James Noyes in the Black Hawk War, 1832

From the 1869-1870 “Kalamazoo County Directory with a History of the County from its Earliest Census” compiled and published by James M. Thomas. The James Noyes mentioned was the husband of Sally Marble and father of James Allen Noyes.

“On one of the last days of April, about ten at night, an express arrived from White Pigeon with dispatches to the effect that the Indians under Black Hawk had fought and defeated the United States troops in Illinois; that the fort at Chicago was probably taken, and that all the white settlements in the West were in great danger, and calling on the militia of Kalamazoo county to muster forthwith and march to Niles, the point of rendezvous for the Michigan troops. Dr. David E. Brown had previously been commissioned Colonel; Isaac Barnes, of Gull Prairie, Lieut.Colonel, and II. B. Huston,Major, of a regiment of militia. Col. Brown, and as many of the settlers as could be got together, were hastily convened in the new tavern then just erected, under an excitement that at this time seems rather amusing. E. L. Brown volunteered to take the dispatches to Kalamazoo and Gull Prairie, where he arrived about daylight in the morning. The regiment of three or four companies of about 6O men each, Capt. James Noyes and Capt. Ephraim Harrison commanding two companies of the prairie men, speedily mustered at Schoolcraft, and in a few days marched for the seat of war, camping at night of the second day near the village of Niles. In the morning orders arrived for the return and disbanding of the regiment, as there were no provisions for them, and they would probably not be wanted. On this expedition the venerable John Howard, of Dry Prairie, who was present at the taking of Cornwallis, drove one of the baggage-wagons.

“So ended the part of Kalamazoo County in the Black Hawk war. But it had the effect to *top all emigration for that spring; and in the following summer came that new and terrible scourge, the Asiatic Cholera. It had no victims in Kalamazoo County, but in all the large towns in the Territory numbers died of it, as did some of the best citizens of Marshall and Nottaway Prairie, and the whole country was full of gloom.”