2023 Spring Newsletter

BENJAMIN GEORGE GOODRICK EARLY PIONEER Benjamin George Goodrick was born in 1803 in Halifax County, Virginia. At the age of 12 his parents moved the family to Nickolas County, Kentucky where they homesteaded 180 acres of government land. Ben grew up as an energetic young man. He was ad venturesome, diligent and a very hard worker. The frontier life seemed to suit him well. Benjamin mar ried his wife Jane in Nickolas Co, Kentucky and then moved to Clinton County, Ohio in the mid-1820s. He and Jane had two children (James and Mary). Ben had three brothers (John, Tom and Will). In the spring of 1832, he and his brothers decided they want ed a better life so they moved their families to Ham ilton County, near Noblesville, Indiana. They brought along with them the Stanbrough and Vanderslice fami lies. A third son, Joseph Joel Goodrick was born during this move. Five more children, a son and four daugh ters, were born to the Goodricks by 1853. In the spring of 1855, the family’s pioneer spirit took over and they with a number of families left Engletown Indiana and headed for Kansas to find new homes. They came to Miami County (at that time it was Lykins County). Ben’s younger brother Daniel had settled in Lykins County a year earlier. This was a contributing factor for the Goodricks to come to Kansas. When they got here, they established homesteads in the timber land of Stanton Township along the Marais Des Cygnes River. Some moved into log cabins that had been abandoned by previous settlers that had gone back to previous homes. Others lived in tents until they could cut the timber and build their own cabins. Stanton Twp. did not have any churches or schools at that time, so Ben (they called him “Uncle Ben”) held services in his home and they were presided over by a United Brethern circuit rider. Back in central Indiana, the Goodricks were greatly influenced by the Quaker families of Engletown. The Goodricks were of the be lief that slavery was wrong and they did their best to establish Kansas as a “free territory”. Ben and the fam ily were friends of John Brown. In the summer of 1856, armed bands of proslavery men decided that every free state should be driven

out of the territory. Osawatomie was chosen as one of the places to go. All of the residents feared that Osawatomie would be destroyed. On August 30, 1856 the battle began and it lasted for 2 days. The ruffians left with two wagons filled with their wounded and ten wagons loaded with their plunder taken from the homes of the citizens. The Goodricks and other fam ilies lived in fear for their lives as the territory from Mound City to Ft. Scott to Lawrence was occupied by the border ruffians. The Goodricks and twenty-seven other families decid ed to leave and go back to Indiana. Life in Indiana still did not appeal to the Goodricks and the call for Kan sas was still in their hearts. In 1858, the family went westward and returned to their homes in Kansas and resumed their activities as abolitionists. The Goodricks stayed in Stanton Twp. and Ben farmed the land for a long period of time. Jane, his wife, passed away after giving him nine children. After farming, Ben spent the remaining years of his life liv ing with his daughter, Minerva Mcgill. He died at the age of 87 on May 23, 1889. Both he and his wife were laid to rest in the Elmwood Addition of Paola Ceme tery. Vincent Thorpe

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