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GOODWIN Family History, Part I

Our Goodwin line originated in Ireland, later settled in Kilbirnie, North Ayrshire, Strathclyde, Scotland, and is probably part of the small Goodwin clan that is centered around Ayr. The name Goodwin traces back to pre-Norman conquest days as the Old English "Godewyn" which means "Good friend."

Our Goodwin clan descends from "Long Tom" Goodwin¹. Three of his four sons and his daughter emigrated to America, first settling in the coal mining region of Pennsylvania:

• Thomas Goodwin, Jr., father of the line in Pennsylvania
• James Goodwin², father of the line in Mariposa County, California
• John Goodwin, father of the line in Yavapai County, Arizona
• Elizabeth (Goodwin) Allen, mother of the line in Joliet, Will County, Illinois

During the California Gold Rush, James, and probably brother John as well, went to California to find a suitable homestead and by 1856 settled in Coulterville, Mariposa County. James' family came out the following year.

In 1864, James died and his widow Jane remarried and continued on in Coulterville. John moved a little further south to Bear Valley in the early 1870s, then on to Bodie, Mono County, California, in the late 1870s, and finally resettled in Jerome, Yavapai County, Arizona.

Thomas "Long Tom" GOODWIN, Sr.¹

1. Thomas "Long Tom" Goodwin, Sr.¹ married Elizabeth "Betty" Newell and reportedly started a family in Ireland, where their first son was born. By 1823 they had moved to Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland, where the rest of his children were born:

"Long Tom" Goodwin "stood six feet four inches in his socks and was heavy in porportion and a recognized giant in strength." He arrived in Kilbirnie, Scotland, from Ireland "when his oldest son, Hugh, was a child."

"Long Tom" died in Kilbirnie on Dennyholm Street.

Hugh GOODWIN (Sr.)^Δ (~1816-<1870)

11.Hugh Goodwin (Sr.)^Δ is the first born son of Thomas "Long Tom" Goodwin. He was born around 1815 or 1816, in Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland^{[Cen 1851]}, where he married Agnes Blair, also a native of Irvine, and had at least five children:

The Goodwins started their family in Ayrshire where Hugh worked at the Shewalton Colliery (coal mine) in Dundonald parish.^{[Cen 1841]} By 1850 they moved about 30 kilometers north to 10 Dennyholm in Kilbirnie, where Hugh worked as an ironstone miner and his younger sister Elizabeth worked as a linen thread reeler.^{[Cen 1851]}

The family emigrated to American around 1852, between the births of children Hugh and Agnes. Hugh's brother James² emigrated in 1851, as did his brother Thomas around the same time. Their family is first enumerated in Reilly Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, where Hugh worked as a miner.^{[Cen 1860]} Schuylkill County, and adjoining counties to the north, comprise the anthracite coal region.

Hugh Goodwin (Sr.) likely died between 1860 and 1870.^{[Cen 1870]} He would have been in his late 40s or early 50s.

After Hugh's death, Agnes and children Hugh (Jr.) and Agnes lived in Foster Township, Luzerne County, about 50 miles northeast of Reilly Township.^{[Cen 1870]}

By 1880, Agnes moved with her daughter and husband, Peter Henderson, to Kingston Township, about 30 miles north of Reilly Township in Luzerne County. Peter worked there as a coal miner but he and all of the other coal miners in his neighborhood were reported as having been unemployed for four months or more during the year.^{[Cen 1880]} This may reflect the end of the first Great Depression (1873-1879).

Agnes lived as a boarder in the area of Cooper Hill, north of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, in 1892.^{[City 1892]}

Thomas GOODWIN, Jr.^Δ (1823-1867)

12.Thomas Goodwin, Jr.^Δ was born on July 21, 1823, in Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland.^{[Birth 1823]} He married Jean Doak in Kilbirnie, North Ayrshire, Scotland, and had as many as ten children, likely all born in Kilbirnie:

Thomas Jr. and Jean started their family in Kilbirnie and probably followed his brothers, James² and John Sr., to America. Brother James arrived in America in 1851 and Thomas is believed to have only settled for a short while in Pennsylvania, probably in Schuykill County, but returned to Kilbirnie.

In 1861, Jean headed up the family on Dennyholm Street. Thomas' whereabout are not known at this time. Her elder two sons, age 12 and 14, were recorded as colliers (coal miners).^{[Cen 1861]}

Thomas Jr. worked in the coal and iron mines of Kilbirnie until unable to work any longer.

Thomas Goodwin, Jr. was an invalid for some time before he died on April 10, 1867, at Dennyholm Street in Kilbirnie. He was only 42 years old.

After Thomas's death, sons Thomas (III) and James set out for America from Glasgow or Liverpool on June 1, 1870, and arrived at Castle Gardens, New York, on July 10, 1870. Jean and her three surviving younger children, Hugh, Elizabeth, and Alexander, continued on at Dennyholm Street. Hugh worked at an ironstone pit.^{[Cen 1871]}

Son Robert also traveled back and forth between Scotland and America, and finally settled in Illinois in 1895.

Jean (Doak) Goodwin died in Kilbirnie in 1889.

James GOODWIN² (1829-1864)

13.James Goodwin² was born in Irwin (Irving?), Ayrshire, Scotland on June 6, 1829. He married Jane McNeil, a laundry girl of Ayrshire, on February 19, 1849, at the St. Thomas Methodist Church in Kilbirnie, North Ayrshire, Scotland. They had eight children:

The first two children were born in Scotland. Thomas died and was buried in Kilbirnie in his first year. The couple then had their second son, James William just before setting sail for America. James William died en route and was buried at sea just before arriving in New York in 1851.

Upon arriving in New York, the couple, and probably James' brother John Sr., moved to the area of Bear Gap, Northumberland County and Minersville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. James was a coal miner there, probably continuing a trade he knew in the old country. The Goodwin couple then had two daughters, Elizabeth and Martha Jane, both born in Bear Gap and baptized there at the Methodist Church. Their next child, John Charles was either born in Pennsylvania or California.

It was about this time that James decided to follow the wave of gold prospectors to California. He went ahead of his family and set up a store along the Kern River which runs through Sequoia National Park in Tulare County. He stayed there until the store was destroyed during an Indian massacre.

Probably later in 1856, James moved north to the area of Coulterville, Mariposa County. Once settled, he sent for his family around 1857. They went by way of boat from New York to the Isthmus of Panama, crossed and then took another boat to San Francisco.

Once the family was reunited, the next children were born, probably around Coulterville near the Banderita Mine. James and his brother, John Sr. first worked at the Banderita Mine which was established in 1856. In 1861 the Goodwin family moved down into Coulterville and John Sr. eventually had a ranch at Dutch Creek in the Red Cloud area (present day Greeley Hill).

Just years after settling in Coulterville, James Goodwin apparently moved down into the valley and resettled in Chowchilla, Madera County. He died there at the age of 34 on January 2, 1864, leaving his wife and six children. He was buried at the Coulterville Cemetery. Given the early age of his death and his earlier profession of coal mining, it is likely that James Goodwin died of "black lung" disease.

Following James' death, his widow filed for a homestead declaration on Friday, February 24, 1865.

Jane remarried to Peter Johnson on September 26, 1866, and had four more sons by him.

After Peter's death, Jane remarried for a third time in 1888. This time to James Opie. Jane died two years later in 1890 at about the age of 58 and is buried at the Coulterville Cemetery.

Continue on to Jane McNeil
and the Johnson Family

John GOODWIN (1820s-1896)

14.John Goodwin was born in Scotland between 1826 and 1830. He emigrated to the United States probably about the time of his older brother James Goodwin, who arrived in 1851. He also settled in the area of Bear Gap, Northumberland County, and Minersville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. He had at least two, possibly three sons, two of whom were born in Scotland:

John Goodwin applied for citizenship July 21, 1860, in Schuykill County. A month later he was living with his brother James in California working as a quartz miner^{[Cen 1860]}, his family probably still waiting back in Pennsylvania. In September 1865 he received his citizenship certificate in Mariposa County, California.

John Goodwin probably worked at the Banderita Mine first. He later set up a ranch at Dutch Creek in the Red Cloud area. In the early 1870s he moved to Bear Valley, 17 miles south of Coulterville. There his son John Maurice, Jr. was married and his grandson Walter T. Goodwin was born.

By the late 1870s, John and family were on the move again, searching for more fortunes in gold. They moved to Bodie, Mono County and eventually to Jerome, Yavapai County, Arizona^{[Cen 1880]}, where he and his son Thomas worked as stockraisers.

John Goodwin died on May 5, 1896, at his ranch near Peck's Lake in the Upper Verde valley in Yavapai County.

Elizabeth (GOODWIN) ALLEN^Δ (1830-1919)

15.Elizabeth Goodwin^Δ was born on June 13, 1830, in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland. She immigrated to America possibly in the early 1850s when at least one of her elder brothers immigrated. She married Thomas Allen, a coal miner and native of Wishaw, Lanarkshire, Scotland, on October 6, 1853, in New Mines, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. They had 14 children:

Before Elizabeth married, she lived with her eldest brother Hugh and his family at 10 Dennyholm in Kilbirnie, Ayrshire, where Hugh worked as an iron stone miner and she worked as a linen thread reeler.^{[Cen 1851]}

Elizabeth emigrated to America probably in late 1851 when her elder brother James² emigrated. She settled in New Mines, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, about 4 miles west-southwest of Minersville where James settled. There she met Thomas Allen, who had worked New Mines sinced 1849.

Elizabeth and Thomas contracted to be wed on October 6, 1853, in Pottsville, Schuylkill County. Their marriage was performed by the Rev. Joseph McCool, Presbyterian.^{[Mar 1853]}

The Allens made New Mines their home until after the birth of son Hugh in 1865. They then moved 700 miles west to Gardner, Grundy County, Illinois. The following year, 1866, they resettled about 8 miles northeast in Braidwood, Will County, Illinois, where Thomas and his sons were coal miners. In 1880, Thomas was recorded as "insane" and unemployed for twelve months. Four elder sons, ages 15 to 21, worked in the coal mine as well, but had been unemployed for four months. Elizabeth worked as a dressmaker and her nephew Hugh Goodwin lived with them and also worked at the coal mine.^{[Cen 1880]}

Thomas Allen died on January 3, 1913, in Braidwood, at the age of 83 years. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, southeast of Braidwood.^[Grave]

Elizabeth (Goodwin) Allen died six years later in Braidwood on March 21, 1919, at the age of 88. She was buried with Thomas at Oakwood Cemetery.^[Grave]

Continue on to
Goodwin Family History, Part II