Founder of Maquoketa, was born at Springfield, Windsor County, Vermont, March 23, 1812. He arrived in Iowa Territory in the spring of 1838. John E. Goodenow tested his early strength in working with his father in clearing away the timber from the land in New York State. He was educated in winter terms of country schools. When he left home, at the age of twenty-two, he bought a canal boat and used it for freighting marble, lumber, wood and farm products on the Champlain Canal, Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. After two years he employed men to operate the boat, and himself became a clerk in the Parmenter general store at Moriah, New York. In the latter part of 1837 he formed a partnership with his employer. Mr. Goodenow, as the representative of the firm, was to come west to that part of Wisconsin Territory now included in the State of Iowa, buy Government land and engage in other business on the partnership basis. John E. Goodenow was a tremendously busy man in those early years. Besides looking after his growing landed interests, the cultivation and raising of crops, his enterprise contributed to the making of Maquoketa a trading center for the surrounding country and the country to the west. His first tavern was a log house containing four rooms and a loft. In 1842 he secured the establishment of a post office at Maquoketa. His nearest mill was six miles north of Dubuque, on the Little Maquoketa. In the fall of 1839 Mr. Goodenow sold his mill and returned east, and on October 3, 1839, married Miss Eliza Wright, of Bolton, New York. He became a man of prominence and great influence both in business and civic affairs. At his hospitable home in Maquoketa were entertained many of the prominent citizens of Iowa and the Middle West. Mr. Goodenow was elected a member of the First Iowa Legislature and had the honor of giving the names of two new counties, Osceola and Kossuth. Three times he was elected mayor of Maquoketa.
If you would like to get the permanent link to a url other than the page you are currently viewing you can paste
a url inside of the destination box and hit regenerate
Print
Permanent Link