Noah Noble (January 15, 1794 – February 8, 1844) was the
fifth Governor of the
U.S. state of
Indiana from 1831 to 1837. His two terms focused largely on
internal improvements, culminating in the passage of the
Mammoth Internal Improvement Act, which was viewed at the time as his crowning achievement. His taxing recommendations to pay for the improvements were not fully enacted, and the project ultimately led the state to negotiate a partial
bankruptcy only a four years later. The debacle led to a gradual collapse of the state Whig party, which never regained control of the government and led to a period of Democrat control that lasted until the middle of the
American Civil War. After his term as governor he was appointed to the Board of Internal Improvement where he unsuccessfully advocated a reorganization of the projects in an attempt to gain some benefit from them.