Willard Good

Submitted by Marrie Miller

Born on April 3, 1858, in Bartholomew county, Indiana, the son of Thomas and Lucy A (Piersol) Good, removing with his parents to the frontier of Iowa when but a small boy, and beginning life for himself at the age of fourteen, William Good of Crook county has passed almost his entire earthly existence among pioneers, surrounded by the scenes of new countries as yet undeveloped and just awaking to systematic production and improvement. His father was a native of Indiana and his mother of Pennsylvania. The father farmed in Indiana until 1870 when he removed his family to Jefferson county, Iowa, and there followed his regular vocation for a period of seven years at the end of which he went to Missouri for a time, then returned to Indiana where he has since resided. Willard Good received a limited education in the public schools of Jefferson county, Iowa, remaining at home and working with his father on the farm until he was fourteen years old. He then left the parental roof and taking up the burden of life for himself, proceeding to the northern part of the state and working on farms for eighteen months, thence going to Davis county, Mo., where his parents were living, and worked on a railroad for a year and a quarter, in 1880 coming to South Dakota, where he located at Spearfish for nearly a year, then went to Central City in that state and made mining his occupation for a year, and going to Missouri to spend the winter. In the spring of 1884 he found a permanent resting place in Crook county, Wyo., locating on the ranch he now occupies two miles northwest of Sundance, where he has since been engaged in raising cattle and developing the agricultural features of a tract of land on which nature lavished a wealth of fruitfulness which only needed the hand of the husbandman to make it ready for enjoyment. It comprises 700 acres and has been well improved with necessary buildings and careful cultivation, diligence and skill having made it one of the most desirable ranches in this portion of the state, as it was one of the first to be taken up, there being when Mr Good settled here very few residents in the section. On March 1, 1883, at Bethany, Mo, he married Miss Melissa Piles, a native of Kentucky. They have two children, Alice and Willard. Mr Good is an ardent Democrat in politics and gives to his party a zealous and devoted loyalty, yet seeks not for himself its places of honor and influence, being content to push forward the advance of his section of the state as a worker in the ranks of progress.