John Noyes

John Noyes was born on April 2, 1764, in Atkinson, in the Province of New Hampshire. His parents were Humphrey Noyes and Elizabeth Little. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1795, where he studied theology. Following his graduation, Noyes worked as a tutor at Chesterfield Academy from 1795 to 1797, and subsequently at Dartmouth College from 1797 to 1799. During his time at Dartmouth, he taught Daniel Webster, who later became the 14th and 19th United States Secretary of State.

In 1800, Noyes relocated to Brattleboro, Vermont, where he engaged in business activities. He was a member of the firm "Noyes, Mann and Hayes," one of the earliest chain stores in America. The firm included Jonas Mann and Rutherford Hayes Jr. In 1804, Noyes served as a presidential elector representing Vermont.

He was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1808 to 1810. Noyes was elected as a Federalist to the Fourteenth Congress, serving as a U.S. Representative from Vermont from March 4, 1815, to March 3, 1817. After his Congressional term, Noyes moved to Dummerston, Vermont, where he resided until 1822 before moving his family to Putney, Vermont.

In his personal life, Noyes married Polly Hayes Noyes in September 1804 in West Brattleboro, Vermont. The couple had four children: John Humphrey Noyes, Charlotte Augusta Noyes Miller, Harriet Hayes Skinner, and George Washington Noyes. His son, John Humphrey Noyes, became an American utopian socialist and founded the Oneida Community in 1848. Through marriage, Noyes was related to Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th President of the United States, as an uncle by marriage on Hayes’s father's side.

Noyes retired in 1819. He died on October 26, 1841, at his farm near Putney, Vermont. He was buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Putney.