Indiana · St. Joseph River Valley
Noble County
The Elkhart River’s upper country, between Fort Wayne and Michigan.
Project Scroll is an independent local-history website. This is not an official page of Noble County or of any township, city or village in it. For official business, contact the county or local offices directly.
Welcome
Noble County, Indiana
Noble County lies in northeast Indiana on the upper Elkhart River. It was organized in 1836 and named for the Noble family of early Indiana: the 1920 county history says for Governor Noah Noble, the 1999 state marker for his brother, Senator James Noble. After stops at Sparta, Augusta and Port Mitchell, the county seat settled in 1846 at Albion, at the center of the county.
About 47,000 people live here today (47,457 at the 2020 census), in Kendallville, Ligonier, Albion, Rome City and the farm townships around them. Pick a place to begin.
Cities and towns
KendallvilleCity · A tavern on the Fort Wayne road that became a windmill town.
LigonierCity · An Elkhart River town and its Jewish merchants.
AlbionTown · ‘The Center,’ chosen as county seat after ten years of moving.
CromwellTown · Harrison Wood’s crossroads village, named for “a good Republican.”
Rome CityTown · A canal reservoir that became Sylvan Lake, a Chautauqua and Gene Stratton-Porter’s woods.
Crossroads and hamlets
BrimfieldCommunity · William Bliss’s station village, once known as Rome Station.
KimmellCommunity · A railroad village on the site of Noble County’s first county seat.
WawakaCommunity · Isaac Tibbot’s village, which “owes its life and existence” to the railroad.
Wolf LakeCommunity · The oldest town in Noble County, on the Fort Wayne–Goshen road.
Townships
Albion TownshipTownship · Four square miles cut out around the county seat.
Elkhart TownshipTownship · Bourie’s trading store, two paper villages, and Wawaka on the railroad.
Jefferson TownshipTownship · Rolling farmland east of Albion, settled from Richland County, Ohio.
Noble TownshipTownship · Where Noble County’s first settler built his cabin in 1827.
Orange TownshipTownship · The canal reservoir that became Sylvan Lake, and Rome City on its shore.
Perry TownshipTownship · Perry’s Prairie, the county’s first large settlement, and Ligonier.
Sparta TownshipTownship · The first county seat, an Indian village, and Cromwell.
Wayne TownshipTownship · Kendallville’s township, on the old Fort Wayne road.
York TownshipTownship · Two vanished county seats on the Elkhart River.