Sarah Melissa Noyes was a sister of James Allen Noyes of my line. A post with census information on her and her marriages may be found here.
CENTENARIAN DIES HERE LAST WEEK
Mrs. Sarah Melissa Anderson Had Been Resident of Berryville for Thirty Years
Mrs. Sarah Melissa Noyes Anderson, who was 100 years old, died at her home here on South Springfield Street, Wednesday morning of last week.
Mrs. Anderson passed the century mark at her home here April 24. She was a native of Michigan and had lived here for the past thirty years. She was active until last year, but for the last few months had been unable to leave her home. Her husband was the late J. C. Anderson.
Funeral services were held last Thursday morning from the local Methodist church with Rev. W. A. Downum officiating. She was buried in the local I. O. O. F. cemetery beside the grave of her husband.
Sarah Melissa Noyes was born on a farm near Kalamazoo, Mich., April 24, 1836. She was the youngest of nine children. Her mother died when she was a baby. When she was 13 years of age she was sent to a girls seminary to be educated. As there were no free schools for girls then in Michigan it was unusual for a girl to know how to read and write. Before the Civil War she married a Mr. Slater and moved to Butler, Mo. Her husband conducted a store there and also built for their home the first brick house in Butler. During the Civil War Mr. Slater went to St. Louis to buy goods for his store and while there contracted cholera and died. After the war, she married again, this time to Capt. Anderson who moved to Berryville about thirty years ago.
Her father was a descendant of the Noyes family which came to this country from England 303 years ago. He had been in the War of 1812 and had played the fife and flute. Later he was in the Black Hawk Indian War. She heard her father tell how her grandfather had been at the battle of Bunker Hill and her maternal grandfather had had his leg broken in that battle. Sarah Melissa’s father carried on the family tradition by being a minister and hence she received a thorough religious education. Her father gave to the community of Ann Arbor, Mich., where he had former lived, the first saw mill it ever had. He believed in a pastoral life and tried to carry this idea out in his living.
A relative of Mrs. Anderson believes the longevity of Mrs. Anderson was due to the fact that she had lived a quiet life, had always been of a tranquil disposition and had never had any financial matters to worry her. She never had to work hard and that combined with a long lived ancestry gave her the chance to reach one hundred years.
AGED WOMAN LIVED SPAN OF A CENTURY
Was Aunt of Liberal Folks – Life Span Covered One-Third of Years Since Puritan Ancestors Landed in New England
It seems incredible that there should have lived a person whose death just occurred in the past few weeks, whose life span had covered one third of the years since the days of the early Puritan settlers of New England. Such a person was Mrs. Sarah Melissa Anderson, who did May 7th at Berryville, Ark. Mrs. Anderson was 100 years old, April 24. She was an aunt of Ray Noyes and Mrs. O. E. Harmon, both of southeast of town, and a great aunt of Mrs. J. O. Pinkerton of Liberal.
Mrs. Pinkerton has made some study of the ancestry of her family and has sketched a brief biography of her late aged aunt. It reads like–and is–a picture of the history of our American nation; the only portion the background of our present social order, and reads with gripping interest.
Mrs. Pinkerton says to get a background for the life story of her aunt, who was Miss Sarah Melissa Noyes, one must go to the earliest history of the family. Mrs. Anderson, she says is a typical product of all the Noyes family she has ever known, her Puritan ancestry showing very keenly in her life.
Continuing, Mrs. Pinkerton writes:
“The Noyes family came to this country from England in 1633. The family had been settled at Choulderton, Wilshire county, England, for 400 years, and had been rectors in the Church of England during that time. The rectorship always descended to the oldest son. During the Reformation the family had become divided as…inscription.
Good Nicholas in his youthful days
He lived much to God’s praise.
When age came on, he and his wife,
They lived a useful and pious life.
There, ye children whose names are Noyes
Make Jesus Christ your only choice.”
Mrs. Anderson’s maiden name was Melissa Noyes. She was born April 24, 1836, near Kalamazoo, Mich., the youngest of nine children. Her father was a soldier in the war of 1812, and had played the fife and flue. Later he fought in the Blackhawk war. Her grandfathers on both sides were heroes of the…
The last part of the article was not preserved. Thank you to Nancy Benton for the photocopy.
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