Compiled by Betty Jane Wilson, society president
"Anna Christina, daughter of Henry and Emily Butler, was born in Granville, Ohio, Dec. 16, 1828. Her parents were members of a colony that moved from Granville, Mass., and established the new town in 1805.
"There were five children in the family, all except Anna dying in infancy or early childhood and Anna was a delicate child. There was little hope that she would even survive to womanhood. It was during the first year of her birth that the first iron rail was laid for the first railroad in American. The stage coaches and canal boats were the only means of public transportation in the states and slow-going sailing vessels were the only method of communication with 'the old world' — taking weeks and often months to cross the Atlantic. Would anyone at that time have been so credulous as to believe that the little girl would live to see the day when not only would there be a network of railroads with palaces on wheels, steamships plowing the seas on a regular schedule, but that men would fly not only from place to place on the continent, but across the seas, and that communication by telegram, telephone, and radio would become instantaneous all over the entire world?"
A story taken from the Topeka Capital, Dec. 23, 1928, expressed these words of awe and respect in the following story titled "Girl Doomed to Early Death Lives to Be 100."
"Valley Falls, Kan. Dec. 22, 1928, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. A.D. Kendall, and surrounded by her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and a host of neighbors and friends of years, Mrs. George Goodrich celebrated her centennial birthday last Sunday.
"A lover of the outdoors and her father an expert horseman, she became an expert horsewoman to which she attributed much of the credit for her health and long life.
"She was eight years old when the first telegraph communication was perfected by Samuel Morse and 37 when the first cable was laid across the Atlantic. She was 15 when the first postage stamp was used. Prior to that time, postage was paid in cash by the recipient of the letter and based on the mileage. The miracle of electricity had not been discovered, an open fireplace, 'grease dips,' or candles made of tallow, were sources for light.
"John Quincy Adams was the president and the United States was still struggling in a effort to become a world leader. No one would have imagined that those states would take the commanding lead of the entire world in education, invention, trade, arms, finance, and luxury, yet all of these 'Mother Goodrich' has seen come to pass.
"She was educated in the Episcopalian female college of Granville and taught school for a number of years, so efficient in instruction that many children from the surrounding districts came to her school rather than attend their own.
"She married George Goodrich in Granville June 22, 1853, and as was the custom of that day, visited Niagara Falls, without which trip no wedding was deemed complete. On Oct. 17, 1878, the family moved to Valley Falls and located in the house built for them by Mark Hillyer, now (1928) the parish residence of the Catholic congregation. Here they lived until the new home was built on Broadway. Mr. Goodrich died Dec. 18, 1910, since which time she has lived with her daughters, Alma and Lida. Her family has always been her world. She attributes her long life largely to regular exercise, moderation in eating, the ability never to worry, and the use of cistern water. In other words, 'to work and love and service.'
"Those of the immediate relatives present Sunday were: Harry S. Goodrich, Brentwood, Calif., Mrs. May Allen, Spokane, Wash., Mrs. Kate S. Kendall, and Misses Alma and Lida Goodrich, Valley Falls, son and daughters; Mrs. W.A. Turnbull, Los Angeles, Calif., Mrs. Henry Starr, Tulare, Calif., Mrs. W.M.B. Lord, Sanford, Maine, Mrs. Gordon A. Bergu, Morgantown, W. Va., Mrs. Lida Ferguson, and Mrs. Ina Leglar, granddaughters; Miss Constance Lord, Sanford, Maine, Master Gordon Goodrich Bergu, Morgantown, W. Va., and Miss Ina Bumgardner, Lawrence, great-grandchildren; and a host of old friends." — Source: Yesteryears, April 1990.
The Valley Falls Historical Society Museum will open at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 16.
Clarke Davis
Davis Publications, Inc.
The Oskaloosa Independent
The Valley Falls Vindicator
785-945-3257
Fax: 785-945-3444
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