dad was in town later than she thought he should be and would stand at a window overlooking Limestone center worrying that he might have fallen in the "Brown Building" (a potato storage building). She was watching out a window as a tractor he was driving rolled over. Another time he got caught in a hay rake when they first had the farm. He fell off the seat and into the rake. The horses pulling the rake hauled him along until the rake happened to trip. He was hurt with deep gashes filled with stones and gravel on his back . Dad had a little song he sang as he drove and when he sold his pickup, the new owner commented that it might not run without Si's little song. Dad was one of the first farmers to divide up his fields with "diversion ditches" and plant on the curves to help with erosion on his hill side farm. He studied and worked with the farm Bureau and extension service to use new and improved methods of farming. Mama loved to read and always had books or magazines at hand. She went back to teaching third graders after we were grown up and was considered an excellent teacher, caring and concerned for her children. She was still teaching at the time she died. Dad was a kind and thoughtful man. He played dominos with Si Thompson for many years as Si was blind and enjoyed playing. They were a hard working couple, milking cows, doing much of the farm work alone, tending chickens, caning meat and vegetables they grew themselves, selling cream and the butter Mama made, picking berries and making jams and still enjoying the land, the beauty of the area, the flowers and birds (especially important to Mama), the pond they built from the stream, the camp that they designed and built on Cross Lake and their many friends.
  Person ID	I248	Old North Yarmouth, Maine
  Last Modified	24 Nov 2008

  
  

  Father	NOYES Alfred Lovering,   b. 11 Sep 1877, Limestone, Aroostook, Maine d. 2 Sep 1946, Limestone, Aroostook, Maine (Age 68 years)
  Mother	LONG Ethel Maud,   b. 12 Apr 1882, Limestone, Aroostook, Maine d. 5 Jun 1973, Limestone, Aroostook, Maine (Age 91 years)
  Marriage	20 Jul 1898	Limestone, Aroostook, Maine   [3, 10, 11]
  Family ID	F105	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	BECKWITH Merle Evelyn,   b. 19 Aug 1903, Fort Fairfield, Aroostook, Maine d. 4 Dec 1969, Limestone, Aroostook, Maine (Age 66 years)
  Marriage	2 Aug 1924	Andover-Perth, Victoria, New Brunswick, Canada   [1]
  	Eloped and married.
  Children	+ 1. Living   2. NOYES Richard Irving,   b. 26 Aug 1926, Limestone, Aroostook, Maine d. 4 Aug 1932, Limestone, Aroostook, Maine (Age 5 years) + 3. Living
  Family ID	F93	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	29 Mar 2020

  
  

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  Birth - 12 Dec 1904 - Limestone, Aroostook, Maine Census - 29 Apr 1910 - Limestone, Aroostook, Maine Census - 28 Jan 1920 - Limestone, Aroostook, Maine Occupation - a farmer - - Limestone, Aroostook, Maine Marriage - 2 Aug 1924 - Andover-Perth, Victoria, New Brunswick, Canada Burial - 1980 - Limestone, Aroostook, Maine Death - 21 Jan 1980 - Caribou, Aroostook, Maine  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Sources

  [S40] Person-Hopkinson, Harold H., Jr., Word Perfect file 7/14/97. [S40] Person-Hopkinson, Harold H., Jr., FTW file received 7/14/97. [S374] Book-Maine A History, p.74. [S2635] CD-Limestone, Maine Town Records, Record of Births 33/95. [S952] Census-1910-ME-Aroostook-Limestone. [S124] Census-1920-ME-Aroostook-Limestone. [S25] Person-Noyes, Ruth (Morgan). [S89] Death-SSDI (Rootsweb). [S32] Death-gravestone, Episcopal Cemetery. [S82] Book-Maine History, p.74. [S18] Marriage-O/L-ME State Archives Marriage Records.