What an amazing story. Thank you for sharing that. I wonder if the grandmother had a
husband or adult male with her. What guts it must have taken either way. One has to
wonder why they left VA in December and how long it took them to make it to Randolph
County, IN.
----- Original Message -----
From: Billy J. Baker
To: Randolph County
Sent: Saturday, February 20, 2010 9:42 AM
Subject: [INRANDOL] 1947 GOODRICH Article
Union City Times-Gazette, Thursday, March 27, 1947
Goodrich Farm Is 100 Years Old
The Times-Gazette is in receipt of a communication from P. E. Goodrich,
now sojourning at Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., in which he writes:
“I see that you are attempting to collect the ownership of farms in
Randolph county that have been in the same family for 100 years or more.
I'm quite sure the Goodrich farm, just south and east of Winchester, is
in that class.”
Mr. Goodrich is referring to publicity given a recent announcement
emanating from the county agent's office in which such information was
sought for historical purposes.
“our great, great grandmother and her 13 children left Blacksburg,
Virginia, upon a bleak, late December day in 1831 and started for Ft.
Wayne, Indiana, there to buy land for a future home for her family.
Among the sons was my Grandfather Edmond Baldwin Goodrich, his wife
Ellen Bell and my father John Baldwin Goodrich III, who was just a
child. The trip was a long one. After crossing the Ohio river there were
no roads except unworked dirt roads and trails through the almost
unbroken forests.
“The caravan consisted of two wagons and a carryall. They took the road
through Winchester to the northwest; no bridges. In attempting to ford
White River, through what is now Mr. Ed Fidler's farm, one of the wagons
broke down and Rebecca Pearce Goodrich, the grandmother and her sons,
decided to stay and make their homes in Indiana.
“She bought the farm on which their wagon broke down, and owned it at
the time of her death. When I was a child, there was a two-story log
house on it, about where the gravel pit now is. It was a tumbled down
affair when I first remembered it. Before I can remember, she afterwards
built a frame house about 40 rods southwest of the log cabin, which
house later on was moved east out to the road and with some additions
and alterations is the same house the Fidler family has lived in for
many years. It must be close to 100 years old.”
********************************
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