Hon. John E. Goodenow

HON. JOHN E. GOODENOW, founder of Maquoketa, where many of his descendants are still living, including a grandson bearing his name, arrived in Iowa Territory in the spring of 1838. The territory was organized that year, and the total white population was only 23,000. These people had come in during the five years since the signing of the Black Hawk treaty of 1833, and nearly all of them lived in towns and communities along the banks of the Mississippi River, which was then the only highway of commerce connecting Iowa with the outside world.

John E. Goodenow was of long lived, sturdy New England ancestry and the span of his own life was measured by ninety years. Most of his life was spent in pioneer circumstances, and he was one of the real builders of the great West, his character and integrity well matching his inexhaustible industry, his enterprise and his far reaching vision.

It is an important contribution to the history of Iowa to present the story of his life as a pioneer, with many of the interesting details and adventures to illustrate the obstacles and difficulties that were part of the lot of the early settlers.

He was born at Springfield, Windsor County, Vermont, March 23, 1812. For over sixty years his home was in Jackson County, Iowa, where he passed away, honored and respected, in 1902. His grandfather, Timothy Goodenow, was an early settler in Windsor County, Vermont, hewed a farm out of the wilderness and lived to be nearly ninety years of age. Timothy Goodenow, Jr., father of the Iowa pioneer, was reared and married in Windsor County, and in 1820, when his son John E. was eight years of age, he himself set an example of pioneering, moving overland by wagons and teams to Warren County, New York. He bought timber land in Queensbury Township, and, like his father before him, cleared up a farm. In 1847, when well advanced in years, he came to Iowa, bought land two and a half miles south of Maquoketa, and lived there until his death in 1850. Timothy Goodenow, Jr., married Betsey White, who was born at Rockingham, Windham County, Vermont, being a direct descendant of Peregrine White of the original Mayflower band of Pilgrims. She was a descendant in the sixty generation from this famous character. Her father, Phineas White, was a Vermont farmer and married Jerusha March.

John E. Goodenow tested his early strength in working with his father in clearing away the timber form the land in New York State. He was educated in winter terms of country schools. When he left home, at the age of twenty-two, he bought a canal boat and used it for freighting marble, lumber, wood and farm products on the Champlain Canal, Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. After two years he employed men to operate the boat, and himself became a clerk in the Parmenter general store at Moriah, New York. In the latter part of 1837 he formed a partnership with his employer, having saved a capital of a thousand dollars. Mr. Parmenter furnished a similar amount and Mr. Goodenow, as the representative of the firm, was to come west to that part of Wisconsin Territory now included in the State of Iowa, buy Government land and engage in other business on the partnership basis. A large part of the money was invested in merchandise, including ready-made clothing, axes, harness. In January, 1838, accompanied by Lyman Bates, Mr. Goodenow started west with a four-horse team, driving the entire distance to the forks of the Maquoketa River, having crossed the Mississippi River on the ice March 10th. Arriving at Cooper Creek at night, they remained in a vacant cabin until early morning, when they constructed a bridge of poles to cross the creek. A greater obstacle was encountered on reaching Deep Creek, which was swollen by the spring rains. Near it was the only family then residing between Sabula and the present site of Maquoketa. Securing shelter with this family, they worked at putting up a substantial bridge forty feet long, splitting logs, which were laid with the flat side up upon the stringers. They reached their ultimate destination after a journey of nine weeks and two days.

Mr. Goodenow at once purchased a claim, including the ground occupied by the present City of Maquoketa. His log house stood where are now Main and Platt streets. While breaking up the virgin sod he gradually sold off his merchandise, reinvesting the money in improvements and in other claims. After two years the partnership between him and Mr. Parmenter was dissolved by a division of land and stock. In these early hears Mr. Goodenow depended upon ox teams to plow the ground and provide transportation. During his first year in the territory, when provisions became scarce, he and Mr. Bates set out for Savanna on the east bank of the Mississippi, arriving on the west bank of the river at the present site of Sabula, on which then stood only one house, and Mr. Goodenow waded through the water, followed by the team of oxen, finally, after three-quarters of a mile, reaching the dry land on which stood the house. The next day Mr. Goodenow reached Savanna and after starting his team home with a load of corn set out on foot for Galena, where he purchased a supply of provisions, ordering them shipped to Bellevue. He started home on foot, crossing the Mississippi at Hunt's Ferry. He set out across the stream in a boat alone, and on reaching land in the darkness found he was on an island and had to camp there over night, lying underneath the boat on the wet ground. The next morning he finally found the north bank of the Maquoketa and pursued his journey homeward. In a cabin where he obtained breakfast he determined to call on a Mr. White, living in the vicinity of Bellevue, and from White he bought a sow and six small pigs, and slowly drove them, carrying the pigs part of the way, until he reached home.

During those early years wild game was abundant and every spring and fall the settlers would be visited by the Indians, who camped along the river, hunting until the game became scarce. These Indians were always friendly, but in many ways were troublesome, frequently frightening the wives of the pioneers by their habit of coming into a dwelling without the formality of knocking. The country around Maquoketa was a part of Dubuque County for several years and all taxes had to be paid and other court business transacted at Dubuque.

John E. Goodenow was a tremendously busy man in those early years. Besides looking after his growing landed interests, the cultivation and raising of crops, his enterprise contributed to the making of Maquoketa a trading center for the surrounding country and the country to the west. Like other pioneers, he entertained travelers. and later for many years conducted a hotel. His first tavern was a log house containing four rooms and a loft. In 1842 he secured the establishment of a postoffice at Maquoketa. Up to that time Bellevue had been the postoffice. When he came to Iowa his nearest mill was six miles north of Dubuque, on the Little Maquoketa. In the summer of 1838 Mr. Goodenow had mill machinery shipped from the East, which he set up, operating by horsepower at first, and the following year built a dam on Prairie Creek, a mile south of Maquoketa. Here he installed a two-foot burr stone. There was no bolting apparatus and the flour had to be used as it came from the stones. For two or three years this mill performed the grinding for Scott, Clinton and Jackson counties. People came a distance of fifty miles, waiting a long time for their grist. The mill was kept busy day and night. The hopper held one bushel, and Mr. Goodenow, having no assistance would fill the hopper and drop down on the sacks and go to sleep and the change in the noise of the mill when the hopper was empty would awaken him. One time he operated the mill seven days and nights without stopping. Since he was unmarried, the mill was his home. His principal fare besides the wild game was cornmeal cakes made with water and without salt. Sugar, tea, coffee and butter were luxuries rarely seen.

In the fall of 1839 Mr. Goodenow sold his mill and returned east, and on October 3, 1839, married Miss Eliza Wright, of Bolton, New York. On account of sickness they did not start for the West until it was too late to make the journey by river. Accordingly they started with a team of horses, a sleigh and a wagon, sometimes using one vehicle and sometimes the other. After nine weeks they arrived in Maquoketa. While going through Carroll County, Illinois, they lost their way, night overtaking them on the prairie, and they and a young man accompanying them all had to sleep in the sleigh. After his return Mr. Goodenow occupied himself with his farming interests and his hotel. About the close of the Civil war he disposed of his hotel, and was chiefly concerned in the management of his numerous farms and in the improvement of his real estate in Maquoketa, where he put up several buildings. He became a man of prominence and great influence both in business and civic affairs. At his hospitable home in Maquoketa were entertained many of the prominent citizens of Iowa and the Middle West. Mr. Goodenow was elected a member of the First Iowa Legislature and had the honor of giving the names of two new counties, Osceola and Rossuth. Three times he was elected mayor of Maquoketa. This city in modern times has many memorials of his pioneer work and public spirited generosity. He gave his tract of land, comprising a block and a half square, facing on Main Street, on which stand the modern high school and Junior College buildings.

Mr. and Mrs. Goodenow lived to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. She survived him seven years, passing away in 1909. She was born at Lake George, Warren County, New York, March 9, 1818. The Wright family came from Scotland. Her grandfather, Samuel Wright, was a Connecticut farmer. Her father, Miles Wright, was left an orphan at an early age, being reared by his stepfather. His only brother, Samuel, was for some years a missionary and teacher among the Indians of Western New York, and spent his last years at Milwaukee. Thomas Miles Wright when a young man moved to Shelburne, Franklin County, Massachusetts, where he married Miss Eliza Smead. She was born there and died in Warren County, New York, November 18, 1828. Her father, Samuel Smead, was a native of Massachusetts, and about 1825, went to Ohio and became a pioneer of Lake County, in the northeast part of that state, buying timbered land which with the aid of his sons was converted into a farm. Samuel Smead lived to be ninety-three years of age, and after the death of his first wife married Mrs. Catherine (Griffin) Staunton, a native of Warren County, New York. Thomas Miles Wright about 1800, with several other families, moved to Warren County, New York, where he acquired timbered land and built a log house. Near this homestead afterwards grew up the town of Huddle, and his wife and the other members of the colony, except himself, being members of the Presbyterian Church in New England, organized themselves into a society and put up a church. Thomas Miles Wright with the aid of his sons, cleared up three farms, established a woolen mill for the manufacture of cloth, a smelting furnace for iron, conducted a store and a lumber business, at one time operating two saw mills. His extensive operations brought him a position of wealth, but he lost a large part of his property by the signing of notes for friends. Eventually he again built up a considerable fortune. In 1840 he came out to Iowa to visit his children and was so pleased with the new country that he bought a farm. He lived with Mrs. Goodenow and his son Samuel until his death, which occurred in February, 1864, at the age of eighty-eight years, four months.

The children of John E. and Eliza (Wright) Goodenow were seven in number, Osceola, Mary L., Emma, Helen C., Alice, George E. and Winfield S.