William Toby Noyes was born August 22, 1836, in Durham, Cumberland County, Maine. His parents, John Henry and Sarah Webb (Toby) Noyes, were natives respectively of England and Wales. His father was a politician, and was elected as the first clerk of Pawnel, and was a profound student and a strong advocate of the temperance cause. He died at the residence of his son William, in California, in 1880, at the age of seventy-six.
Mr. Noyes came to California by water in 1863, and landed in San Francisco in May of that year. He had previously (in 1861) made a trip to Cuba, where be worked at the carpenter’s trade for one year. He also spent some time building, etc., in Virginia City, and in 1865 went back to San Francisco and worked for the Government for one year. Then he went to East Oakland, where he engaged in building and contracting for fourteen years. From there he went to Tucson, Arizona, and contracted for about one year. From the latter place he moved to San Bernardino County, and bought 120 acres of land in Highlands, in partnership with William H. Randall, and has given his attention to fruit and vine culture ever since.
He was married in March 1861, to Miss Harriet Randall, of Pawnel, Maine, and they have one child, a daughter Miss Jennie. Mr. Noyes’ influence as a politician is strongly in favor of the Prohibition party. He has been in California twenty-six years, and has never tasted a glass of whisky or beer. In 1888 he received the nomination of his party for the office of sheriff of San Bernardino County. He is at present Justice of the Peace for highlands district. He is an Odd Fellow, and affiliates with the Orion Lodge, No. 189, East Oakland, of which lodge he was a charter member.