James Thomas Goddard, at one time, one of the wealthiest men in the county, was born about 1817 in Virginia. He was the son of James Goddard, born November 12, 1789 in Henry County, Virginia and died January 9, 1878, and Mariah Davis (1790 – 1845). James and Mariah had other children: Martha A., John, Mary E., Wesley, Melinda L. and Mary Goddard.
On January 7, 1841, James T. married Emma Winifred Spiller, who was born on January 11, 1816, the daughter of William and Emma Spiller. In the same year of his first marriage, Goddard, a twenty four year old merchant, began selling whiskey at his first store in Bainbridge.
By the 1850 census James T. was a merchant with real estate valued at $350. His wife, Winifred, was born in Tennessee and all the children were born in Illinois. By 1855, Goddard had land west of Marion in what is today Southern Township and Herrin Township. Children present in their home were James M. 8, Josephine 6, Winfield S. 5, Julia 3 and Jeraldine, 3 months.
His first wife, Emma Winifred, died on July 30th 1855 and on May 11, 1856 he remarried to Winifred Crain.
In the 1860 census, James T. and Winifred were living in the Marion city limits. His daughter, Josephine, had just married John Bainbridge in the previous fall of 1859 and left home and since the last census, two more children had been born: Henry T. 6 and Leroy A. Goddard aged 4. Mary Chaniel was a 22 year old domestic servant in the household. James T. was a merchant and had real estate valued at $25,000. This was a huge increase from the $350 value he had just 10 years previous. His personal property was valued at $100,000. The personal property is probably, at least partially, the stock in his store that is for sale. In 1856 he was listed in the paper as proprietor of the New York Store on Main Street in Marion.
James T. began exhibiting signs of mental illness in the summer of 1862 and a hearing was held in February of 1864 after which he was taken to Jacksonville to a state institution. His second wife, Winifred, died in 1866. A petition to partition his estate was filed in 1865 by his son James Monroe, his partner in business when the illness began.
In 1870 James T. Goddard was out of the hospital and living in the household of William and Martha Nance, but he was listed as insane. William Spiller, an insurance agent, was also a boarder in the home.
There was a lot of legal work necessary because of his large financial holdings and his inability to take care of his own affairs due to his illness. All during the 1870’s there was a large group of people who served at one time or another as conservator of his estate.
In 1877, James T’s father, James Goddard, met with an accident on the 17th of December. He was thrown from a horse and broke his shoulder and several ribs. On the 9th of January, 1878, he died of pneumonia at the age of nearly 90 years old. His home at the time of his death was in Lake Creek Township, north of Marion.
In 1878 John B. Bainbridge, who was conservator of James T. Goddard, an insane person, brought forth a bill to foreclose on a mortgage. John Bainbridge was James’ son-in-law. There was also a petition for partition filed by John B. Bainbridge for James T. Goddard, Wesley L. Goddard, Malinda and Joseph F. Stover, James Moore, conservator of Mariah Moore, Cynthia and H. L. Beasley, Ida and Frank Richey, and Elizabeth and James Odum versus Wesley Goddard, Jr., John V. Goddard, Elizabeth and Welburn Brummett, and Maratha Ann and Reuben Weaver, Charles Goodall and unknown heirs of Mary Goodall.
The Marion Monitor newspaper reported that, “James T. Goddard, 68, died Oct 29, 1886 at the asylum in Anna. He was one of the earliest settlers and a prominent merchant until an attack of mental derangement. He had spent the last 23 years of his life in an institution. He leaves one of the oldest and largest brick buildings as a monument to his memory. A long procession of carriages and pedestrians followed the remains to their last resting place. Burial was in the old cemetery (Aikman).”
Notes on the Children:
James M. Goddard was born on December 14, 1841. He married Nannie Allen on Jan 14, 1863. They had three children: Elizabeth who married Harry C. Purdy; Harriet who married Benjamin F. Kiser and Pauline who married Daniel G. Fitzgerrell. James M. Goddard died on June 27, 1879.
Josephine G. Goddard Bainbridge was born on May 5, 1843. She married John B. Bainbridge September 8, 1859. Their children were: James A. Bainbridge who married Irene Hargon; Luella A. who married Lawrence A. Browning; John who married Maggie Jackson; Charles W. who married Maude Lemmon and Ella Surguy; and Maude Winifred Goddard who married J. W. Westbrook, whom she divorced, and then married John Parham. John died in July of 1910 and Josephine died in February of 1912. Both are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.
John Bainbridge’s family lived for many years in the residence rooms on the upper floors of the three story Bainbridge building located on the west side of the square in the 500 block. The building was torn down in 1913 to make way for construction of the State and Savings Bank in 1914 which later became the Hotel State after the depression. Around 1905 or 1906, the family built a home at 515 S. Market Street. See also, the post of John B. Bainbridge.
Winfield S. Goddard was born about 1845. In 1867 he was charged with assault in Williamson County Court. He was unmarried and died on November 7, 1870.
Julia A. Goddard Hall Harwood was born on September 17, 1849. She married William R. Hall and an unknown Harwood. William R. Hall was mayor of Marion in 1875 and 1876. The Hall’s went to Texas and then moved back north to Missouri. Here they separated and probably divorced since Julia remarried. She migrated to Colorado with her sons who were in the mercantile business on an Indian reservation. She died in a sanatorium in 1921 in Colorado. She and Hall had several children including William and Mary. She had a daughter with Harwood that she named Marion.
Jeraldine Goddard did not reappear in the records after the 1850 census.
Henry Thomas Goddard was born on June 20, 1852. He married Mary Eleanor Houts. They had the following children: Lora who married 1) Elsa Stinson Davis and 2) William James Shaw; Lucille who married Charles Henry Roberts; Roy Houts who married Bessie Marshall; and Henry Houts who married Maud Jacqueline Abbott. He died in Mount Carmel, Illinois on April 17, 1930.
Leroy Albert Goddard was born on June 22, 1854. He was probably one of the most active and prominent citizens that Marion, Illinois ever produced. He married Anna Breidenthal, of Vincennes, Indiana on November 14, 1888. She was born and raised in Louisville, Ky. where her father, Colonel H. Breidenthal was a pioneer miller. Her mother, Elizabeth Hall Breidenthal, was a direct descendant of Lyman Hall, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Leroy was a merchant and banker at Marion from 1875 until 1890. He organized and was president of the First National Bank of Mt. Carmel, Ill., from 1890 until 1892 and served as Mayor of Marion from 1879 through 1882. He later became president of two large Chicago banks and served on the Illinois state banking level.
At the close of WWI he donated the beautiful Goddard Chapel which stands in Old Rose Hill Cemetery as a tribute to fallen WWI soldiers. Today the chapel is one of five buildings in Marion that are on the Registry of Historic Places.
The Leroy and Anna Goddard had no children. He died on January22, 1936 and was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Cook County, Chicago, Illinois.
For more information on Leroy Goddard, see his biography in the post, Leroy A. Goddard.
(Sources: Nannie Parks’ files, US Census records, Events in Egypt, Historical Souvenir of Williamson County, Pioneer Folks and Places, History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson Counties, Williamson County, Illinois, Partitions from the files of the Williamson County Courthouse housed at the Williamson County Historical Society. Compiled by Colleen Norman)