Noah W. Allen was born in Tinmouth, Vermont, on October 16, 1827. His wife, Elizabeth Playford, born February 19, 1827, emigrated from England to the United States in 1830, arriving with her parents in New York City on November 5. She married Noah on August 29, 1849.

In the 1850 census, he is living in a section of Marquette County, Wisconsin, then called "Indian Lands." He and Elizabeth have an infant son, Spenser. In 1860, he is living in Oxford (also Marquette County) with his wife, and three children, Spenser, Helena and Charles. He will live at this location the rest of his life. In 1870, he has a new child, 3-year old Mark. He also had a daughter, Mary, born in 1861, but she died on September 13, 1864, at the age of 3; and he adopted a daughter, Minnie, born in 1887. Wife Elizabeth died September 16, 1911.

Noah was a private in the Union Army during the Civil War, from August 21, 1862, to June 6, 1865. Later he was ordained as a Methodist minister. He died September 21, 1916, just 14 months after his letter was published in the Oxford Times. He is buried in Summerton Cemetery in Oxford, next to his wife, daughter Mary, and son Spencer.