Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 5th ed., 1887,
Jessamine Co.

STEPHEN NOLAND, lawyer, banker, and minister of the gospel, residing at
Nicholasville, Jessamine County, was born in Wayne County, Ind., May 13,
1818.  He was early inured to a life of poverty and toil, his father being
a school-teacher by vocation, and in receipt of a very slender income.
His earliest book education was derived at a common school of his native
county, taught by his father, the branches extending only to arithmetic,
and at the age of seven he had mastered the spelling book and could read
well.  At that period of life he was deprived by death of his mother, and
soon after, accompanied by his uncle, Smallwood, moved to Kentucky, and
took up his residence at the home of his grandparents in Estill County in
that State.  His father subsequently removed to Kentucky and engaged in
teaching until near the close of his life.  His son, Stephen, attended his
school in Kentucky, and added to his store of learning, at the same time
making himself useful around the house and garden of his father and
stepmother.  When twelve or thirteen years of age Stephen began to realize
the necessity of being self-supporting, and after engaging in several
smaller vocations, he finally secured employment at the large iron furnace
of Wheeler, Mason & Co., in Estill County, where he weighed ore, sold
goods and kept the accounts.  This was in 1832.  A severe attack of illness
soon followed, and he was obliged to return home for a time.  The year
following he entered the employ of a Baptist minister by the name of Duff,
who had a small store in Perry County, his duties there requiring him not
only to attend to the store but to act as tutor to Mr. Duff's children.
He remained there several months, when he returned home, and soon after
obtained permission of his father to leave the mountainous country in which
he was reared, and to seek his fortune in the richer and more populous
sections of the State.  Accordingly, one Sunday morning, with a small
bundle of clothes on his shoulder, and a cash capital of a quarter of a
dollar and an old-fashioned nine-pence in his pocket, he started out on
foot to walk to Richmond, the seat of Madison County, a distance of
seventeen miles, which he reached in September, 1833.  He at once began to
look for employment, and finally secured a position as clerk in the dry
goods store of Field & Moberly, where he remained until the dissolution of
the firm in the spring of 1834.  On March 1, of that year, he entered the
employ of Maj. Irvine, clerk of the Madison Circuit and County Courts, and
remained with him (with the exception of a brief interval of time during
which he clerked in a store in Lexington), until March, 1839.  During all
that period he had improved his opportunities for reading and study, and
had largely added to his knowledge and experience the study of legal
science and practice, which he included in the scope of his investigations,
and on the 6th of March, 1839, after due examination, he was licensed to
practice law by James Simpson and John L. Bridges, two of the circuit
judges of the State.  Soon after he entered upon the practice of his
profession at Richmond, but after a few months removed to Irving [sic],
Ky., where he practiced in the courts of Estill, Breathitt and Owsley
Counties, and held the office of county attorney in Estill County.  He
acquired an extensive and remunerative practice very soon in that section
of the State, and after a spirited contest in the face of great opposition
was elected on May 12, 1851, commonwealth's attorney, of the wealthy and
populous district which included the counties of Madison, Franklin,
Woodford, Clark, Fayette, Jessamine and Estill, the triumph being the more
noteworthy as he was but a young man of no means, or family influence,
coming from the poorest and smallest county of the district, and having as
his opponent a gentleman from Lexington who possessed as advantages in his
favor all the disadvantages under which he himself labored.  Besides all
this, Mr. Noland had several years before been licensed to preach as a
local minister of the Methodist Church, with which he early united, and had
preached nearly every Sunday, and part of the time had the care of churches
during the period that he was struggling upward in the profession of law.
Mr. Noland filled the office of commonwealth's attorney with signal ability
and success from 1851 to 1856, removing in 1853 to Richmond, Ky., and to
Nicholasville on August 1, 1854.  During all this time he was endeavoring
to win evil-doers through the medium of the pulpit while punishing them
effectually through the courts in his official capacity.  He continued the
practice of the law until 1862, when he was elected to the office of clerk
of the Jessamine Circuit Court and held that position several years.
August 1, 1864, he became interested with Messrs. Hord & George, of
Versailles, in the establishment of a private bank in Nicholasville, and
since that time has been at the head of the enterprise, which now, as
Noland, Wilmore & Co., is known as one of the representative and successful
financial institutions of central Kentucky, having acquired both means and
reputation through the able management of Mr. Noland, and successfully
outridden the momentary panics of its time.  Mr. Noland, or Brother Noland
as he is familiarly called, is still a leading resident of Nicholasville,
and illustrates in his life how much can be accomplished by earnestness of
effort, purity of purpose and deed, and fidelity to religious and moral
principles.  This sketch can but briefly outline the great obstacles which
he overcame from his youth upward, and which he has more fully described
in a book of 239 pages published by in in 1886 entitled, "Will Makes Way".
He has also published two other books, entitled, "Christians, or Disciples"
and "Sermons and Parables".  Besides preaching many sermons and doing
other literary work, he has been one of the owners and editors of The
Central Methodist since 1879, and has written nearly 1,000 articles for its
columns, a work in which he is still actively engaged.  He has given away
many thousands of dollars to religious and charitable objects, and is known
as an upright and useful citizen.  Mr. Noland was twice married: first on
September 24, 1839, to Miss Amanda F. Miller, who proved to him a devoted
Christian wife for thirty years and until her demise; and again on August
8, 1872, to Miss Virginia Barr Brown, of Boyle County, who is his present
wife.  His eldest son. S. H. Noland, is a merchant in Dallas, Tex., and his
youngest is Rev. F. W. Noland, a minister of the gospel.

Noland Duff Simpson Bridges Miller Brown
=
Perry-KY Irvine-Estill-KY Boyle-KY Richmond-Madison-KY Lexington-Fayette-KY
Dallas-Dallas-TX Wayne-IN

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jessamine/noland.s.txt