NOONAN, GEORGE HENRY (1828-1907). George Henry Noonan, lawyer, justice, and Republican legislator, son of George and Margaret (Casey) Noonan, was born in Newark, New Jersey, on August 20, 1828. He was admitted to the bar and practiced in Newark until 1852, when he moved to Castroville, Texas. He was elected judge of the Eighteenth Judicial District in 1862 and served in that capacity until he resigned to become a member of Congress. He moved to San Antonio in 1868. Noonan's long service in public office was a remarkable circumstance in Texas since he was a Union sympathizer and a Republican. His service as district judge covered the period of Confederate government, military rule, Reconstruction, and restored state control. He was elected on the Republican ticket to the Fifty-fourth Congress, 1895-97. When he lost the race for reelection in 1896, he resumed his law practice in San Antonio. Noonan married Cornelia Bowen; they had two sons. He died in San Antonio on August 11, 1907, and was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Biographical Directory of the American Congress. Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans (5 vols., ed. E. C. Barker and E. W. Winkler [Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1914; rpt. 1916]).
