Cover

[Illustration: Color illustration of four Revolutionary War Minutemen standing with muskets.]

The Goodmans of Hadley

Our Family's Experience in the American Revolution

Geoff Goodman

Minutemen of 1776

2012

Foreword

Foreword

The story of Richard Goodman's family continues with this account of the Goodman's of Hadley during the American Revolution. Nearly a century after Richard was killed in an Indian attack during King Philip's War in 1676, his family found it necessary to confront a new enemy, the British crown. Four of Richard's great grandsons and a great great grandson were among those who took up arms as "Minutemen" in the Massachusetts militia. Enos Goodman, the great x 6 grandfather of today's youngest generation, was one of them. Enos' younger brother Elihu, his half-brother Noah, Noah's son Ithamar and Enos' cousin Samuel were all among the men of Hadley, Massachusetts who mobilized in response to British military actions in April 1775. Little is known about Enos Goodman except his brief service on two occasions during the Revolutionary War, and his invaluable service to us, as father of our branch of the Goodmans. More is known about his half-brother, who I now think of as Uncle Noah. Noah Goodman played a role in several significant events of the time. I hope you will enjoy learning and retelling his story.

Geoff Goodman 2012

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[Illustration: Grayscale illustration of two oxen yoked to a wooden cart; a man drives from the cart and another walks alongside.]

Thomas Goodman probably had no memory of his father. Thomas was only two years and six months old when his father, Richard Goodman, died in an Indian attack while inspecting the fences at Hocanum Meadow near Hadley, Massachusetts on April 3, 1676. The attack was a minor skirmish in King Philip's War, the second significant war between the Indians and English colonies in New England. But for Thomas, it was an event that shaped the course of his life.

Thomas was the youngest of five surviving children of Richard and Mary Goodman. The couple had had a total of eight children but three died in early childhood *. Growing up in a family headed by a widow was difficult in those times. But Mary Goodman was fortunate to have two teenage boys, John (age 15) and Richard, Jr. (age 13), at the time of her husband's death. And her daughters, Mary and Elizabeth (about 9 and 5 at the time) were soon old enough to help care for their little brother.

The Goodmans of Hadley

We can assume that John and Richard had a lot of influence on Thomas as he grew up. Thomas' brothers would have learned a man's skills from their father – things like riding a horse, caring for livestock, constructing fences and buildings and using firearms. But Thomas would have learned most of these skills from his two older brothers, who would have been in their twenties when Thomas was a teenager.

* Thomas' younger brother Samuel, was born on May 5, 1675 and survived only 10 days. When the earlier volume of this history, Richard Goodman - Colonial Pioneer was written, the fate of Thomas' youngest sibling was not known to this author.

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We know little about Thomas' eldest brother John. Perhaps he took after the more solitary side of his father's personality, and pursued a farmer's calling. His brother Richard, like his father, rose to a position of leadership in the militia. Richard Jr. attained the rank of Major, which would have made him one of the senior officers in the local militia regiment.

Thomas, who is the direct ancestor of our line of the Goodman family, may have been more like John, his lower profile older brother. We have no record of any public offices or titles associated with Thomas. But all three Goodman boys had the advantage of becoming landowners, as a result of their father's bequests. Thomas received 150 pounds worth of land in Northampton, Massachusetts. Thomas appears to have remained in the Goodman's hometown of Hadley, Massachusetts, so perhaps he sold the Northampton property to buy land in Hadley.

Thomas married Grace Marsh, a hometown girl who was the daughter of Samuel Marsh, one of founders of Hadley who had moved from Hartford, Connecticut with Richard Goodman, Sr. In 1699, they had a daughter Mary. On December 15, 1701, Thomas, Jr. was born. He is the direct ancestor of our line of the Goodman family. Five younger siblings followed: Samuel (1702 or 1703), Rachel (1706), Abigail (1709), Eleazar (1711), and Nathan (1713).

Little is known about Thomas, Jr. except for one very important fact: He was the most prolific of all of our direct ancestors, the father of eleven children. Since most of the family remained in Hadley, it's probable that nearly everyone in the town became quite familiar with the Goodman name.

Thomas, Jr. married Mary Scoville, and the couple had three little girls, Ruth (1726), Mary (1728), and Miriam (1731). Then on February 9, 1734, they had a son, Noah. In 1736, Mary died. But in the same year, Thomas wed Rebecca Shepherd. It is from this union that our line of Goodmans descends. Thomas and Rebecca soon added to the growing Goodman family, with the births of Asa (1738), Rebecca (1743), Susannah (1745), Thomas III (1746), and Thankful (1748). On March 4, 1751, Enos Goodman was born. Enos was to become one of the direct ancestors of our line. In 1753, his little brother Elihu arrived. Thomas, Jr. was 52 years old when his youngest child was born.

As we read of the expanding Goodman family in the small town of Hadley, we might imagine that this was a period of peace and tranquility. However, this was not always the case. Growing conflict between two global adversaries, Britain and France, was played out on multiple continents. The conflict was waged in Europe, India, Africa, the Caribbean and North America. In North America, one of the areas of particular unrest was on the frontier between the French colony of Quebec and the British colonies of New England. Both the French and the British made alliances with Indian tribes, and occasional Indian attacks on remote outposts became a characteristic of these small but brutal wars. The Iroquois nation was allied with the British, while the Huron and Algonquin nations were allied with the French.

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King George's War (1740 to 1748) was one of the several conflicts between the French and British in North America. On August 20, 1746, Indians surrounded a British outpost not far from Deerfield, Massachusetts. The outpost, called Fort Massachusetts, was overwhelmed and its inhabitants were killed or captured. Among those captured was Samuel Goodman, Thomas, Jr.'s younger brother. We don't know what role Samuel played at Fort Massachusetts, though at the age of 43, he was probably too old to have been a soldier. Since we have no evidence that he was an officer in the militia, perhaps he had a role in providing goods or services to the fort. Captives from Fort Massachusetts, many desperately ill from dysentery, were marched toward Canada. Few survived, and Samuel Goodman was one of those who died in captivity.

In 1747, Thomas' younger brother Eleazer and his wife Hannah Rugg had a baby boy. He was named Samuel, perhaps in memory of the brother who had died the previous year. We believe that this Samuel Goodman, a cousin of our ancestor Enos, was one of the five Goodmans from Hadley to serve in the Revolutionary War.

Noah Goodman

We know little about the relationship between our ancestor, Enos Goodman, and his older half-brother, Noah Goodman. But with 17 years of age separating them, it seems unlikely that they were very close growing up. It is more probable that Noah was an influential adult in Enos' life. Noah became a prominent citizen in Hadley, and it is likely that Enos followed his lead in politics. We have little information about the professional lives of our Goodman ancestors. But we do know that times were changing in the New England colonies, and the lifestyles of our 18th century ancestors were quite a bit different from those of a century before. Gone were the days of log cabins with hog pens and chickens out back. The residents of Hadley were now becoming more specialized, with a variety of artisans and merchants contributing to the town's commerce. We don't know for certain, but we think Noah may have been a tavern keeper.**

** Shay's Rebellion of 1786 was an uprising of disgruntled Revolutionary War veterans led by Daniel Shays. His followers believed that some wealthy citizens had profited unfairly. During this insurrection, Shay's followers broke into the home of a "Major Goodman" in Hadley, and destroyed his record books and several barrels of whiskey. If this "Major Goodman" was Noah, he may have been a tavern keeper or merchant.

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[Illustration: Color painting of a crowded early American tavern interior with patrons at tables.]

The Tavern – A center of early American social life

What we know for sure is that Noah added to the growing number of the Goodman clan in Hadley. Noah married Abial Smith, a local Hadley girl, on October 25, 1756. Noah was 22 years old and Abial was 21. Their first child, Ithamar, arrived quite soon thereafter, on February 1, 1757. In August of 1759, their second son Titus was born. Sadly, he died in December of the same year. In 1762, a daughter Mary was born. Another son, who was also named Titus, arrived in 1763. Then another son, Simeon was born in 1770. Then two daughters, Clarissa (1774) and Abial (date of birth unknown) were born.

Comparison of dates of birth suggests some interesting relationships. Noah's son Ithamar was only six years younger than his half-brother Enos and just three years younger than his youngest half-brother Elihu. It would be interesting to know more about the relationship between Ithamar and his uncles Enos and Elihu, all of whom grew to adulthood together. Their cousin Samuel was a bit older, four years senior to Enos.

In those days, all able-bodied men were required to serve in the local militia. Most men served as privates, basically as individual foot soldiers. We know that Enos, Elihu, Ithamar and Samuel Goodman all served as privates, and there is no indication that they served at a higher rank. But Noah became a commissioned officer in the Massachusetts Militia. Noah would have been a young man in his twenties during the French and Indian War of 1756-

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1763. It's likely that he served in the militia in Hadley, achieving the rank of Lieutenant there. As far as we know, he was not involved in operations outside of the local area.

Subjects of the British Crown

During the French and Indian War (1756-1763), the New England colonies fought on the British side. But for most of the colonists, the war was an exercise in protecting the local population, rather than fighting for the British Crown. For example, Joshua Bradford's efforts in building the fort at Bradford's Point, Maine was for the purpose of protecting local families from Indian attacks, rather than serving the objective of defeating the French.***

The French and Indian War culminated in a decisive defeat of the French at the Battle of Quebec. As a result, Canada moved into the British sphere of influence. During the American Revolution, and the War of 1812, Canada remained firmly on the British side.

Despite the success of the British during the French and Indian War, the conflict began to strain the relationship between Britain and its colonies in America. The prolonged war with France had been terribly costly, and Britain needed to wring every possible resource from its colonies throughout the British Empire. From the British viewpoint, it seemed entirely reasonable to extract a heavy contribution from the American colonies. After all, the triumph of the British over the French and their Indian allies had made life safer for the American colonists. The Americans didn't see it the same way. The war they had known was mostly a series of brutal fights between settlers and the Indians, with little if any help from the British government. Moreover, they saw themselves as Englishmen, not subjugated natives like those in India or the Caribbean. But unlike their counterparts in the British Isles, the Americans had no representatives in the British Parliament. In the increasingly bitter protest that followed, the watchword of the Americans was "No taxation without representation!"

One of the acts of Parliament that proved especially damaging to British-American relations was the hated "Stamp Act" of 1764. This act required the purchase of tax stamps to be affixed to all manner of legal documents and imported goods. To avoid the necessity of having government officials sent from Britain, the British government hired Americans in major towns to serve as their agents in collecting taxes. The "stamp men" were widely despised as the local face of the unpopular British government. The issue of taxes, and the local agents of the Crown who collected them, caused deep and permanent divisions. Those who sided with the British government were called Loyalists or Tories. In larger towns, like Boston, a significant portion of the community was well connected with the British government. But in smaller towns, like Hadley, many were angered over perceived unfair treatment.

*** The story of the Indian attack on the Joshua Bradford family on May 22, 1758 is told in another family history monograph, Incident at Bradford's Point.

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The majority of Americans may not have been inclined to take a strong position either for or against the British government. America was still a rural agrarian society, and for many farmers, the policies of the British crown had mostly indirect effects. But some citizens, like merchants, were affected profoundly. A tavern-keeper (like Noah Goodman, we think) would have been confronted by tax collectors at every turn. Every bill of sale, contract, or barrel of imported spirits would have involved paying taxes.

Citizens inclined to take an activist role in opposition to the British gravitated toward a loosely associated group calling themselves the "Sons of Liberty". The Sons of Liberty, which soon had groups in nearly all the American colonies, was more a grassroots political movement than a formal organization. The most active Sons of Liberty group was in Boston, led by a notorious firebrand, local brewer Sam Adams. The Sons of Liberty engaged in a wide variety of anti-British activities, from disseminating propaganda pamphlets, to peaceful demonstrations (usually around a symbolic "Liberty Tree" or "Liberty Pole"), to acts of vandalism against British government property and even roughing up Loyalists and British officials.

We don't know whether Noah was a member of the Sons of Liberty, but subsequent events indicate that he was deeply involved in activities against the British government. We can guess that he had many business and social contacts, which would have placed him in an excellent position to obtain information and to influence the political views of others.

To understand why our Goodman ancestors became involved in the opposition to the British government, and eventually took up arms in the American Revolution, some historical background is needed.

Storm Clouds of War

To many Americans, taxes on imports had always been a fact of life. But the Stamp Act taxes, which were levied on economic activity within the American colonies, were considered by the Americans to be an overreach by the British government. The Stamp Act taxes were so widely ignored and circumvented that Parliament eventually had to rescind them.

But these taxes were replaced by an even more burdensome taxation regime, the Townshend Acts of 1767. Townshend, Lord of the Exchequer, reasoned that if the Americans could be made to pay taxes only on imported goods, he would make them pay dearly. Under the Townshend Act, common goods that had not previously been taxed, such as glass, cloth, and tea, came under a heavy new tax schedule. Collection of these taxes was placed under the government's customs authority, which was enforced by the Admiralty Court. Decisions of the Admiralty Court were made by judges serving at the pleasure of the Crown, and did not involve a jury of one's peers.

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[Illustration: Black-and-white engraving of the Boston Massacre, with British soldiers firing into a crowd of colonists.]

Americans were enraged by the Townshend Acts, and responded with a wide range of civil disobedience, ranging from boycotts of goods to smuggling, vandalism and harassment of British government officials. The British cracked down hard, using the courts to crush opponents, and moving British military units into some American cities to restore order. Parliament had also passed the Quartering Act of 1766, which required the Americans to provide British troops with barracks, bedding, and even beer and rum.

The British troops in America were seen by many of the locals as an oppressive occupying force, and unpleasant incidents became common. On a day in March 1770, after a winter of rising tensions, a mob of youthful Bostonians began taunting a squad of British soldiers. After being pelted with trash, snowballs and oyster shells, a soldier fired his musket at one of the most aggressive of his tormentors. In the ragged volley of gunfire that followed, five colonists were killed. This incident, which was portrayed as the "Boston Massacre" in propaganda from the Sons of Liberty, inflamed popular sentiment against the British forces in America.

The "Boston Massacre" - March 1770

The American response to the Townshend Acts was flagrant smuggling to avoid customs taxes. The British responded by patrolling the coast with cutters of their customs service. The captain of the cutter HMS Gaspee, operating in the Narragansett Bay area, was known for being especially aggressive. In the spring of 1772, the HMS Gaspee ran aground. A group of the local Sons of Liberty took over the ship, captured the crew and beat them up, and then burned the HMS Gaspee to the waterline. The British government energetically investigated

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[Illustration: Color illustration of the Boston Tea Party at night: men dumping tea from ships at a wharf under a full moon.]

this provocative incident, but was unable to identify and apprehend the perpetrators. The Gaspee Incident left many members of Parliament with a strong desire to bring those rebellious colonists to heel.

In 1773, the Townshend Acts were replaced by a single Tea Act, which gave the East India Company a monopoly over all tea imports to the American colonies. The Sons of Liberty focused their full attention on defeating this latest taxation scheme. They demanded that the Tea Act be rescinded, and told the British tax collectors that they would permit no tea to be shipped into American ports. Events played out differently in various port cities. In Charleston, cargoes of tea were off-loaded, but placed under guard in damp warehouses. In New York and Philadelphia, the cargoes were refused and the ships were turned back. In Boston, where tensions were already the highest, the Sons of Liberty took a much more provocative course. On December 16, 1773, a group of about two thousand men took control of Griffin's Wharf, and a party of thirty Sons of Liberty men disguised as Indians boarded three merchant ships. They dumped the entire cargo of the ships, 342 chests of tea, into Boston Harbor. In today's money, the cargo would be valued at one million dollars. This incident would go down in American history as the "Boston Tea Party".

The "Boston Tea Party" – December 1773

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A Shadow Government

The response of the British Parliament was measured but harsh. Over a period of four months, the Parliament passed a series of draconian measures intended to send a strong message to the rebellious Americans. These laws were soon known in America as the "Intolerable Acts".

The Boston Port Act shut down the port of Boston to all commercial shipping and removed its Customs House, until the Bostonians paid for the damage to the tea cargo. The Quartering Act allowed British officials to place British troops in private homes, at the owner's expense. The Massachusetts Government Act annulled the provincial charter of Massachusetts. Members of the Massachusetts Governor's Council (the upper house of the state legislature) would no longer be elected by the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and would instead be appointed by the King and hold office at his pleasure. The principle of serving at the king's pleasure was also extended to all judges, marshals, sheriffs and justices of the peace.

These laws also provided a means for enforcement: a squadron of Royal Navy ships, and five regiments of the British Army in Boston. Civilian government was replaced by military authority with the appointment of General Thomas Gage as Governor General of Massachusetts.

In October 1774, Governor General Gage canceled the scheduled meeting of the Massachusetts General Court (the state legislature) because of political turmoil following the Massachusetts Government Act. The members of the House of Representatives adjourned to Concord and reorganized as a Provincial Congress. With John Hancock as its president, the Provincial Congress became the de facto government of Massachusetts outside of Boston. It assumed all powers to rule the province, collect taxes, buy supplies, and raise a militia. Hancock sent Paul Revere to the First Continental Congress with the news that Massachusetts had established the first autonomous government in the Thirteen Colonies.

Noah Goodman played an important role in this shadow government. He served as Hadley's representative to the Provincial Congress, which met periodically in different towns to avoid being arrested by the British government. In addition, he served as a representative of the Provincial Congress in Hadley, serving as the town's first Justice of the Peace. At the age of forty, Noah had already become one of Hadley's most significant political figures.

One of the most important functions of the Provincial Government, and certainly the most secret, was to prepare for possible armed conflict with the British Crown. The operational cell responsible for this at the local level was called the Committee of Safety. Its primary role was to ensure that the local militia was turned from its original purpose as a local force to augment British forces, and transformed into an insurgent force capable of opposing the British military. To do this they needed to establish sources of military supplies that were not dependent on the British.

Noah Goodman was one of the four-member Committee of Safety for South Hadley, and he was the key player in one of the committee's moves to consolidate military stores in the area. The British had some stashes of gunpowder stored nearby at locations in Hampshire County. Noah, who by then had been promoted to the rank of Captain, was assigned to

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[Illustration: Black-and-white illustration of a Minuteman indoors preparing to leave with his musket, assisted by a woman, with children at a doorway.]

collect the stores of powder and to bring them to a central location under the control of the Committee of Safety. We don't know how he was selected for this mission, but it was clearly a task that required a trustworthy and capable operative. But we might suspect that Noah had another advantage that made him the perfect candidate for the job. Since he probably had access to wagons and horses to deliver barrels of whiskey and beer, he may have been the obvious choice to deliver barrels of gunpowder for the Committee of Safety.

Minutemen of Hadley

In the months that followed, Committees of Safety throughout Massachusetts conducted a program of confiscating and consolidating British Government military supplies, especially gunpowder and cannons. Inevitably, this would result in a military clash, as the British Army sought to recover the confiscated supplies.

The Committees of Safety anticipated the coming conflict, and organized an element of the militia to deal with the threat of a raid by the British army to recover the military stores. This group was called the Minutemen, because they were required to arm themselves and to begin assembling within one minute of the time they were alerted.

A Minuteman responds to the Alarm – April 19, 1775

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[Illustration: Color painting of Minutemen behind a split-rail fence firing muskets toward distant British troops.]

In Hadley, five members of the Goodman family were Minutemen. Noah was a captain, and a company commander. In addition, there were Noah's half-brothers, Enos and Elihu, his son Ithamar and his cousin Samuel Goodman, all of whom were privates.

On April 19, 1775 a brigade of 1200 British soldiers set out on a mission to recover military supplies known to be located in the towns of Lexington and Concord. The British plan was to present a show of force, and to collect the military supplies without resorting to violence. Both the British and the Americans had orders not to fire first. The plan fell apart when an unintended exchange of gunfire, later known as "the shot heard 'round the world", occurred between a group of British soldiers and Lexington Minutemen. Things unraveled badly as the British marched on to Concord, taking casualties from shooters concealed along their route of march. By the time they returned to their barracks, the British had taken over two hundred casualties, while the Minutemen had suffered fewer than one hundred.

Minutemen fire on the British Troops – April 19, 1775

Over eighty miles away, the Hadley Minutemen were alerted, and reported for duty. After eight days of waiting to see if the British would attack their town in western Massachusetts, the Hadley Minutemen were released from duty. Although a British raid on Hadley was

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[Illustration: Color full-body portrait of a militiaman in a tricorne hat holding a musket in a field.]

never a likely scenario, the Minutemen there had the distinction of serving on the first day of what was to become the American Revolution. Our ancestor, Enos Goodman, a young man of 24 years at the time, thus became not only a veteran of the Revolution, but one of the original Minutemen.

Building the Militia

The American Revolution began with many on both sides believing the conflict would soon be over. The British believed that their superior professional military and naval forces would soon rout the American militia army. Many Americans hoped that an early strong showing would convince the British that the cost of the war would be too high, and would result in their expedited withdrawal from the American Colonies. Both these views proved overly optimistic.

The British had the advantage of possessing regular army and naval units, comprised of full-time members who had enlistments measured in years. In contrast, American militias were comprised of part-time volunteers. Many were farmers, who planned their military availability around the annual planting and harvesting seasons. Washington's Continental Army was created to provide America's first year-round professional army. But most of the American forces, especially at first, were provided by a part-time militia. Managing such a force during a sustained conflict was a major challenge.

A militiaman prepared for muster

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In Hampshire County Massachusetts, as in most of the country, keeping track of who was entering and leaving the militia was an ongoing task. A militia regiment often had an officer temporarily assigned as "mustermaster", who had the task of keeping track of who was currently serving in the regiment. He inspected soldiers reporting for duty ("mustering in") to ensure they were physically fit and had the necessary equipment, usually consisting of clothing, a musket, a hatchet or tomahawk, a canteen and a blanket. And he inspected soldiers "mustering out", mostly to ensure their time records were correct and that they were not taking equipment not belonging to them.

In time it became apparent that proper records were not maintained when various people performed the mustermaster duty on a temporary basis. Noah Goodman was soon performing this duty permanently for his regiment, assuming the role of Adjutant.

Apparently Noah was also involved in recruiting and organizing new members of the militia. In a certificate dated February 13, 1776, he stated that he had raised a company of militia during the month of December 1775, which was to be commanded by Captain Elijah Dwight.

Guns for Boston

Not only were the British forces qualitatively superior in having a professional standing army, they also had types of equipment that were unmatched by the American forces. The British Navy provided the capability to move large numbers of troops by sea, and to support them with heavy naval artillery. This combination kept the city of Boston under nearly constant threat.

One of the major shortfalls for the Americans was the lack of heavy artillery, the kind of guns that could throw a twenty pound projectile, like those of the British fleet. The cannons that the American militia had acquired from the British arsenals were small anti-personnel weapons, designed to fire a few pounds of grapeshot. This calculus changed with the American victory at Fort Ticonderoga, New York in May 1775. Among the most precious spoils of the battle were a significant number of heavy cannons. In one of the most amazing logistic feats of the war, American artillery commander Colonel Henry Knox engineered a 300 mile cross country movement of 60 tons of cannons from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston during the winter of 1775-1776, crossing the difficult terrain of the Berkshire Mountains. The Massachusetts Militia was given the task of establishing the artillery positions to defend Boston.

A new militia regiment, under Colonel Nicolas Dike, was formed to man the artillery positions at Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston. Noah Goodman was brought into this regiment as a staff officer, with a commission in the rank of Major. He received this commission on July 28, 1776. In view of his previous duties, it seems likely that Noah performed logistics or manpower management functions for the new regiment.

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[Illustration: Black-and-white drawing of oxen pulling a sled with a cannon through snowy woods, with a colonial officer watching.]

Colonel Henry Knox moves artillery from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston

During the period he was serving in Colonel Dike's Regiment, Noah received word that the Massachusetts House of Representatives had appointed him to serve in Colonel Marshall's 10th Massachusetts Regiment of the Continental Army, with a commission in the grade of Major. Noah declined to accept this commission, noting that he was already serving in a regiment "to reinforce" the Continental Army. If my understanding is correct, this would be analogous to a modern day officer declining a commission in the regular Army, with the rationale that he was already serving on active duty in the National Guard.

The Privates

Of the four Hadley Goodmans who served as privates in the Militia, Enos' younger brother Elihu Goodman had the most distinguished military service. After serving for eight days as a Minuteman in response to the alarm of April 19, 1775, twenty-two year old Elihu enlisted the following day in Colonel Benjamin Ruggles Woodbridge's Regiment. Colonel Woodbridge's

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[Illustration: Color painting of American soldiers behind an embankment during the Battle of Bunker Hill.]

Regiment marched to Boston and took part in the Battle of Bunker Hill. As far as we know, Elihu was the only one of the Hadley Goodmans to see combat during the Revolution. Elihu served for three months and 11 days in Woodbridge's Regiment, as well as in other regiments for short periods.

The Battle of Bunker Hill – June 1775

Enos' cousin Samuel also enlisted in Woodbridge's Regiment. However, he served with that regiment only until May 4. The Battle of Bunker Hill was on June 17. As far as we know, Ithamar Goodman, Noah's son, served only during the week of the Minuteman alarm.

Hadley was never on the front lines of conflict, but it was in a strategic location to provide support when an American position was under attack. One such example was an operation to provide relief to Fort Ticonderoga. Americans had held Fort Ticonderoga since May 1775, but in May 1777 British General John Burgoyne occupied high ground above the fort, threatening the American position.

On May 8, 1777 Colonel Leonard's Regiment of the Massachusetts Militia marched from Hampshire County in an attempt to relieve the garrison at Fort Ticonderoga. Private Enos Goodman, of Captain Eli Parker's Company, was one of the militiamen called up for this mission. Enos saw no combat action, because the American garrison withdrew from Fort Ticonderoga and its surrounding defenses in June, before the relieving forces arrived. He

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did, however, go on an extended hike through western Massachusetts and New York, which lasted until July 16, 1777. As a result, our ancestor Enos Goodman compiled a total of approximately seventy days of service in the American Revolution, including the week on alert as a Minuteman in the opening days of the war.

Superintendent of Enlistments

Noah Goodman served with Colonel Dike's Regiment until at least December 1776, and probably into early 1777. From some point after he returned home to Hampshire County until the end of the war, Noah served as Superintendent of Enlistments for that county. Although we have not learned what his full duties entailed, we know that he maintained the records of the military service of all men from Hampshire County. For a Hampshire man to be certified as a veteran, verification by Noah Goodman was required. As a result, there are many existing documents signed by him. Apparently, Noah's son Ithamar assisted him, because there are documents signed by Ithamar stating that Noah had verified the service of a militiaman.

A Constitutional Framework

In 1776, Massachusetts re-established the General Court, to serve as the successor to the Provincial Congress. One of the principal orders of business was to write a constitution for Massachusetts. By June 1777, Noah Goodman was back in Hampshire County, and was selected to represent the county at the General Court. It was inevitable that writing a constitution could not be accomplished in meetings of the full session, and a subcommittee of 17 members, Noah Goodman among them, was chosen to draft the constitution.

A constitution was drafted, printed, and distributed to municipalities throughout the state for their approval. But rather than the two thirds approval they sought, not a single town approved. Clearly the draft constitution fell short in many areas, but it definitely failed in the important area of providing fairness in representation.

Massachusetts voted to try again, and a new Constitutional Convention met from September through October 1779. The constitution was drafted by John Adams, Samuel Adams, and James Bowdoin. Following approval by town meetings, the Constitution was ratified in 1780, and it remains the oldest written constitution in the world in continuous effect. The Massachusetts Constitution was the model for the Constitution of the United States of America, drafted seven years later.

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[Illustration: Color painting of delegates gathered around a table by candlelight near a fireplace, discussing documents.]

Delegates discuss Ratification of the U.S. Constitution – 1788

Noah wasn't quite done with his foray into constitutional matters. In 1788 he was a member of the Massachusetts state convention considering ratification of the United States Constitution. He cast his ballot in favor of ratification, in a vote that passed 187-168.

Noah finished his career as a respected long-serving member of the Massachusetts legislature. He is also known for his contributions to establishing Mount Holyoke College.

Noah Goodman died on February 4, 1797, just five days short of his 63rd birthday. He is buried in the Old South Hadley Burial Ground, lot A115. The epitaph on his gravestone reads:

Princes, this clay must be your bed In spite of all your towers The tall, the wise, the reverend head Must be as low as our's

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Epilogue

Our line of the Goodman family is fortunate to have a fairly complete record over the generations, from a manor house in England to the present day. But many of these people are reduced to a single entry in the family genealogy. We are very fortunate to have a much more detailed accounting on a few special members of the family. I was thrilled to discover enough information about the life of Richard Goodman to write the story of our family in early Colonial times. I scarcely dared to hope that there was another equally compelling family story to be told.

Since growing up in New Jersey, I have always wondered what role members of the Goodman family might have had during the Revolutionary War. I am happy to have finally arrived at an answer to that question. We now know that our ancestor Enos Goodman was both a Revolutionary War veteran and a Minuteman. We have the tantalizing detail that he spent weeks marching through Massachusetts and New York on a mission to relieve Fort Ticonderoga. What we would give for just a few pages of his diary during that trek!

Another fascinating detail was the service of Enos' brother Elihu Goodman, who enlisted in Colonel Benjamin Woodbridge's Regiment and served at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

But the person who really presented the opportunity to write another family history monograph was Noah Goodman. Noah played a notable role in the history of the era, all the way from serving on the secretive Committee of Safety to voting to ratify the Constitution of the United States. I wrote more about the origins of the Revolutionary War than I had planned, because I felt the need to explain why Noah was compelled to do what he did. Noah was willing not only to fight against the British government once the shooting had started; he actively plotted to subvert that government as it became overly burdensome.

In linking together the stories of Richard Goodman and Noah Goodman, I necessarily used broad brush strokes to cover the century from Richard's death to the eve of the Revolution. Along the way, we learned the story of the Goodman family's growing influence in Hadley, and the account of the capture of Samuel Goodman by Indians at Fort Massachusetts.

The stories of Richard and Noah, taken together, provide the outline for over a century and a half of the history of our family. It is a history of courage, perseverance and patriotism. It is about overcoming personal tragedies and difficult situations. And it is about meeting the challenges of one's own historical circumstances. It is a reminder of who we are, and how we must deal with the challenges presented by our own era.

Page 19

The Goodmans of Hadley – Family Relationships

Generation 0: Richard Goodman (1609-1676) marries Mary Terry (1635-1692).

Generation 1: Richard and Mary have eight children, of whom five survive infancy:
John (b.1661), Richard, Jr. (b.1663), Mary (b.date unknown), Elizabeth (b.date unknown) and Thomas (b.9/16/1673).

Generation 2: Thomas marries Grace Marsh, and they have seven children:
Mary (b.date unknown), Thomas, Jr. (b.12/15/1701), Samuel (b.1703 or 1703), Rachel (b.1706), Abigail (b.1709), Eleazar (b.1711) and Nathan (b.1713). Samuel dies in captivity after the attack on Fort Massachusetts (1746).

Generation 3: Thomas, Jr. marries Mary Scoville and they have four children:
Ruth (b.1726), Mary (b.1728), Miriam (b.1731) and Noah (b.1734). Mary Scoville dies in 1736.
Thomas, Jr. marries Rebecca Shepherd and they have seven children:
Asa (b.1738), Rebecca (b.1743), Susanna (b.1745), Thomas III (b.1746), Thankful (b.1748), Enos (b.3/4/1751), and Elihu (b.1753).
Thomas Jr.'s brother Eleazar marries Hannah Rugg. One of their sons is Samuel (b.1747). He is believed to be the Samuel Goodman from Hadley who served in the Revolutionary War.

Generation 4: Noah Goodman marries Abial Smith and they have seven children, of whom six survive infancy: Ithamar (b.1757), Mary (b.1762), Titus (b.1763), Simeon (b.1770), Clarissa (b. 1774) and Abial (b.date unknown).

The Hadley Goodmans who served in the American Revolution are as follows: Enos – Our direct ancestor, Richard's great grandson Elihu – Enos's brother Noah – Enos' Half-brother Ithamar – Noah's son, Enos' nephew Samuel – Enos' cousin

Bibliography

Bibliography

Ancestry.com, RootsWeb ID00238: Noah Goodman.

Bennett, William J., America: The Last Best Hope, Volume I, Nelson Current, Nashville TN, 2006.

Carpenter and Morehouse, The History of the Town of Amherst, Massachusetts, Press of Carpenter and Morehouse, Amherst MA, 1896.

Drake, Samuel G., Narrative of the Capture and Burning of Fort Massachusetts, S.G. Drake, Boston MA, 1870.

Massachusetts, Office of the Secretary of State, Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, Volume 6 , Wright and Potter Printing Company, Boston MA 1896.

Morrison, Samuel Eliot, The Oxford History of the American People, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1965.

Savage, James, Constitution of Massachusetts, Address delivered before the Massachusetts Lyceum, January 26, 1832, Collection of the Harvard University Library.

Turnbull, James Russell, The History of Northampton, Massachusetts, Press of Gazette Printing Company, Northampton MA, 1902.

Urban, Mark, Fusiliers: The Saga of a British Redcoat Regiment in the American Revolution, Walker and Company, New York NY, 2007.

Walker, Alice Morehouse, Historic Hadley, Grafton Press, New York NY, 1906.

Note on Illustrations

The illustrations in this document are all from the public domain, obtained from various sources on the Internet. They are meant to be representative, but they are not necessarily historically accurate depictions. For example, the painting of delegates discussing ratification of the U.S. Constitution shows delegates from Delaware, not Massachusetts. The scene of the Battle of Bunker Hill may not be an accurate representation of Elihu Goodman's actual experience during the battle. The tavern scene depicts a period somewhat later than the American Revolution, but was chosen as an example of the ambiance of an American tavern of the era. And of course, all the illustrations reflect the imagination of the artist, intended for dramatic effect and not necessarily accuracy of historical detail.