Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Goudy, Robert 1822 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 8, 2007, 11:51 pm

Author: Portrait & Bio Album, 1890

ROBERT GOUDY is one of those to whom Du Page Township owes its present highly 
cultivated and developed condition. He came hither in 1843 and well remembers 
the time when settlements were "few and far between" and Chicago, then but a 
small town, was the depot for supplies and the market for grain. To that now 
wonderful city he went for several years as the trading center. The parents of 
our subject were Alexander and Jane (Wallace) Goudy, natives of Scotland and 
Ireland, respectively, who came to America about 1818. They located in the 
Province of Ontario, then Lower Canada, but after a short time removed to 
Vermont and still later to Essex County, N. Y., where they lived about a 
quarter of a century. They finally came to Illinois in 1845 and died in Will 
County, full of years. They were the parents of thirteen children, of whom the 
only survivors are our subject and a sister Jennie, wife of George W. Potter, 
of this county. Mr. Goudy, of whom we write, was born in the Dominion of 
Canada, January 2, 1822, but reached his majority while living on a farm in 
Essex County, N. Y. He received but a limited education in the district 
schools there and advanced his knowledge by attending school one winter after 
he came to Illinois. He has endeavored by much reading to overcome the 
deficiencies and keep up with the times in information regarding current 
events and topics of general interest. The greater part of Mr. Goudy's life 
has been devoted to farm work, although he learned a trade in his youth. When 
eighteen he became a blacksmith but followed the trade only four years. For 
seven years he was lock-tender on the Illinois & Michigan Canal, two and a 
half miles north of Lockport, Ill., and for two years ran a boat for Norton & 
Co., of Lockport. The rest of his life has been given to agricultural labors. 
He came to Illinois in 1843, and for several years worked as a farm hand by 
the month. The estate of one hundred and twenty acres he now owns has been 
secured by industry and persevering efforts and placed under good cultivation 
by the owner, whose merited success is a matter of rejoicing to his many 
friends. On the 15th of October, 1848, Mr. Goudy led to the hymeneal altar 
Miss Ophelia Welch, a native of Ohio, whose estimable qualities had won his 
regard. The happy union has been blessed by the birth of four children, and 
the parents have been called upon to part with three—William H., Mary, and 
Charles R. The living child, Julia, is the wife of J. E. Davis, and they make 
their home with our subject. Mr. Goudy has served as School Director and as 
Township Highway Commissioner a number of years, with credit to himself and 
those who placed him in office. He is a Democrat in politics. He and his wife 
are now in the prime of life, enjoying the fruits of useful and well spent 
years, surrounded by friends and well-wishers, whose re spect they have gained 
by their honest endeavors and kindly spirit.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/goudy1461nbs.txt

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