Family History
Dedicated to the Genealogy of
New England Goodwins and Intersecting Genealogies and Family Trees
Goodwin Family History pg. 2
(V) Downing, son of Thomas (2) Goodwin, was born November 18, 1770, in Wells: married in Topsham. Maine, Mary (or Polly) Haley, born 1772, daughter of Joseph Haley, born in Kittery in 1738, and Mary Goodwin, his wife, sister of Samuel Goodwin, of Wells, and perhaps a daughter of Thomas and Hannah (Wells) Goodwin, granddaughter of Daniel Goodwin (2), and great-granddaughter of Daniel Goodwin (I). Downing Goodwin resided in Freeport, Maine, removing to Brunswick and thence to Topsham, Maine. In February, 1807, he settled in Burton (then A1bany), New Hampshire, where his wife Mary died March 21, 1836, aged sixty-four years and three months. He died March 1, 1841, in Baldwin. Children: 1. Susan, died young. 2. John, born August 31, 1794, mentioned below. 3. Downing, married Hannah Yeaton, 4. Sarah, married twice. 5. Mary, married Levi Whitten. 6. Susan Downing, married John Clark. 7. Hannah, married David Harriman. 8. Lydia, died young. 9. Aaron, married Martha Hamblin. 10. Moses, born January 2, 1808, married Jane Rounds. 11. Joseph Haley, married Sarah Atkinson and Lydia Pratt. 12. Joshua, born September 1, 1812, married Sophia Marden.
(Vl ) John, son of Downing Goodwin, born in Topsham, Maine, August 31, 1794, died
at Baldwin, Maine, August 19, 1873. Married (first) Abigail Brown, born
November 21, 1792, daughter of Ephraim and Huldah (Richardson) Brown,
She died December 14, 1833, and he married (second) Sarah Cole, born August
25, 1798, died July II, 1840. Mr. Goodwin married (third) Eliza Richardson,
born August 1 I, 1808, daughter of Elisha Richardson. She died April 6,
1867.
He married (fourth) Clarinda Buzzell. He resided in Baldwin, Maine, from
1817 for over forty years, a general merchant in partnership with Lot
Davis at the "Comer." He kept a tavern from 1830 to 1853, removing
afterward to Limington. Children of first wife: I. Emeline, born April
30, 1820, died September 19, 1862, unmarried. 2. John Munroe, born September
3, 1822, mentioned below. 3. George Peabody, born April 21, 1825, married
Lucia (Williams) Atherton; died at Evanston, Illinois, June 12, 1878.
4. Hannah Brown, born March 15. 1827, died June 26, 1829. 5. Ephraim Henry,
born March 31, 1829, died at Stowell, Victoria, Australia, August 20,
1901; married Matilda Ashton. 6. Abigail Brown, born July 25, 1831, died
August 19, 1903; married L. W. Small. Child of second wife: 7. Olive Maria,
born August 16. 1836, married James K. Emery. Children of third wife:
8. Eugene, born August 21, 1848, married Clara Eastman. 9. Mary Eliza,
born September 30, 1849, married George B. Schermerhorn. 10. Newton, born
September 30, 1852, married Nellie Burling.
(VII) John Munroe, son of John Goodwin, was born September 3, 1822, in Baldwin, Maine. He attended the public schools of his native town, Yarmouth Academy and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1845. He taught school in the old Alfred Academy at Alfred, Maine, and the academy at Dennysville. He then turned to the study of law in the office of Judge Wells, of Portland, and in 1848 was admitted to the bar. He came to Biddeford, Maine, in 1850, and began to practice his profession in that city. He achieved a prominent place in his profession and also in public life. He was a Democrat in a Republican state and continued steadfast in his allegiance to the party through all its’ vicissitudes. He was elected from time to time to various offices of trust and honor; was in the common council and board of aldermen of Biddeford; was city solicitor for a number of years; superintendent of schools, city treasurer and collector. He was representative to the state legislature in 1863-64 and was a state senator in 1855. In 1876 he was a candidate for congress against Han. Thomas B. Reed. He was once nominated for attorney general of Maine by the Democrats in the legislature and once for 1Jnited States senator. He was the first president of the Citizens' Municipal Association of Biddeford, and was at the head of that organization many years. He was a member of Dunlap Lodge of Free Masons, He attended the Congregational church. He died March 8, 1905, aged eighty-two years and six months. He married, July 16, 1850, Harriet Proctor Herrick, born January 17, 1829, in Alfred, daughter of Benjamin Jones and Mary (Conant) Herrick. Children: I. Francis Jones, born January 12, 1852, married Emily R. Milliken. 2. George Brown, born March 4, 1855, mentioned below. 3. Mary Isabel, born February 22, 1857, married Frederick Gold Lyman, of Montreal, where she died in 1888. 4. Henry Herrick, born November 29, 1859, married Jennie Murray. 5. William Burton, born January 11, 1864, married Mary Hills.
(V111) George Brown, son of John Munroe Goodwin, was born March 4, 1855. He received his rudimentary education in the public schools of Biddeford and at Kent's Hill Academy. He spent two years and a half in foreign travel in Germany and Switzerland. When he returned home he took up the study of law in the office of his father and later of William L. Putnam, of Portland, and was admitted to the bar in 1877. Instead of practicing his profession, however, he turned to journalism. He went on the staff of the Boston Post and for seven years was an associate editor. In 1885 he was appointed by President Cleveland consul to Annaberg, Germany, and served during the Cleveland administration. From 1889 to 1892 he was editor and proprietor of the Denison (Texas) Herald and from 1892 to 1905 was connected in an editorial capacity with the New York World and Herald. In 1903 he resumed the practice of law, being admitted to the New York bar in that year. Upon the death of his father in 1905 he returned to Biddeford and has practiced law there to the present time. In national politics he is a Democrat. He married, September 29, 1881, Grace L. Webster, born February 8, 1860, daughter of James Webster, of Orono, Maine, They have one daughter, their only child, Marian Herrick, born July 29, 1882, at Orono, Maine.