Noah - Randall Family

Submitted by Ken Gower

Robert Dugan Noe was born 15 April 1866 and married Sarah Sandlin 27 August 1885 in Lamar County Alabama. Thomas Anderson Noe was born 25 June 1886. 

Seven members of the family left Alabama by covered wagon late in 1895 and changed their name to Noah. No reason was discovered for this change, or why Sarah and a daughter Ollie were left with Anderson Sandlin. 

The family that arrived in Carroll County on Christmas eve 1895 were: Robert D. Noah, his brother Luther, his mother Mary Alice Tate Noah, sons Thomas Anderson and Henry Melton, and, Martha and George Sandlin, sister-in-law and nephew. 

In January 1896, R. D. Noah purchased 45 acres of land on Blackhawk Road from James L. Heggie. R. D. Noah married Mattie Loving Fisher 13 February 1898 and they moved to the Old Salem Community where he lived the remainder of his life. Five children were born of this union:

Frankie Alberta (1902-1990) married Joseph Edward Kimes and their children were Mamie, Edwin, Pauline, Eunice, Melvin, Alvin, Grace, and Rena; Minnie married John B. Lee and their children were Robert E., John B., Rubin Odell, and Mary Elizabeth; and Mae married John Boone and their children were Sarah Mae, James, Margaret, and Bernice and Janice; Mattie Lorena married Charles Melton and adopted Helen; one infant that died shortly after birth. 

R. D. Noah successfully farmed and increased his holdings to over 440 acres including a retail store, grist mill, saw mill , and threshing equipment. An unusual event in 1918 caused R.D. to deed over to Mattie approximately 360 acres of land, his equipment and 3 horses, 3 mules, and 7 cows (even naming the individual animals, i.e. one sorrel mare named Maud). 

Annually, large family groups traveled by wagon to R. D.'s birthday for food and fellowship. He died of a stroke at the dinner table. Tradition tells that he complimented "Miss Matt" on a fine meal and died.

In the Old Salem Community, Tom met and married Willie Mae Randall on 13 December 1911. Willie's maternal family had lived in Carroll County since the 1830's. Tom was 21 and Willie was 18 when they married. They had eight children. William Cade, their first child, died at 3 years of age. Robert Randall was second, and Mary Ellen, who died when a senior in Vaiden High School, was third. Kenneth Anderson married Louise Eades and he died at age 41 from complications of diabetic illness. Ruby, the fifth child, married Marion "Sonny" Jones and has lived in the Midway Community most of her life. Tom Haman, the sixth child only lived eighteen months. They had two more children, Obie Louise "Bob or Bobbie" trained as a nurse in Winona and married Rowland Smith; and Ruth, who because she was the baby, became known as "Baby Ruth." Ruth attended Blackmonton School for 8 years, then Viaden High School, graduating in 1949. After graduation, she attended Fondren Beauty School in Jackson and married Roy Winn Eddins Jr.

Most of their life, Tom and Willie farmed in the Blackmonton Community, moving to Vaiden in 1948. He drove a school bus and clerked in a store in Vaiden. He was elected and served two terms on the Board of Aldermen for Vaiden. Willie was a hard working homemaker, helping with farm and milking cows. She worked in the Blackmonton School lunchroom and at the chenille bedspread factory in Winona. Both are now buried in the Old Salem Cemetery.