Edmund Goodenow was born in Elk Creek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania on March 14, 1835 to Edmund and Mary (James) Goodenow. He made his living as a farmer.
On April 12, 1861, Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, precipitating the Civil War.
In August 1862, Edmund was in Illinois, perhaps to visit relatives. 27 years old, he enlisted in the Union army as a private in Company G of the 100th Illinois Infantry.
The Company was mustered in on August 30. In addition to minor skirmishes, the unit was involved in the battle of Stone River, the battle of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge near Chattanooga and the last battle of Nashville. The 100th was mustered out on June 12, 1865, two months after Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
Edmund was shot during the battle of Chattanooga while charging up the steep hillside of Missionary Ridge. Due to a risk of infection, the bullet was left in his shoulder -- the usual course of action in those days. It wasn't removed until 21 years later. Edmund received an "invalid" army pension of six dollars a month beginning in June 1865.
Military records of the time are notorious for clerical errors. Edmund's records list his first name as "Edward."
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| Arminda Rose Deriar |
Arminda Rose Deriar was born on December 06, 1841 near Wellsburg Pennsylvania to William H. and Fannie (Whipple) Deriar. She was a teacher for many years in Erie County.
Her obituary notes that in 1865, she traveled to Cleveland, Ohio with a group of friends to view the body of assassinated president Abraham Lincoln as it lay in state. A funeral train carried the body from city to city.
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Edmund and Arminda Goodenow (seated)
with their children, Minnie and Burt |
Edmund and Arminda were married on May 29, 1866 in Keepville, Pennsylvania and the couple settled in a house which sat exactly on the Keepville city limit. Due to the location of the bedroom within the house, Edmund and Arminda paid taxes to the surrounding township rather than the borough of Keepville.
They had two children: William Burton ("Burt") Goodenow, born May 19, 1867 and Minnie Morgie Goodenow, born February 28, 1870.
Edmund died July 10, 1902 in Elk Creek Township and was buried in Hope Cemetery near Wellsburg, Pennsylvania. He was 67 years old.
In 1904, Arminda married John R. Wright from New York who was also in the Civil War. His military pension states that John "had the typhoid fever in 1865 and has never been physically sound since." Arminda and John spent winters in Florida due to his poor health. John died in 1919.
Arminda died one day short of her 91st birthday on December 05, 1932, probably in Albion, Pennsylvania where she was known as "Albion's grand old lady."
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