Samuel Good (1860 - 1908)

Born 26 Aug 1860 in Harrison County, Indiana

Ancestors

Husband of Hannah Isabell (Cline) Good — married 18 Dec 1885 in Harrison, Indiana, United States

Descendants

Died 18 Apr 1908 at age 47 in Oaktown, Busseron Township, Knox, Indiana, United States

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Biography

Samuel Good was born in Harrison County, Indiana in 1860, son of Leah Good. He was orphaned young and raised by neighbors and relatives. He cannot be found in the 1870 census but in 1880 he was living with a Rhodes family in Harrison Township in Harrison County and listed as age 20. Samuel married Hannah Cline in 1885 and listed his mother as Leah Good and his father as John Good. Leah appears in the 1860 census, but no John Good, who could be his father, can be found. "John Good" simply appears to be a contrived name for an unknown father. Samuel and Hannah lived in Scott Township in Harrison County Indiana, where he was a farmer. They were parents of five children and after Hannah's death in 1901, Sam moved to Knox County, Indiana, where he passed away from T.B. in 1908.

Sources

• Letter regarding Samuel's birth and parentage from Maggie Cline Mann, New Albany, Indiana, to Rosa Good Donnar, Emison, (Knox County), Indiana, dated May 30, 1965. It is now in possession of Charlene Gamble Lawrence.
• United States Census, 1880, Indiana, Harrison County, Harrison Township, p. 24D, family #164. Digital image at FamilySearch.org: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYBQ-DJL?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AMH98-NQJ&action=view
• Harrison County, Indiana Records of Returns of Marriage, Volume H-37, 1882-1892, pp. 120-21. Digital image at FamilySearch.org: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6FX9-P88?i=60&cc=1410397
• United States Census, 1900, Indiana, Harrison County, Scott Township, p. 1A, family #2. Digital image at FamilySearch.org: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYBQ-DJL?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AMH98-NQJ&action=view
• Indiana Death Certificate #20-1908, Knox County, Accessed at Ancestry.com.
• Tombstone inscription, Oaktown Cemetery, Oaktown, IN. Find A Grave: Memorial #73854717. There is a photograph of the stone.

Indiana State Board of Health, Death Certificate, Busseron Twp. Knox County.

Note

According to family traditions, Samuel was born out of wedlock and abandoned by his mother, who was a relative of Emanuel Good, who also lived in Harrison County. In a letter dated May 30, 1965, Maggie Cline relative of Emanuel Good replied to inquiries by Samuel's daughter, Rosa Donnar, regarding their relationship and information on Samuel's parentage. Maggie contacted Bill Winn [Wynn], a grandson of Emanuel Good, who provided the following account of Samuel's birth and abandonment:

Your Dad's mother wasn't a sister of George and Jake Good, but George and Jake's aunt. Her name was Emma, sister to their dad, Manuel Good. I don't guess she was married. She went to be with Charlie Stevens father in the Seig Valley she became pregnet (sic). One evening she left and when she came back they saw what happened and asked, what happened to the baby. She said she left in it an old house. They went and got him and cared for him then your grandpa Cline took him and raised him. That is as good as you will find out about who he was.

Samuel Good stated that his mother was Leah Good, when he applied for his marriage license in 1885. Even though the informant got the name wrong, this letter confirms that Leah Good, the only sister of Emanuel Good, who accompanied Emanuel and his family to Indiana and was living in Spencer Township, in Harrison County, in June 1860, is the mother of Samuel, who was born there two months after the census was taken.