Will County ILGenWeb Biographies..... 
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File contributed for use by:
Dori Leekly & Margie Glenn

Author: History of Will County, Illinois; Chicago: Wm LeBaron Jr & Co, 186 Dearborn Street, 1878.

Isaac NOBES, proprietor Oak Hill, quarries; P. O. Joliet; was born on the Isle Wight Feb. 28, 
1822; at the age of 13, he was apprenticed to sea and served four years; he then went as able 
seaman on board the clipper schooner Susan; engaged in the fruit trade up the Levant; he 
remained at sea nine years; three years of that time he was on board the Ganges, an 84 gun 
ship of the British navy, and was present at the destruction of the forts along the coast 
of Syria in 1841, the last fort destroyed being that of San Juan Diego; in the taking of 
this fort, it was estimated that the Egyptian forces lost in killed, 15,000 in two and a 
half hours. The Admiral of the British forces was Sir Charles Napier. Mr. NOBES came to 
Quebec in 1843, on board a timber vessel; he spent one summer on Lakes Erie and Ontario, 
sailing out from Gordon Island in the employ of Cook & Calvin, in the lumber trade; in 
June or July, 1845, he came to Buffalo, N. Y., and engaged in sailing on the lakes; during 
the summer of 1846, he sailed from Buffalo to Chicago; Jan. 7, 1847, he came to Joliet and 
engaged in hauling sand for the court house that winter; in the spring, returned to Chicago 
and sailed upon the lakes. Mr. NOBES states that upon this trip he paid $2.00 fare, walked 
a good part of the way, and carried a rail to help the coach out of bad places, and was on 
the road from 8 o'clock A. M. until 4 P. M. of the following day before reaching Chicago, a 
distance of 38 miles; the following winter, he returned to Joliet and soon went to Lockport, 
where he engaged in caulking the Gen. Fry, the first boat ever run on the I. & M. Canal, 
between Lockport and Chicago; he engaged in caulking and building boats one year; in the 
Spring of 1848, he purchased ten acres near his present location, and in March, 1851, opened 
his present quarries in connection with G. A. Cousens & Co. A difficulty having arisen among 
the partners, be abandoned the quarries and went again to the boat yards at Lockport. After 
twelve years litigation, he obtained entire possession of them in 1868, since which time he 
has successfully operated them. He was married Jan. 4, 1846, to Ann J. HAUGHEY, a native of 
Ireland; has seven children - Joseph, Charles J., Sarah, Ann I., William I. R., Elizabeth J. 
and Elizabeth J. (deceased); owns eighty-six acres including his quarries. In 1874, he erected 
his large stone residence at a cost of nearly $20,000, the finest in all this section of country.