The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 587

JOHN W. GOODWIN.

John W. Goodwin, who is one of the pioneer ranchers in the vicinity of Wapato,
was born in Crawford county, Illinois, August 12, 1843, and has therefore passed
the seventy-fifth milestone on life's journey. He is a son of William and
Catherine (Roberts) Goodwin, the former a native of Illinois, while the latter
was born in Tennessee. The Goodwin family was established in Illinois in pioneer
times. In 1847 they removed to Parke county, Indiana, and in 1848 went to Iowa,
settling twenty-five miles from Dubuque. In the spring of 1849 they started
overland for California but changed their plans and went to Oregon. They located
on an island fifteen miles above Vancouver, where they took up government land,
and subsequently Mr. Goodwin purchased land six miles below, at Fishers
Landing, on the Columbia river. He afterward traded his island property for a
farm in the La Camas valley of Washington and there resided for several years.
He next went to Vancouver, where he also spent a number of years, and afterward
removed to The Dalles, Oregon, where his wife died. His death afterward occurred
in Bellingham, Washington. He was one of the earliest pioneers of the Columbia
river region and the family shared in all the hardships and privations of
frontier life.

John W. Goodwin was reared in Washington and his educational opportunities were
limited because the school system was not well established and organized at that
time and because his services were needed in the work of the home farm. On
attaining his majority he started out on his own account and worked for wages
for some time. In 1867 he arrived in the Yakima valley, being among the first to
establish a home within its borders. He took up a squatter's claim on the
Cowiche, being the first white settler in that district, and there he remained
for two years. He afterward returned to Vancouver, where he lived for another
year, but in 1870 again became a resident of the Yakima valley, where he secured
a preemption claim on Parkers bottoms, obtaining- one hundred and sixty acres
of wild land. He cultivated the bottom land and afterward made a ditch and
irrigated more. He then entered the cattle business and upon this place has
since made his home, being numbered among the pioneer ranchers of the valley. He
raises stock and hay and although he has now passed the seventy-fifth milestone
on life's journey he still actively supervises the development of his property,
and the management of his business affairs.

Mr. Goodwin was married in the 4th of March, 1869, to Miss Catherine Irby, a
native of Missouri and a daughter of Charles and Margaret (Birchfield) Irby. The
father is deceased but the mother survives and resides in Spokane, being now in
her eighty-ninth year. Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin have four children: Edward, who is
ranching near his father's place, is married and has one child. Lulu is the wife
of A. R. Butts and makes her home in Yakima. Grace is the wife of A. B. Wilcox,
of Los Angeles, California, and they have one child. Carl O. rents his father's
ranch. He is married and has one child.

In his political views Mr. Goodwin is a democrat and in an early day he served
for two years as deputy sheriff of the county but otherwise has not held
political office. He has ever been an active factor, however, in supporting
plans and measures for the general good and as a pioneer settler has contributed
in large measure to the growth and progress of the district in which he lives.
There is no phase of the county's development or improvement with which he is
not familiar and his reminiscences of the early days are most interesting and
give one an excellent idea of the hardships endured by the first settlers and
the conditions which they faced. As the years have passed he has lived to see a
remarkable change and has taken a helpful part in bringing about the
transformation that places Yakima county among the most progressive and highly
improved districts of the state.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.