Riley Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties-William Goodnow
Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1890
WILLIAM E. GOODNOW was born in Whitingham, Vt., June 17, 1807. He was a remarkably studious and industrious boy. His educational advantages were those of the common school, but he improved them to the utmost. At a very early age he became a printer's apprentice to a Mr. Putnam, the publisher of a weekly newspaper in Brattleboro. Soon afterward Mr. Putnam removed to Saco, Me., where for several years he published the Palladium. In 1828, when twenty-one years of age, William E. moved to Norway, Me., and became editor and publisher of the Oxford Observer and other papers. He continued in this business for a number of years. To him, as in the case of Franklin
and many other celebrated men, the printing office was a school of preparation, and a stepping stone to the higher and more responsible duties and demands of practical knowledge.
William E. Goodnow was married Nov. 7, 1829, to Miss Harriet W. Paddleford, of Colerain, Mass., and formerly of Marlboro, Vt.; she was a woman of culture and refinement and of marked ability. She and her husband were said to be the finest looking couple who attended the Congregational Church at Norway, of which both were honored and devout members. They had two children, both of whom died young. The eldest, a daughter, lived to be nearly fourteen years old. She was very precocious and a remarkable singer, and when only seven years old was a member of the church choir. She was also a fine performer on the piano and a great favorite in the village with both young and old; she died a happy Christian.
Mr. Goodnow served as a Justice of the Peace for several years and was accredited with administering justice to the people. For years he was a successful merchant and bookseller. He was also a house-builder in his home town and in Chelsea, near Boston, getting his lumber in Maine. He was a consistant temperance and anti-slavery man, always ready to aid either cause in all practical ways. He was an advocate of the Maine law, and was one of the 7000 who voted for James G. Birney in the "hard cider and log cabin" campaign of 1840 when Gen. Harrison was elected President. Always after that he cast his vote so as to make it tell for freedom.
The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in 1854, which brought on the "Kansas crusade," thoroughly aroused him, and he was one of a company of 200 who, with Rev. Joseph Denison, Dr. A. Hunting, and kindred spirits under the auspices of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, left Boston March 13, 1855, for Manhattan, Kan., to join his brother, Isaac T. Goodnow, who by the advice of Dr. (afterward Governor) Charles Robinson had preceded them one week to select a location and lay out a town. He was a member of the Manhattan Town Association, likewise one of ils Directors, and was always an active, influential worker in all its business operations. He kept the first store on the town site. It was in Ward 4, near the present residence of Henry Hougham, where for some time he held the claim for the city. This was jumped by the ruffian Haskell, who was driven out by Judge Pipher in a grand charge in which the scared fugitive very suddenly in rapid flight and minus one shoe, disappeared over the Bluemont range.
The first store house in Manhattan was erected and occupied by Mr. Goodnow for general merchandise. It now stands on Vattice Street, being the second block west of the Blue Valley Railroad. The Wooden House on the lot next west, was also built by him at a time when it was expected that the Great East and West road would cross the bridge to be erected near the foot of Bluemont. At that point the first ferry was established in 1855, and it was expected that the main business of the town would concentrate at the north part of the town site. The building of a pontoon bridge at the eastern end of Pointz avenue, by the Cincinnati and Kansas Land Company, destroyed these expectations and kept the business on that thoroughfare, while the building of the Union Pacilio Railroad bridge near the same place fixed it beyond a peradventure.
Taking a great interest in the erection of Bluemont College, Mr. Goodnow erected the first dwelling near it; this is now standing on the corner across the road south of the old college site. It was occupied for some time as a store by the late Orville Huntress. Several other buildings wert also erected by him for the accommodation of families and students.peradventure
During the early and trying years of the Territory's history Mr. Goodnow was a wide-awake correspondent of Eastern papers, and did his part in keeping their readers informed concerning tin-progress of events in Kansas. He was a representative to several of the early free State conventions at Lawrence and other places. His zeal and love for Kansas be well understood when it is known that his wife, to whom he was ardently attached, never left her Eastern home. Probably not a week passed without an exchange of letters. She was an invalid for years and could not make up her mind to leave a comfortable home for a pioneer life on the frontier during the troublous times and outrages in Kansas.peradventure
Mr. Goodnow, however, felt it his duty to cast his lot with those endeavoring to make Kansas a free State. This necessitated journeys back and forth until the death of his wife, which took place June 24, 1870, after a married life and residence in the same village for over forty years. Mrs. Goodnow lived the life of a prayerful Christian and died beloved and respected by all who knew her.peradventure
After his wife's death Mr. Goodnow devoted all his energies to Kansas. He was an earnest and devout Christian, and liberal in his contributions to the church and to all public and private charities. At the State Congregational Convention, to which he was a delegate a short time before his death, with his partner, the Rev. R. U. Parker, of Manhattan, he was chosen Moderator, and presided giving general satisfaction. On the 19th of July. 1876, while in apparently good health and a moment after making a pleasant remark to a friend, he fell dead from apoplexy. He was then sixty-nine years old. His funeral was largely attended, and his remains were laid to rest in a beautiful lot in Manhattan cemetery, overlooking the city wherein he had labored so long, and in which, to the end of his life, he had taken a fatherly interest.