John Goodner, Jr.

by Herbert W. Lacey

John Goodner, the eldest child of Conrad and Elizabeth (Scherer) Goodner, was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, December 17th, 1783.  While a very young lad, before the year 1790, his parents moved with some other families from Guilford County to Sullivan County, Tennessee, just then in the process of settlement and thus a very frontier–like country.  His father purchased land there and improved it, remaining there until the latter part of 1804 or the early part of 1805, when he removed to Smith County, Tennessee.  At this time, John was about 20 years of age.

His schooling, such as was then possible, was obtained in the backwoods schools of Sullivan County.  Mostly he helped his father on the farm, and probably served an apprenticeship with someone to learn the trade of tanner, since that was the profession he followed all his life, together with that of farming.

A few years after the family moved to Smith County, an September 10th, 1807, he married Martha Stewart, born April 27th, 1784, of parentage not presently known.  John, at the date of his marriage, lacked a few months of being 24 years of age.  In August, of the following year, their first child was born, whom they named Cyrus.  The second child, Elizabeth, followed on January 6th, 1810, and on August 7th, 1811, a second son was born, Jacob.  In all eleven children were born to Martha and John, all in Smith County.  In 1813, John was drafted into the US Army to fight against the Creek Indians, but he, because of his young family, found it inexpedient to go, and so hired his brother, James, as a substitute, paying him fifteen dollars a month, in addition to which James received his army pay.

His parents, along with some of his brothers and all his sisters, had left Smith County and removed to the Illinois Territory in about 1811 or 1812, settling in the southern part which was then being peopled by many families from the southern States.  John remained on his farm in Smith County, residing near the village of Carthage.  Here we find him in the years 1815 and 1816 with his brother, James, who had returned safely from his army service.

Some old letters reveal that the three sons who did not accompany the parents to Illinois Territory did later paid them a visit, John making the trip in the latter part of 1814 or the early part of 1815, taking his son, Jacob, along with him.  David and James made their visit in 1817.  In a letter to his parents dated May 6^th, 1815, John made mention of his trip, and also made a proposition to have Benjamin come and work with him and to learn the trade of tanner.  This did not appeal to Benjamin, and he never came.

John's inclinations and talents ran to temporal things; he was the money maker of the family.  His letters to his parents reveal this.  In the latter part of 1818 he sold his tan yard for $3, 000.00 and then purchased a tract of land near Carthage containing 1206 acres, for which he paid $6,000.00.  He informed his parents of this transaction in his letter of January 27^th, 1819, stating that he would immediately sink another tan yard and continue the business.  From this letter we also know that he owned three Negro slaves.  I have been told that in referring to his Negroes he never used the term "slaves", but always used the word "darkies.”  It is interesting to note that there are today Negro families carrying the name Goodner, who derive from these "darkies" of John or those of David, or both.  In this letter he mentioned being heavy "with a Grate burden of flesh.  Weight is near 200 lbs.  ", and that from this excess weight he was unable to do much physical work in hot weather.  It would appear from this that John must have been of short stature, for 200 pounds is not too great a weight for a man of large, or even a moderate frame.  This is the only reference we have to John's physique.  No likeness of him exists so far as we have been able to learn.

John remained in the Carthage area until the year 1836, when the Ocoee lands in Bradley County, Tennessee, were thrown open for settlement, after the removal of the Cherokee Indians by the Government.  He then sold his farm and tannery near Carthage and bought a good farm in the northern part of Bradley County, which some years later he sold to his son, John.  He remained on this place and continued his tannery, the sinking of which was his very first project after purchase, for quite a few years.  After he sold the place to John, he removed to the Chestuee Creek area in the same county, where he spent the remainder of his days, passing away on January 1^st 1861, just at the beginning of the momentous events that were to render the nation asunder for four dark years.  He was 77 years of age at his death.  Martha had died a few years previously, November 17^th, 1859.  John lies buried in the New Friendship Cemetery in Chatata Valley, about six miles from the city of Cleveland, Tennessee.