John T. Goodall was born May 16, 1824 in Lebanon, Wilson County, Tennessee to Joab Goodall (1800-1845) and Nancy Palmer Goodall (1805-1877).  He was the first born of thirteen children. His siblings were:

• William Parke Goodall, b. January 08, 1827, Lebanon, Wilson Co., Tn, d. December 07, 1897, Marion, Williamson Co., IL.
• James Rankin Goodall, b. July 26, 1828, Lebanon, Wilson Co., Tn, d. July 29, 1854, Marion, Williamson Co., IL.
• Sarah Ann Goodall, b. February 19, 1830, Marion, Williamson Co., IL, d. August 10, 1847, Marion, Williamson Co., IL.
• Turner Goodall, b. 1832, Marion, Williamson Co., IL, d. 1862, VA.
• Hardin Goodall, b. February 16, 1833, Marion, Williamson Co., IL, d. June 17, 1893, Marion, Williamson Co., IL.
• Henry Goodall, b. April 26, 1834, Marion, Williamson Co., IL, d. July 15, 1849, Marion, Williamson Co., IL.
• Susan Elizabeth Goodall, b. January 30, 1836, Marion, Williamson Co., IL, d. May 28, 1919.
• Amanda Goodall, b. August 18, 1838, Lebanon, Wilson Co., Tn, d. December 20, 1900, Marion, Williamson Co., IL.
• Francis Marion Goodall, b. November 05, 1839, Marion, Williamson Co., IL, d. December 31, 1908, Marion, Williamson Co., IL.
• Thomas Jefferson Goodall, b. October 09, 1841, Marion, Williamson Co., IL, d. January 18, 1884, Marion, Williamson Co., IL.
• Mary Angeline Goodall, b. October 10, 1844, Marion, Williamson Co., IL, d. April 12, 1934, Marion, Williamson Co., IL.

His family came to Williamson County when he was four years old.  They lived in the area south east of Marion on the old road to Creal Springs near the Goodall Bridge.   This is the first bridge on the road after leaving Marion; it crosses Crab Orchard Creek.  His father, Joab, died on October 13, 1845 at the age of 45 and being the eldest, the care of the family fell upon him. He taught his first school near his old home at the age of 16 and afterwards went to Lebanon, Tennessee where he received a liberal education for that day.

After his father’s death in 1845, John moved to Marion and began his mercantile life in 1848. He was elected Williamson County sheriff in 1850 where he served for two years. He bought 160 acres of land in the sections south east of Marion near his father and his relative’s lands. 

He married Mrs. Sarah Ann Scates Thorn in Virginia on June 2, 1856 at Seven Mile Ford, Rich Valley, near Chilhowie, Virginia. Sarah was the daughter of Zebulon B. Scates and Sarah Brownlow Scates, was born August 1, 1825 in Smyth County, Virginia and attended the Seminary at Abingdon, Virginia. Both her father and grandfather were Methodist ministers. 

John had met Sarah in Marion when she was married to Dr. James P. Thorn. When Sarah was married to Dr. Thorn, they were known to have lived and died where Thorn Place was later platted to the city of Marion. This would have been roughly where the current Thorn Street intersects S. Virginia Street, a street named after their daughter Virginia. When Thorn Place was laid out, the remains of Dr. Thorn and his three children were moved to Rose Hill Cemetery by Joab Goodall, John and Sarah’s oldest son.

After her husband’s death she returned to Virginia and five years later, John went to Virginia to court her. He was successful and brought her and her daughter, Virginia, back to Marion to live. On June 16, 1856, in Williamson County, Illinois, John Goodall was appointed guardian for Virginia Thorn.

Also in 1856, John became one of the first directors on the Williamson County Agricultural Board in its charter year which immediately established the first county fairground that was located in west Marion in the blocks just east of the current Junior High School on W. Main Street. 

John became the county’s largest dealer in livestock and tobacco. In 1858, John Goodall and Marion Curtis Campbell established a dry goods firm under the name of Goodall & Campbell until 1874, when Samuel W. Dunaway became a partner. John Goodall and M.C. Campbell were lifelong friends and spoken of in historical records as being like brothers. This particular dry good business was sold in 1885 and continued on under the name of Goodall & Tippy, operated by Joab Goodall, John’s oldest son, and Oliver S. Tippy.

From 1858 he was also associated with Mr. Campbell dealing in livestock. The firm owned a fine stock farm of 700 acres adjoining Marion on the north.

He and Campbell were also in the tobacco business from 1853, being one of the largest dealers in this county. Goodall and Campbell operated a large and successful tobacco barn in Marion during the period in the counties history when tobacco was a major cash crop. One of their tobacco houses was located next to the railroad tracks on N. Van Buren Street which later became an Armour Poultry house just after the turn of 1900.

On July 17, 1857, Mr. and Mrs. James D. Pulley and Mr. and Mrs. John Goodall deeded property to John M. Cunningham, Williford Ferrell and William Hopper for the purpose of erecting a school building for the students of Marion. A two story frame building was constructed in keeping with the fashion of the day. It contained four rooms, but eight years later, two more were added. The improved property was destroyed by fire March 3, 1886. It was, in the same year, replaced with a two story brick structure that became Marion’s first substantial public school named Washington School where the new county court house now sits today.

In the 1860 census John, 35, and Sarah, 32, were living with their daughter Virginia, 13, and their two joint children Joab, 2, and John P., 4 months. Milly Mosely, a domestic, and her daughter Martha were living with them as were Abe Mann and Isaac Knight, laborers.  John’s real estate was valued at $20,000 and his personal property at $22, 265; a value today of over a million dollars. He was listed as a merchant. Virginia had real estate valued at $3,700 and personal property valued at $1,000; today’s value $120,000. This was probably from her late father’s estate.

Sarah’s daughter, Virginia Thorne, married Samuel W. Dunaway on April 8, 1863. Dunaway was and important figure in the early development of Marion but they spent their later years living in Carbondale’s high society.

In the 1865 state census which only gives the number of people in each age group but no names, they had 2 small boys, 1 small girl, and 1 old woman aged 60-70.  The older woman is probably his mother Nancy Goodall. In 1865 John, who was a trustee, and Sarah donated land for the Methodist “Brick Church”, namely the First United Methodist Church that sits on West Main Street to this day.

In April of 1869, several men set out to incorporate the Belleville and Southeastern Railroad Co. The train would run from Belleville to DuQuoin to Marion to Metropolis. The Williamson County men who were involved were Jesse Bishop, R.M. Hundley, Samuel Dunaway, J.M. Goddard, John Goodall, M. C. Campbell, George L. Owen, Charles M. Edwards, and Samuel W. Dunaway.

By the 1870 census, John and Sarah had 5 children living with them: Joab, 12; John, 10; Bell, 7; Samuel, 4; and an unnamed baby aged 5 months. John was a merchant and had $10,000 real estate and $1,000 personal property. Living with them was a man named Buckhart who was a clerk in John’s store and Rebecca, a domestic servant. They lived in Township 9 Range 3, West Marion.

While business partners, Goodall and Campbell operated a business location in the C.H. Denison building on the north side of the public square where the Bank of Marion is now located. Offices on the second floor were often rented by Williamson County over the years to house law offices and conduct county business between existing court houses, particularly after the court house burned in 1875. The second floor was also used to house several fraternal organizations into the late 1890’s.

When Sarah and her husband Dr. James Thorn had first come from Virginia to settle in the Marion area, they brought with them an African-American man who had taken on Sarah’s family name, Scates. Thomas Scates was a blacksmith born in VA who worked for the Stockton family on N. Market Street. Thomas Scates made local history one night in October 1877, when he got drunk and was locked up in jail.  Straw was put down to sleep on.  A fire broke out and Thomas died the next day at John Goodall’s house from burns.

John and Sarah had been well educated for the time in which they lived. Their children and grandchildren had opportunities which most people at that time did not have. They attended colleges and universities all over the country. Their children all traveled extensively. 

Those who were ill traveled to the health centers of the day, such as Battle Creek, Michigan and Hot Springs, Arkansas. Their sons Joab and John Palmer Goodall went to Hot Springs in March of 1881 to try to improve John P’s health to no apparent improvement.   

The sons Joab, John and Samuel became rich in the coal industry in Williamson County. Livestock was an important trade in this area because the mules and horses could be sold to the military and the mules were used in the many mines in the area. John’s son, Joab, became the largest mule dealer in the country and for years operated a large brick mule barn on N. Van Buren Street.  In 1922, the mule barn was converted to a garage and leased to a motor sales company. Later it would become home to Morrison’s Home Oil Company.

John served on the Williamson County Agricultural Society that ran the Williamson County Fair and in 1872 he was a member of the board of directors for the Carbondale and Shawneetown Railroad that enabled Marion to have its first rail connection the big four railroads by tying into the Illinois Central line in Carbondale. No longer would merchants and shippers have to rely on ox carts to move merchandise to the rail lines.

In the 1880 census, John was listed as a dry goods merchant while his son’s, Joab and John Palmer Goodall, were dealers in livestock. Sarah’s brother, Zebulon B. Scates, 43, was living next door to them. Their daughter, Arbella Brownlow and son, Samuel H. were also still living at home and attending school. The family was living in the city of Marion. 

In 1894 John served as postmaster for the Marion post office. John and Sarah Goodall lived in Marion over forty years before her death on April 26, 1897. She had been stricken with paralysis three years before and from that time had been unable to leave her room except when aided. One day before her death, she suffered a second stroke. She was survived by three children. 

John contracted a chill which developed into an acute case of pneumonia which caused his death on November 9, 1897, less than seven months after the death of his wife, and was laid to rest in Rose Hill Cemetery. He was postmaster at Marion at the time of his death.

When he died only 5 of his 13 siblings were still alive: Amanda Pulley, Susan Spiller, Mary Gray, William Parke Goodall, and Francis Marion Goodall. He was a conservative Democrat and a Mason. County history recorded him as being one of the most influential people of his time in the county.

Notes on the Children:

Joab Goodall was born on March 4, 1858 in Williamson County and died April 8, 1930. He married Mamie Cobb of Kentucky. He was a dealer in livestock. In July of 1920 he and others struck oil in Oklahoma at a site they had bought into.  At the time of his death he was a Vice-president of the 1st National Bank in Marion and had recently moved back to Marion from Carbondale where he had lived a number of years. 

His children all went to schools away from Southern Illinois: John Attended a military camp in Lake Champlain in New York in Aug of 1919.   John went to Yale, Charles went to University of Illinois and Mary went to a Young Ladies School in Denver.  John and John were lawyers. 

In 1924 Joab and his family traveled to New York by automobile where he was to attend the 1924 Democratic Convention as an alternate.  While living in Carbondale in 1928, Joab received some notoriety for being the last person to see and speak to J. C .Hundley the night he and his wife were shot and killed.  Joab stated that J. C. Hundley was talking to him of disinheriting his son Victor because “he was no good.” For more information on Joab Goodall, see the post Joab Goodall.

John Palmer Goodall was born on January 27, 1860 and died on July 5, 1884. His death notice in the Marion Monitor paper read, “…..in his early years he was a bright, intelligent, handsome youth. As time went on, a disease took its dreadful hold upon him and dethroned his mind, in which state he remained until a short time before he died. It was a peculiar phase of his illness that he never lost sight of his religion and in his last hours, when sanity returned to him, he demonstrated clearly that his faith was still strong.”

Adella Goodall Brownlow Mitchell was born on February 6, 1862 and married on April 8, 1886 to Dr. Henry Clay Mitchell, son of Samuel Mitchell and Martha A. Harrison. They had John M. (1887), Jeannie A. (1889), Sarah S. (1894), all of Carbondale.

Turner Goodall was born on January 4, 1864 and died October 12, 1864.

Samuel H. Goodall was born on February 7, 1866, married May 28, 1893, to Lizzie C. Cripps, daughter of T.N. Cripps and M.L. Denning.  He died at Holden Hospital in Carbondale. He was a mine operator, stock buyer and land owner. He was a member of the House of Representatives and a prominent Democrat. He was survived by his widow, Lizzie, and children Mary Ardella McFarland (1896) of Marion, Ruth Imogene Name (1900) of Los Angeles, Ann Esther (1905) and Sam (1894) of Marion.

James R. Goodall was born about 1870 and died on April 14, 1889 at the home of Dr. H.C. Mitchell in Carbondale. He was 19 years, 5 months and 27 days old.  He was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.

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(Sources:  History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson Counties; People and Places, Carbondale Free Press, Southern Illinoisan, Events in Egypt; compiled by Colleen Norman)