Biography of Dr. Noyce Coats, pages 977 / 978.  History of De Kalb County, 
Indiana.  Inter-State Publishing Company, Chicago, 1885. 

Dr. Noyce Coats was born in Warren, Pa., in 1822, and died in Wilmington, 
Ind., in 1877.  He had no educational advantages beyond a few terms in a 
district school in Green, Trumbull Co., Ohio, and the home instructions of 
his father and mother, Rufus and Mercy Coats, who, when their son was in his 
fifteenth year, in 1837, migrated to the woods of Indiana.  Here Noyce grew 
to manhood as a farm laborer, but never without a book in his pocket or 
fastened on the plow he followed in a convenient place for his eyes to 
glance upon it that he might memorize that which proved, afterward, of great 
service to him, for in the succeeding years we find him employed as a 
teacher in the log school-houses of De Kalb County.  He had a memory 
disciplined by methods not taught him by others, and an intellect that 
expanded for something more.  In 1860, with his family consisting of his 
wife (Rebecca Culp, born in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1827, and died in 
Wilmington, Ind., in 1881) and three children---Cassius J., George W. And 
Letitia A.-he removed from this county to Ann Arbor Mich., where he 
attended a full course of lectures.  He received the appointment of 
Surgeon in the army during the Rebellion and served till the close of the 
war, when he returned to Indiana where he resided, in the practice of his 
profession.  His manners were genial, his affections warm, his conversation 
instructive, his temperament cheerful, his gayety overflowing, and the 
poor and destitute of the community lost a liberal and humane benefactor 
by his death, which occurred after an illness of four days, of inflammation 
of the lungs.

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com