Noah Downs was born on March 1, 1762 in New Hampshire, and was the father of Margaret Downs Wright (wife of Gad Wright Jr.)

Noah Downs served in the Revolutionary War as a private in Captain William Rowell’s Company of Colonel George Reid’s 6th Company, 2nd New Hampshire Regiment, from May 1778 to May 1783. During this time, he served with General Sullivan in his 1779 expedition to what was known as “Indian Country” (Western New York) a vast wilderness. The purpose of the campaign was to drive out the Native Americans from the area because they and their British allies had been massacring and wiping out American settlements. The Native Americans were driven fro the land by the soldiers burning and destroying their food supplies and villages. There were only a few skirmishes, one of which Noah was present – the battle of Newton (near Elmira) in which 3 Americans were killed and 40 wounded. Sadly, starvation and smallpox, plus severe snows at Fort Niagara that winter, killed many of the Native Americans in Western New York.

Noah also served to guard Fort Herkimer when it was attacked by the Native Americans in 1782. Military pension records show he received $8 monthly pension for his service, between 1818 and his death in 1841.

After the war, Noah never claimed the bounty land he was entitled to, perhaps being too ill to create a new farm in the western lands of Michigan and Ohio. Noah was living in Bennington, Vermont until 1834, moved he moved to New York, Herkimer County. He later moved to Parma by 1840, following his daughter Margaret.