Theodore Williams Noyes

Background

Theodore Williams Noyes was born on January 26, 1858 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States. He was the first son of Crosby Stuart Noyes and Elizabeth Selina (Williams) Noyes. His father was the publisher of the Washington Evening Star.

Education

In 1882 Theodore Williams Noyes received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Columbian College (later called George Washington University) and a Master of Laws in 1883.

Career

From 1877 to 1981 Theodore Williams Noyes was a reporter for Washington Evening Star (later The Washingtom Star). He worked briefly in law offices in the Dakota Territory following his legal education. While there, he also wrote a weekly column for the Sioux Falls Press, though he was suffering from ill health. Despite this, Noyes was ultimately elected to be county judge, but in 1886 he chose to return to Washington where he could help his aging father to run the Washington Evening Star. He returned as an associate editor.

At the Star, Noyes insisted on the integrity of the news-paper’s editorial voice, just as his father had. When a powerful railroad company threatened to stop advertising in the paper unless Noyes retracted his criticism of their company, Noyes refused to back down, citing journalistic freedom as his reason. This was partly due to the Star’s own financial stability.

In 1908, Noyes’s father died, and Noyes took over the Star’s editorial leadership. From that position, he con-tinued his work as a politically outspoken editorialist. Noyes fought for "the establishment of a national arboretum, a district war memorial, a ban on billboards on major approaches to the city, the elimination of diploma mills from the capital, the establishment of the Community Chest, and the building of a monument to President Lincoln." He also saved one of his father’s campaigns, by proving that five million dollars held by the Federal Treasury was in actuality owed to the city. When the money was returned to District of Columbia on the basis of Noyes’s efforts, half the money went to schools and another significant portion went to the development of city parks.

In addition to his political championship of his home town, Noyes was also widely considered a fine writer and newspaperman. His opinions, which had been published in such books as Conditions in the Philippines (1900) and Oriental America and Its Problems (1903), continued to be promoted, both through books such as Fiscal Relations between the United States and the District of Columbia (1916), and through Noyes’s powerful editorials and speeches. He was also the author of War of the Metals; Washington, Mexico, Hawaii, and Japan (1899), Conditions in the Philippines (1900), The World’s Great Waterfalls (1926).

Moreover, Noyes was instrumental in setting up employee care at the Star that was well ahead of its time. With his brother Frank, who in 1910 became president of the Star Company, and the other owners of the Star, Noyes found mortgages for his colleagues, as well as dental care and other perquisites. The paper was not only a pulpit from which Noyes could speak about the fair treatment of Washington residents, but it was also a business at which those residents could be treated fairly. Five years after his death his last book, Our National Capital - And Its Unamericanized Americans (1951), was published.

Achievements

• Theodore Williams Noyes is best known for continuing the work of his father, Crosby Noyes, who was editor of the Washington Evening Star (later, The Washing Star) for forty years. Theodore was the editor-in-chief of this newspaper for thirty-eight years and played a central role in developing good reputation of it.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The National Capital 1893
  • Newspaper Libels, the National Capital, and Notes of Travel 1894
  • The Presidents and the National Capital 1917
  • Our National Capital and its un-Americanized Americans 1951

Connections

In 1886 Theodore Willims Noyes married Mary E. Prentice. They had three children: Ruth, Elizabeth, and Theodore Prentice. She died on November 16, 1928.

Father:

Crosby Stuart Noyes

Mother:

Elizabeth Selina Noyes

late spouse:

Mary E. Noyes

Sister:

Sarah Miranda Noyes

Brother:

Stuart Crosby Noyes

Brother:

Frank Brett Noyes

Frank Brett Noyes was president of the Washington Evening Star (later The Washington Star) and a founder of the Associated Press.

Brother:

Thomas Clarence Noyes

Sister:

Miranda Cushman Pomeroy

Daughter:

Ruth Sheldon

Daughter:

Elizabeth Crosby Hempstone

Son:

Theodore Prentice Noyes

References

• Contemporary Authors
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