Representative Edward Thomas Noonan

Edward Thomas Noonan (October 23, 1861 – December 19, 1923) was an attorney and Democratic politician from Chicago, Illinois, who served in the Illinois Senate and represented Illinois in the United States House of Representatives from 1899 to 1901. Over the course of his career he combined an active legal practice with significant roles in state and national politics.

Noonan was born in Macomb, Illinois, on October 23, 1861. During his childhood he was raised in both Quincy and Chicago, Illinois, and he received his early education in the schools of those two cities. Demonstrating an early interest in the law, he pursued legal studies under the tutelage of Van H. Higgins, a prominent Chicago attorney and judge. While studying with Higgins, Noonan also attended the law school of the University of Michigan. He was admitted to the bar in 1882 and received his LL.B. degree from the University of Michigan in 1883, after which he commenced the practice of law in Chicago.

In addition to building his legal career, Noonan became active in Chicago and Illinois politics as a member of the Democratic Party. He was elected to the Illinois Senate and served from 1890 to 1894, participating in the legislative process at the state level during a period of rapid urban and industrial growth. From 1893 to 1897 he served on the military staff of Governor John Peter Altgeld with the rank of colonel, a position that reflected both political trust and administrative responsibility. During this same period, from 1893 to 1898, he acted as counsel for the West Chicago Park Commission, providing legal guidance to a key municipal body responsible for the development and administration of public parklands in the growing city. He also sought national office as a Democrat, running unsuccessfully for Congress in 1894 and 1896.

Noonan’s persistence in electoral politics was rewarded when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1898. He served one term in the Fifty-sixth Congress, from March 4, 1899, to March 3, 1901, representing an Illinois district during a significant period in American history marked by the aftermath of the Spanish–American War and the nation’s expanding international role. As a member of the House of Representatives, Edward Thomas Noonan participated in the democratic process and contributed to the legislative work of the chamber, representing the interests of his constituents and his party. A member of the Democratic Party throughout his public life, he served one full term and did not stand as a candidate for reelection in 1900.

After leaving Congress in 1901, Noonan resumed the practice of law in Chicago, returning to the profession in which he had been trained and in which he had long been active. He continued to be identified with the city’s legal and political community, drawing on his experience in the Illinois Senate, his service on the governor’s staff, and his term in the national legislature.

In his personal life, Noonan married Lillian, and the couple had two sons: Laurence, born in 1907, and Cato, born in 1916. The family’s life was centered in Chicago, where Noonan’s legal and political activities were based and where he spent the bulk of his adult years.

Edward Thomas Noonan died in Chicago on December 19, 1923. He was buried in St. Paul’s Catholic Cemetery in his birthplace of Macomb, Illinois, closing a life that linked local, state, and national public service with a longstanding legal career.