Hart Family - Ourfolk
Elizabeth (Goodrich)
Elizabeth was married to John Goodrich .
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Son - James Putnam Goodrich (1864-1940) - Gov. James was born on 18 FEB 1864 in Winchester, Randolph Co., Indiana and died on 15 AUG 1940 (age: 76)
James Goodrich s father, John B. Goodrich, was a deeply religious Congregationalist who was the superintendent of his local church s Sunday school. He was also the father of five surviving sons. In 1938, James Goodrich wrote about his father in his unpublished autobiography: Often men would come to me in the early years of my life and say to me, if you are half as good a man as your father was, you will be all right. 14 Thus, the seeds of political involvement and religious heritage were planted early in the Goodrich family history. The significance of this religious heritage may be illustrated by a vignette. When James Goodrich was campaigning for governor in 1916, a local man by the name of John Callahan came to him and said that he owed his life to Goodrich s father. Callahan told James Goodrich,
I met your father in the woods on the Goodrich farm, Northeast of Winchester, one Sunday afternoon, and he spoke to me about my excessive drinking. I told your Father I had tried very hard to quit but it seemed I was unable to do so. I have time and again resolved never to touch it again only to yield when liquor was available. Your father said to me, The trouble with you, John, is you are depending upon your own strength. If you will ask the help of God you will be able to overcome your habit, and he then asked me to get down on my knees with him in the woods and ask God s help. Your father put his arm around me and asked God to help and strengthen me, and from that day to this I have never touched liquor in any form.15 John Callahan
Toward the end of 1871, John B. Goodrich became ill with tuberculosis. He finally left his family in October 1872 to travel south in the hope of regaining his health, but he died in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 2. John B. Goodrich, deceased at forty-one, left his widow, Elizabeth, thirty-two, with five sons: Percy Edgar, eleven; James Putnam, eight; John Baldwin, six; Edward Shields, four; and William Wallace, sixteen months.16
The Goodrich family owned approximately five hundred acres of Randolph County farm ground at the time of John Goodrich s death. Nonetheless, the Goodriches were far from being a wealthy family. It was through the strength of Elizabeth Edger Goodrich, who never remarried but raised five rambunctious and strong-willed sons by herself, that the family slowly gained wealth and influence in Indiana. The Goodrich brothers were known throughout their lives as tough business competitors. They worked in concert for their mutual benefit. This sense of familial protection, of looking out for each other, had been instilled in the brothers from their childhood. James Goodrich recounts the stability his mother brought to these five fatherless boys:
My mother was a woman of wonderful character, great common sense, and with faith as firm as my father s. . . . Her life was devoted entirely to her children. Her sons were not all alike. She was continually looking out for those of us who needed assistance. Above all else she urged us to stand together. I remember one circumstance when she had the five boys around her and handed to us a bundle of five sticks, bound tightly together, and asked us to break the bundle. This we had not strength enough to do. She untied the bundle and handed us the separate sticks and we had no difficulty in breaking them one by one. She used this as an illustration emphasizing the importance of standing by each other and said to us, As long as you boys do so no one can harm you; should you become divided failure will be your lot. 17
From: Dane Starbuck, The Goodriches: An American Family 2001
The Goodrich family owned approximately five hundred acres of Randolph County farm ground at the time of John Goodrich s death. Nonetheless, the Goodriches were far from being a wealthy family. It was through the strength of Elizabeth Edger Goodrich, who never remarried but raised five rambunctious and strong-willed sons by herself, that the family slowly gained wealth and influence in Indiana. The Goodrich brothers were known throughout their lives as tough business competitors. They worked in concert for their mutual benefit. This sense of familial protection, of looking out for each other, had been instilled in the brothers from their childhood. James Goodrich recounts the stability his mother brought to these five fatherless boys:
My mother was a woman of wonderful character, great common sense, and with faith as firm as my father s. . . . Her life was devoted entirely to her children. Her sons were not all alike. She was continually looking out for those of us who needed assistance. Above all else she urged us to stand together. I remember one circumstance when she had the five boys around her and handed to us a bundle of five sticks, bound tightly together, and asked us to break the bundle. This we had not strength enough to do. She untied the bundle and handed us the separate sticks and we had no difficulty in breaking them one by one. She used this as an illustration emphasizing the importance of standing by each other and said to us, As long as you boys do so no one can harm you; should you become divided failure will be your lot. 17
From: Dane Starbuck, The Goodriches: An American Family 2001
Last change (on this page): 15 OCT 2018