Representative Joseph Columbus Goodson View All Years

JOSEPH C. GOODSON who died in Dallas county on the 17th of February, was one of the early pioneers in that part of Iowa. He came to the Des Moines valley in 1847, and entered the farm where he spent the remainder of his life. He was born in Tennessee in 1812, and lived to the age of eighty-three. His wife was from Indiana, and taught the first school in Boone township, Dallas county, in their old log house, where church services were also held in early days. Mr. Goodson was a stanch Democrat and in 1852 was chosen to represent Polk, Dallas, Jasper, Boone, Marshall, Hardin, Guthrie, Yell (now Webster), Risley (now Hamilton), and fifteen other unorganized counties of north-western Iowa in the House of the Fourth General Assembly. His colleagues from that district were J. F. Rice and Benjamin Green. Mr. Goodson held several township and county offices at various times in all of which he served with fidelity, He was an active member of the Methodist church during his whole life.