Draft:Edith Jennie Goodall

• Comment: www.ancestry.com is not a reliable source because it is user edited. Theroadislong (talk) 19:24, 29 April 2025 (UTC)

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From The Statesmen, March 25, 1911

Introduction

Edith Jennie Goodall was born in Missouri in 1862. Not much is known about her early years until 1904 when she married her second husband, Andrew Goodall and took on a parental role for her new step son, James A Goodall. The Goodalls moved around the greater Cheyenne–Fort Collins area, getting involved with local churches and communities. Jennie established herself as a member of local chapters of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the National Association for Colored Women, and the National Negro Educational Congress. She also acted as an activist for Black women in the Fort Morgan area, attempting to create clubs for colored women and applied to the Western Federal of Colored Women's clubs for a membership. Not much is known about her activism besides her membership in various different clubs and continuous involvement in the fight for black women’s suffrage. In her late life she moved to multiple cities in Colorado. It was in 1936 that Jennie passed away in Roggen, CO.

Early Life

Wedding Announcement between Edith Jennie Goodall and Andrew Goodall.

1910 Census

Edith Jennie Goodall was born in Missouri in 1862; presumably born to an enslaved mother. Given the timing, Jennie would have been a toddler at the end of the Civil War, so it is possible that she grew up as a free woman. Not much is known about Jennie's life until she married in 1904 (at age 42), to Andrew Goodall (age 52), born in Tennessee. Jennie took on a parental role as the step mother to Andrew's son, James A Goodall. According to a 1910 census, Jennie was the mother to 6 of children, but only one was living at the time; it is unclear if her step son James was the living child. Not much other than the 1910 census has provided context to substantiate this.

Activism

Jennie Goodall was an activist who used her involvement in numerous clubs and churches as a platform to uplift and empower her community. She was in the Women's Christian Temperance Union, an organization that advocated for temperance but also addressed broader issues of social reform, including women's suffrage and education. Her commitment to racial and gender justice was further reflected in her active participation in the National Association for Colored Women, a pivotal organization that fought against racial discrimination while promoting the welfare and rights of African American women and families.

Goodall also engaged with the National Negro Educational Congress, where she supported efforts to improve educational opportunities for Black students, and with the Colorado State chapter of the National Negro Business League, which promoted Black entrepreneurship and economic self-sufficiency. Recognizing the importance of local community building, Goodall worked to establish women's clubs within the churches she attended. These clubs provided a crucial space for Black women to come together, share resources, and advocate for social change. Through these efforts, Jennie helped to lay the groundwork for a strong network of support and solidarity among African American women during a time of significant social and political inequality.

Leadville

Records on Jennie's life in Colorado start in 1904, when she and her husband were living in Leadville, Colorado. Jennie was a faithful member of St.Luke's African Methodist Episcopal Church. In July of 1904, Jennie got into an altercation with the church's pastor, Rev. J.H. Shackleford. Jennie had started "the Phillip Hubbard Club for colored women" at the church as a branch of the Western Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, which was the Western sector of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. Rev. Shackleford was not happy with this club, stating that he "did not believe in clubs for women" as well as besmirching Jennie's character and suitability to lead the club. Jennie was outraged, ultimately demanding that her name be stricken from the church's membership roll. The reverend refused to do so, and as the two continued to argue, he hit her with his fist several times. Following this incident, Jennie filed charges for assault and battery, which resulted in Rev. Shackleford being fined "$1 and costs."

After this altercation, Rev. Shackleford continued to go to her house to try and convince her to rejoin the church. He was told to cease this contact and leave Jennie and her husband alone, but he was relentless. On August 13th, 1904, Rev. Shackleford was attending to church business in the Herald Democrat office when he saw Jennie returning to her home. The reverend followed her home once again and was met by Jennie leaning out of her window with a revolver in her hand. She fired two shots near the pastor and then was taken to jail for assault charges. However, she was acquitted of these charges when the community came to her aid and backed up the harassment of Rev. Shackleford coming to her house. The Goodalls moved away from Leadville sometime between the spring of 1905 and the summer of 1907. They lived in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for a brief period of time before moving to Fort Collins, Colorado, in January 1908.

The Goodall Home

Fort Collins

Goodall was also an active member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, sometimes holding meetings in her house on 131 N. Mack Street, which still stands there today. Jennies work with the Temperance Union lead to her being recognized through a medal, it was noted that she has one of the most efficient and active workers. Her capabilities within leadership were recognized in many capacities, as she also was Vice President of the Colorado State Negro Business League, a state chapter of the National Negro Business League led by Booker T. Washington, as well as the Negro National Educational Congress that was apart of a wave of new organizations that formed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries across all areas of community need. In 1911, Jennie took on the role of delegating to represent Fort Collins at the Negro National Educational Congress held in Convention Hall in Denver, Colorado. In 1914, she was appointed by Governor Ammons to serve again as delegate to the fifth annual convention of Negro National Educational Congress in Oklahoma City.

Dearfield

Goodall Family Dearfield Lots

Goodall Family Dearfield Lots

In 1914, Jennie and her husband moved to Dearfield, an exclusively Black community in Weld County, Northern Colorado. This area gave black families the ability to invest in real estate, purchase automobiles, and provided better educational and social oppurtunities for their children. Oliver Toussaint Jackson , the founder,  filed the original Dearfield townsite plat earlier that same year, so the Goodalls were among the earliest to buy into the settlement. On April 18, 1914, the Denver Star noted that "Mrs. Edith J. Goodall has arrived in Dearfield, bag and baggage, and has her house up and is nicely located on her homestead." Additionally, newspaper records indicate that "Mrs. Edith Jennie Goodall of Fort Collins, Colo. bought lot 27, block 13, for business purposes, and lots 1 and 2 in block 14 for residence."The Goodalls also owned lots 4,5,6, and 7 of Section 6 in Township no 3.

On November 13, 1919, Andrew Goodall died in Dearfield and a funeral was held for him a few days later in Denver. His death, which coincided with the drop in the collective fortunes and hopes of the people of Dearfield, led Jenny to her next chapter. In 1920, the recently widowed Jennie shows up in the census living with and working as a cook for the Josephs, a white family and their five boarders living in this large residence at 851 Leyden Street in Denver. Another significant incident in Jennie's life arose when she started a fire to burn trash on her Dearfield farm and lost control of it. The fire burned her barn and outbuildings and then spread into a full-blown prairie fire on the nearby John Painter cattle ranch. The fire burned 4500 acres of pasture in a swath that was 7-acres long by one-mile wide. At least 500 people reported to fight the flames.

Death

After her husband's death, Jennie relocated frequently, taking on various jobs. In 1920, while employed as a domestic worker in Roggen, Colorado, she wrote to O.T. Jackson expressing her dissatisfaction with her circumstances: "I will be going away, as soon as possible. I don’t mind working but I hate [she actually underlined the word four times] Slavery. I would stay here all winter as they wanted me to but it’s too much shut in and I can just feel my life sapping out for the want of recreation." This letter is one of the last direct records from Jennie. Edith 'Jennie' Goodall lived in Roggen Colorado alongside family and friends, and it was here that she died in 1936.

References

https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=DST19110325-01.2.19&srpos=19&e=--1890---1936--en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-goodall-------0------