It’s fascinating to get a glimpse into daily life in Oklahoma around the turn of the twentieth century. This is easy to do when learning more about the personal stories of some of The University of Tulsa’s first donors, such as Eva Noble. Eva was an early settler in the state of Oklahoma and a member of what would become a philanthropically focused Oklahoma oil family.
Eva Skinner Noble was born in Springwater, New York, in 1860 to parents William and Mary Skinner. She married Edward T. Noble in the early 1880s before moving first to Texas and then to what would later become the city of Ardmore, Oklahoma, in then-Indian Territory. Eva’s sister, Hattie, married Edward’s brother, Sam. Together, the four adventurous young people made their home in Ardmore, with the two brothers partnering to open a wholesale grocery shortly after they arrived in 1881. Unfortunately, this fledgling frontier town experienced a major fire in 1893, and the Noble brothers lost their grocery store. The enterprising pair next opened a hardware store there in 1895. The small town functioned with something of a barter system, given the challenges of farming this often-arid land, and the Noble brothers’ customers frequently paid by exchanging land for goods. In this way, Ed and Sam amassed significant land holdings in the area.
Eva and Edward had one son, Everett E. Noble, born in Ardmore in 1886. According to family stories, he was an accomplished violinist. Everett grew up in Ardmore and attended The University of Oklahoma for several years. When he returned to Ardmore after college, he worked in the real estate field, no doubt familiar with the business in part due to the large amount of oil-rich land his family owned in the region. Sadly, Everett passed away at the young age of 33 in 1919. He was predeceased by his father, who died in 1908 at the age of 52 after a lengthy illness. Eva passed away in 1935 at the age of 75.
Eva had no doubt heard of The University of Tulsa as it grew from its roots as the Presbyterian School for Indian Girls, founded in 1882, to Henry Kendall College, established in 1894, to The University of Tulsa, chartered in 1920. In 1920, Eva established a fund for need-based scholarships at TU in memory of her son, called the Everett E. Noble Scholarship Fund.
In 1937, Eva also left a noteworthy estate gift to TU after her own passing, called the Eva Noble Memorial Fund. This forward-looking gift provides income for scholarships and unrestricted income for the current operations of the university. Mrs. Noble’s ample early support of the university has had a major impact on subsequent generations of students, and it is a fitting tribute to the vision of her influential and giving family.
