James Goodrich
| Born: | January 11, 1879, Tennessee |
| Died: | February 27, 1931, Fayetteville, Lincoln, Tennessee |
Notes:
• Son of W. C. Goodrich and Elizabeth Dollins - Tennessee Deaths Index
• Married Omagh Knight on Dec. 27, 1911 in Lincoln County, Tennessee - Huntsville City Directory 1913
• Home address in 1913 (may not be same numbering system now) 522 Adams Ave (May 6, 1891 - July 1966) - Huntsville City Directory 1913
• "Innovations were apparent during 1913 in the educational arena, when County Superintendent of Schools S. R. Butler took over the job full time for the first time, giving his former post at S. R. Butler School to J. C. Goodrich." - Record
• Sunday School Superintendency for The First United Methodist Church of Huntsville, Alabama. - Ford & Van Valkenburgh
• Professor Butler started the Butler Training School in 1908. Professor Butler was both a scholar and an outstanding administrator. But at some point he also became Madison County's Superintendent of Schools. "For several years, he juggled the two jobs successfully but found this increasingly onerous as the county grew. In 1913 he sold or leased the school to his language teacher, James Goodrich." - Wasson
• THE GOODRICH SCHOOL
"Mr. Goodrich, a fine Latin and Shakespearean scholar, maintained the school's reputation for academic excellence and good discipline. He was a stern man but with a saving sense of humor.
'We were scared to death of him, but we adored him,' an ex-student declared. She went on to tell how, as a saucy co-ed, she slipped away from school one day to joyride with a boyfriend on his motorcycle. She was seen and reported to Mr. Goodrich. For punishment he assigned her to write a long paper entitled 'Why I Must Not Skip School,' and to read it at an assembly attended by the entire student body. The experience gave her enough courage to voluntarily repeat the performance, this time with a parody on his beloved Shakespeare: 'We come here not to bury Goodrich but to praise him.' He pretended to be unimpressed, but she learned long afterward that he had secretly asked for a copy of her opus.
The Goodrich school was quite small. For instance, a May 1914 newspaper, The Weekly Times, describes an elaborate commencement program with a music recital, several debates, and a young ladies' social -- but there were only five graduates. Perhaps it is not surprising that he relinquished the school in 1918 to move to Fayetteville, Tennessee. Professor Reuben P. Wills purchased the school." - Wasson
Related Links:
• Boccippio - Article titled "Wells Avenue Restoration Preserves a History-Rich House in Five Points" by Dennis Boccippio for Historic Huntsville Quarterly, Vol. XXIX, #3-4, Fall-Winter, 2003, Historic Huntsville Foundation pages 27-24. The article focuses on a property and the Goodrich School was part of the history of this property. The part of the article mentioning the school is on page 29.
• Ford & Van Valkenburgh - A History of The First United Methodist Church of Huntsville, Alabama 1808-1983, by Ruth Sykes Ford and updated by Nancy Wilkinson Van Valkenburgh, 1984, page 77.
• HMCPL - Huntsville Madison County Public Library Archives (Photo of Goodrich School) (Originally found at http://digitalarchives.hmcpl.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15431coll1/id/295/rec/1.)
• Huntsville City Directory 1913 - Viewed through an Ancestry.com paid subscription
• Record - A Dream Come True: The Story of Madison County and Incidentially of Alabama and the United States, Volume II, by James Record, 1978, page 151.
• Tennessee Deaths Index - Viewed through an Ancestry.com paid subscription (Originally found at http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=FSTennesseeDeath&h=842826&indiv=try&o_vc=Record:OtherRecord&rhSource=7602.)
• Wasson - Article titled "Prominent Private Schools - 1908 to 1929 (Including Butler and Wills-Taylor) by Joberta Wasson for Historic Huntsville Quarterly, Vol. XIV, #2-3, Winter-Spring, 1988, Historic Huntsville Foundation , pages 5 & 6.
The Following Pages Link to this Page:
• Boccippio
• Record
• Wasson