Edmond Favor Noel

Governor from Holmes County

Many thanks to Marjorie Norris

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Edmond Favor Noel (1856-1927) was born on his family’s plantation near Lexington, Holmes County, Mississippi on March 4, 1856. He was the son of Leland Noel and Margaret A. (Sanders) Noel. He was a Democrat and a lawyer. He married Alice Tye Neilson.  He served as a district attorney and as a member of the Mississippi state house of representatives from 1881 to 1882 and as a member of the Mississippi state senate from 1895 to1903 and 1920 to 1927. As a state senator, he was responsible for authoring the state’s primary election law.   Noel served in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War.  He was elected Governor of Mississippi, and served from 1908 to 1912.  He was the first chairman of the first conference of governors that was held in 1908. As governor, he was responsible for many educational reforms, such as the establishing of rural agricultural high schools that later served as the basis for the states junior college system.  Other reforms during his term as governor included a child labor law, the establishing of a state charity hospital, and a statewide prohibition law.   Noel was a Baptist and a member of the Freemasons.  He died July 30, 1927 during his second term in the senate and was buried at Odd Fellows Cemetery in Lexington, Holmes County, Mississippi