Howard Garrett & Alfred Merrill GOODWIN, Grant Parish, Louisiana Submitted to USGENWEB by Frances Ball Turner ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** From History of Louisiana by Chambers, pub. 1925 Vol. III, pg. 102 HOWARD GARRETT GOODWYN. The choice of a newspaper career is not guided by motives of wealth, since few newspaper men ever attain that object. But if the choice of a career is justified by the good it enables a man to do, no one chose more wisely than when the late Howard Garrett Goodwyn took up, when a boy, printing and subsequently general newspaper work. The scene of his achievements and service of more than forty years was the Colfax in Grant Parish, where he was the loved and esteemed editor and publisher of the Chronicle. He was born near Franklin, in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, April 10, 1850, a son of Rev. Philo M. and Angeline (Moore) Goodwyn. His father, who was born near New Albany, Indiana, November 24, 1820 and died at New Orleans, November 15, 1882, joined the Methodist Episcopal Conference in Mississippi in 1842, and became a charter member of the Louisiana Conference. As a circuit rider he labored in many sections of Louisiana, organizaing congregations and building churches, and every year of his life was marked by achievement for the human welfare. He married, May 2, 1849, at Bayou Sara, Louisiana, Angeline Moore, who was born in Kentucky, in January, 1828, and at the time of her marriage was the widow of Samuel Gray. To this marriage were born three children: Howard G.; Walton Dyer, who was born in 1851 and died in 1868; and Linus Kilgour, who was born in 1855 and died when two years old. The mother of these children died at Plaquemine, Louisiana, February 16, 1860. In December, 1870, Rev. Philo Goodwyn married Amanda Fitzallen, daughter of Nathaniel Dorch and widow of A.F. Morse. Howard Garrett Goodwyn spent his early boyhood in the various localities where his father had his ministry, experiencing many interruptions in his school work. Most of his education was acquired by private study and in time he became a Latin and Greek scholar. In 1866, at the age of sixteen, he entered the Herald office at Camden, Arkansas, as an apprentice, remaining there three years. During 1870-71 he was employed on the Red River Post at Louisville, Arkansas, then traveled a few years as a journeyman printer and in January, 1874, removed to New Orleans, where his chief employment was on the Bulletin. In November, 1877, the late Mr. Goodwyn removed to Colfax and took charge of the Chronicle as an editor and publisher, purchasing the outfit from Ragan & Nash. The Chronicle had been established in 1876 by J. M. Sweeney. From 1877 for a period of forty-three years H.G. Goodwyn was in every sense the editor and inspiring genius of the Chronicle, writer of its editorials, widely read and quoted, and at all times made the paper a power in politics and in the civic progress and development of his community. No one was more loyal to the democratic party, and in that loyalty he never wavered. He enjoyed a fighting participation in politics and public affairs, and exercised his influence not only through his paper but personally, and was never a favor seeker, working entirely for the good of the cause. However, he filled a number of public offices, being mayor, marshal, and councilman of Colfax, and member and president of the parish police jury and school board. In 1865 he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. At the organization of a church of that denomination in Colfax on December 5, 1881, he and his wife enrolled as charter members, and he was continuously active in both church and Sunday School the rest of his life, and was one of the well known Methodist laymen of the state. Through all the years he retained the sincere simplicity of his faith in a better life. This faith had been instilled in him when a child by his sainted mother. At the age of thirteen he penned a tribute to his mother, which deserves quoting, not only for its merit, but also because the principles and ideals therein expressed were illustrative of his personal character and conduct through all his later years. Often in my dreams I see you mother, Watching me with a tearful eye, Often when I speak a cross word to brother, I think of what you said when death was nigh. And oft when in the paths of sin I stray, I hear a small voice say, my son, come this way, And when by me that voice is heard amid the scenes of worldly pleasure It stops my headlong speed to death, And causes me to think of treasure, The counsel you gave me while on earth. That counsel I will respect and obey, As long as life endures. The substance of a tribute from Bishop J.G. Keener, given after the death of Mr. Goodwyn, emphasized the fact that his character was without stain, and he had the good fortune to escape even the calumny of the world. Every one revered him as a good man who had at hearr the well being and salvation of mankind, and under God doubtless he was the means of calling men to the knowledge of Christ. His memory is blessed. He lived to do good and did it. Howard Garrett Goodwyn married, February 22, 1881, Miss Luella De Lacey, daughter of Alfred C. Lewis. Mrs. Goodwyn resides at Colfax. She was the mother of ten children: Angeline Evaline, of New Orleans; Alfred Merrilll, of Colfax; Gertrude Luella, wife of T. J. Porteous, of Plaquemine; Elizabeth, wife of J. D. Givens, of Colfax; Ethel Fitzallen, wife of J. T. McMurry, of Colfax; Howard Keener, of Covington; Viola Valentine, wife of J. A. McCoy, of Hodge; Philo Marvin, of Saginaw, Michigan; Grace Constance, wife of C. P. Murphy, of New Orleans; and Lilly Belle, wife of Frank Tacker, of Nashville, Tennessee. Alfred Merrill Goodwyn, the present publisher of the Colfax Chronicle, was born in that town, January 22, 1883. To the age of eleven he attended public schools in Colfax, and the rest of his education was acquired in what has been called one of the best of universities, the printing office of the Chronicle. He worked for some years at the side of his father, getting the benefit of that wise counselor's point of view, and vast store of knowledge and experience. He has also been interested in other affairs from time to time. At the age of seventeen he had as an addition to his printing duties the carrying of the mail from the railroad to the postoffice, a work that required his presence at four o'clock in the morning. His salary for that was ten dollars a month. Before he was twenty-one years of age he had served a term of eight months as town marshal. Mr. Goodwyn was secretary-treasusrer of the town of Colfax from 1914 to 1920 and for three years of that time, acted as scretary and assistant manager of the electric light plant. He was secretary of the Woodmen of the World ten years. He is owner of the Goodwyn Insurance Agency. He continues the Chronicle as a valiant supporter to the democratic party in his section of the state, and his wife and son are active workers in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married in 1908 Miss Della Smith, daughter of Philip S. and Louvenia (Hyde) Smith. She was born in Montgomery, Louisiana, their two children being Howard Merrill, born in 1908 and Ruth Marcelite, who was born March 6, 1913.