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Below is a family biography included in The Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, Illinois published by Biographical Publishing Co. in 1894.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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REUBEN JULIUS GODDARD. Among the members of the Randolph County Bar none deserve more honorable mention than Reuben Julius Goddard. He is a native of the county and has always recognized it as his home. At the age of sixteen he commenced a course of study in the Union Academy, a religious institution under the management of the United Presbyterian Church (afterward dissolved in favor of Monmouth College, of Illinois). Later he entered the Michigan University, of Ann Arbor, where he took an optional literary course of study and a regular course in the law department, from which he was graduated in the year 1864. He soon afterward began the practice of his profession in Sparta, and by close application to his books and business he has established a large and lucrative practice.

In 1870 Mr. Goddard was appointed Prosecuting Attorney of the Common Pleas Court of Sparta, a court abolished by the new Constitution of Illinois. In November, 1872, he was elected to the office of State’s Attorney for Randolph County. In 1876 he was re-elected to the same office, serving until 1880, when he declined a re-election. In 1892, he was tendered the nomination on the Democratic ticket for the same office without opposition, the Republican party declining to nominate a candidate against him, and he was elected by almost the entire vote of the county. The duties of this position he is now discharging with signal ability. He has been elected eight times to the office of City Attorney of Sparta, and is the present incumbent.

When put before the people as a candidate for any position, Mr. Goddard has never been defeated. In his political views he is conservative, yet in the heat of a campaign active and out spoken and an efficient worker and organizer. He identified himself with the Democratic party upon attaining his majority and has ever since aided her cause by voice and vote. Ambitious to excel in professional life, he devotes his energies to its prosecution.

November 30, 1875, Mr. Goddard was united in marriage with Miss Emma Kerr, a native of Chautauqua County, N. Y., a lady of superior educational and musical attainments, she being a graduate of the convent at Batavia, N. Y. Mr. and Mrs. Goddard have one child, Willie Brown Goddard, a bright boy of sixteen years. Socially, our subject is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, being connected with Tancred Commandery No. 50, of Belleville, Ill., and subordinate orders. Under the guidance of his accomplished wife their home is noted for its hospitality and culture among the Spartans.

Mr. Goddard’s father, William B., was a native of Kentucky, born near Maysville, in that state, January 21, 1817, and moved with his parents, Reuben and Sarah (Brown) Goddard and located on a farm in St. Clair County, Ill., near the old Indian town of Cahokia. William B. died in 1875, in the little town of Evans, Colo., where he had gone on account of his declining health. He was married at Kaskaskia, this county, to Miss Eliza Hawthorne, daughter of James Hawthorne, one of the pioneers of Randolph and a prominent and leading citizen, who held the office of Recorder of said county many years and filled other public offices. The Hawthorne family is of Scotch origin and came to America at an early day in the settlement of the country, locating in South Carolina, afterward removing to Ohio. Thence David, the great-grandfather, and father of James, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, moved to this county while Illinois was a territory.

William B., the father of our subject, soon after his marriage moved to the vicinity of Sparta, where he lived until 1871, when he moved to Colorado. He was a farmer, merchant, builder and architect, and acted as Justice of the Peace and City Recorder for twenty years at Sparta. For many years he was a member of the United Presbyterian Church, and was noted for his honesty and integrity of character. He was not successful in accumulating wealth, his mind running more in the direction of education and religion. He took great pride in his family, whom he devotedly loved, and nothing gave him greater pleasure than the prosecution of plans promoting their advancement in intellectual, social and moral culture. He gave his children that which is of infinitely more value than property, viz.: a good education and proper ideas of the true ends and duties of life. Of his children, besides the subject of this sketch, James H. is a prominent physician of Sedgwick, Kan., and served as First Assistant Surgeon of the Forty-second Illinois Regiment until the close of the late war. Albert, the younger brother, is a fancy job printer at San Diego, Cal. One sister, Eveline L., the wife of Myron Camp, resides with her husband at Garden Plain, Kan. The other sister, Sarah E., the wife of R. Porter Morrison, resides with her husband at Sedgwick, Kan.

The paternal grandparents of our subject, Reuben and Sarah (Brown) Goddard, were natives of Kentucky. Reuben Goddard was the son of William Goddard, a native of England, and a minister of the Gospel of the Church of England. He was one of three brothers who came to America in Colonial times. He located near Maysville, Ky., continued his ministry of the Gospel and also became a wealthy planter. His brother Benjamin located in Massachusetts, and the third brother in Indiana They were all ministers of the Gospel, and it is from these three that the Goddards in America are descended.

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This family biography is one of 679 biographies included in The Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, Illinois published in 1894.  View the complete description here: The Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, Illinois

View additional Randolph County, Illinois family biographies here: Randolph County, Illinois Biographies

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