Goode, Henry H.

GOODE

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 11:19:45

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.420

Henry Holmes Goode
Henry Holmes Goode is a retired farmer living in Milo and is numbered among the most highly respected citizens of Warren County. He was born March 14, 1832, in Prince Edward County, Virginia, his parents being Joseph and Mary Agnes (Johnson) Goode, natives of Virginia and Ohio respectively. They came to Warren County in 1854 and Henry H. Goode was about twenty-two years of age at the time of removal. Here he first became a landowner through entering a claim from the government comprising two hundred acres in White Breast Township. By industry and capable management he was enabled to add to his original holdings and as fast as he acquired land he placed it under a high state of cultivation. He carried on both general farming and stock-raising and was known as one of the most extensive and successful stock feeders in his part of the county. As his financial resources have increased he has become owner of six hundred and twenty-eight acres of valuable farming land in White Breast Township and forty-five acres in Otter Township. In 1886, however, he put aside the management and active care of his farms and purchased a comfortable home in Milo, to which he removed. Since that time he has practically lived retired, but this does not signify a life of inactivity and idleness. In fact, his hours are fully engaged with his efforts to improve his town place, everything about the house being kept in good repair, while the grounds and garden afford him plenty of exercise. He has never found, therefore, opportunity to spend time in the business center of the town, discussing the business affairs of others, for his own business has claimed his entire attention.
The history of the Goode family in pioneer times indicates more clearly the conditions which existed in Warren County when they arrived here. Their first dwelling was a rude log cabin, fourteen feet wide by sixteen feet in length. There was a rough slab floor and a roof made of split slabs. In this single room the entire family resided for the first six months of their residence in the west. Their next abiding place was an improvement on the original home, for a frame house, sixteen by twenty-four feet, was built of boards split by hand from logs, this being the best and only lumber that could be secured at the time. Many of the happiest moments in the lives of the pioneers, however, were spent in the primitive homes, which were devoid of many of those things which are now deemed essential to the comfort and happiness of the present generation. A window with sash and glass was a rarity and an evidence of wealth and aristocracy which but few could support. Often greased paper was put over an aperture in the logs to serve as a window, but frequently the people depended upon the light that made its way between the logs, while the cabin was ventilated in the same way. The doors were fastened with old-fashioned wooden latches and during the daytime the latch string hung out, so that friend or neighbor could easily make his entrance, for the pioneers were a most hospitable people and always entertained visitors to the best of their ability. It is notable with what affection the old pioneers refer to the early days and it may be doubted whether palaces ever sheltered happier hearts than the little log cabins of long ago.
It was on the 4th of March, 1857, in White Breast Township, that Henry Holmes Goode was married to Miss Louisa Kimzey, a daughter of John and Susanna Kimzey, both of whom were natives of Kentucky and came to Warren County in 1854. By this marriage there were born three sons and a daughter: Frank D., now deceased; Susan, the wife of William Yoder, who resides in Bradshaw, Nebraska; Robert Fletcher and Henry, both of whom died in infancy. The mother passed away in September 1865, at the age of twenty-six years, and Mr. Goode was again married March 28, 1880, to Mrs. Albert T. Godlove, a daughter of William and Nancy Ann (Beall) McKendry. Mrs. Goode is a descendant of Thomas Beall, son of Samuel Beall, of an old and patriotic family noted in early Revolutionary times. The Beal family has been well known in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and also in Maryland. No other had furnished so many soldiers in the important wars of the country. The annals of Maryland show that there were five officers of the Beall name accredited mostly, if not entirely, to Frederick County of Maryland; Lloyd Beall being brigadier general; Thomas Beall, lieutenant; William Dent Beall, second lieutenant; Zeparick Beal, ensign; and Thomas Beall, who was generally called Captain Beall. He was also known as Thomas Beall of Samuel, the affix being his father’s Christian name. Of this list three are found on the roll of the Cincinnati Society; William Dent Beall as major; Lloyd Beall as captain and Samuel B. Beall as lieutenant. No doubt, Samuel Beall was the father of Thomas Beall of Samuel. He came to Fort Cumberland in the year 1784 from one of the lower counties of Pennsylvania, perhaps Montgomery. He became the proprietor of two tracts of land called Walnut Bottom and The Brothers and the next year began the building of the town which is now the city of Cumberland.
In 1787 the legislature, upon his petition, appointed five commissioners – Andrew Bruce, Daniel Cresap, George Dent (grandfather of Mrs. General Grant), John Lynn and Evan Glynn – to lay out the town of Cumberland at the mouth of Will’s creek in Washington County. The town was then laid out and the old name of Fort Cumberland dropped. Beall had his land divided into several hundred town lots, which sold rapidly, and for many years he did an extensive real estate business. The county records from 1790 until his death in 1823 show four hundred and eighteen conveyances, to say nothing of deeds he made while Allegheny was a part of Washington County, Pennsylvania. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1776 from the upper district of Frederick County and was three times elected to the legislature from Alleghany, in 1791, 1792, and 1793. He died at about the age of eighty years, leaving a last will and testament dated November 16, 1823. It was a rather strange document, as only two of his eight children seem to have been notices; a small bequest of two hundred dollars to his daughter, Mary Beaty, and the remainder of his estate to the eight children of his son Isaac. He gave his man Basil his freedom and ninety-nine acres of land and also manumitted his three negro girls, Mary, Hetty and Maria. He had eight children: John Brook, Buell, Josiah, Lucky, Elenora, Lizzie, Mary and Priscilla.
John Beall, the great-grandfather Mrs. Goode, married Elenora Beaty and in 1810 went to Marysville, Kentucky, later he removed to Ohio and died in 1824. Isaac was the only son and remained in the old home county and was made sole executor of this father’s estate. He married Rebecca Tomlinson, who died in 1845, while his death occurred in 1850. They were both laid to rest in the Tomlinson cemetery, at Little Meadow, in Garrett County, Ohio.
In resuming the history of Henry H. Goode, it is noticed that he had been almost a lifelong member of the Masonic fraternity, having been connected with the craft for more than forty years. He joined the fraternity at Newborn, Marion County, and was a charter member at Sandyville and at Liberty Center, Iowa, which lodges he helped organize. The Newborn lodge was afterward transferred to Lacona and Mr. Goode demitted to Lacona Lodge from Liberty Center. He is a member of the Royal Arch Chapter at Indianola. He likewise belongs to Milo Lodge, No.413, I.O.O.F. He was a trustee of White Breast Township for many years and has served as alderman of Milo. In church connection he was formerly a Methodist but later in life became connected with the Christian Union. His political support is given the democracy. Mrs. Goode comes from old Methodist stock, her grandfather being a preacher of that faith, while she has been connected with the denomination from the age of thirteen years.
In looking back over the life record of Henry H. Goode, it is plainly evident that his success is due to the honorable purpose which has actuated his every act. In studying lives and characters of men, we are naturally led to inquire into the secret of their success and the motives that prompt their action. Success is not a matter of genius, as held by many, but rather results from experience, sound judgment and upright dealings, and we find that men of strong character who are enjoying prosperity are in nearly every case those who have risen gradually, fighting their way in the face of opposition. The salient traits of Mr. Goode are such as have gained him an unassailable reputation as a business man and citizen, while those who have known him personally in social relations entertain for him the warmest regard and esteem.