Goodman Families of Barren and Hart Counties

An Amos Goodman appears in Jefferson County, with Joab (Joel?) Goodman.

Another Amos Goodman is in Barren (later Hart and others) County, KY. Many other Goodmans, including two Johns, a John Jr., two Williams, Charles, Jacob, Jessee, and several others, were also in Barren/Hart County. See complete Barren Co. list below.

The Barren County (later Hart County), KY 1810 census data was very interesting for several reasons. There were lots of Goodmans there! And, for the most part, the families appear to be grouped, as if several families were on the same property, comprising 6 ‘extended’ families. This appears to result from the fact that the enumerators probably recorded the census as families were encountered.

On page 33, I found: Matthias Reynolds, husband of Martha Goodman of Bedford Co., VA and David (or Davis) Reynolds, within 1-4 lines of Amos Goodman. Amos had one female over 45 in his household, probably Epharilla (Thorpe) Goodman, his mother. Mathew Harper, 2nd husband of Sarah Jane Richardson Goodman, was just 2 lines away from Matthias Reynolds and wife Martha Goodman, who married in Bedford Co., VA. Wm. Richardson was also within a few lines of Amos Goodman, and had too many females in his family group to be accounted for by the age of the eldest, some of which may have been the widow Sarah Jane Goodman and her children by Obediah Richardson. Obediah Richardson was not found, and the other males in Wm. Richardson's group were too young to be Obediah, so he is presumed to have died before the 1810 census. So, it is not surprising that we see several later inter-marriages among these families. Finally, although many of the Goodman's neighbors had slaves, not one of the Goodman or Reynolds families did. Wm. Richardson had 12 slaves, some of which may have previously belonged to Obediah Richardson.

Barren Co., KY Census of 1810 - Microfilm M252 #5

Page	Ln	Last	First	M-10	M-16	M-25	M-45	M45+	F-10	F-16	F-25	F-45	F45+
24	0	Goodman	Fielding	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
24	2	Goodman	Jessee			1	1	1			1
24	17	Goodman	William			1
25	9	Goodman	John	2	2	1		1	1	1	2		1
25	10	Goodman	George	1			1		2
25	11	Goodman	Anderson			1			1	1
26	8	Goodman	Charles					1	1	2		1
29	8	Goodman	William	1	2	2	1		3		1	1
29	12	Goodman	Hardin	2			1		3	1		1
29	13	Goodman	Alan/Alex			1			1		1
29	14	Goodman	John	4		1			1		1		1
29	15	Goodman	Abraham		2		1		4		1
33	25	Harper	Mathew	2	2		1		2		1
33	27	Reynolds	Matthias	2	1			1	3	1	2	1
33	32	Harper	Hance			2	1	1	1	2	2		1
33	36	Goodman	Amos	1			1		1		1		1
33	37	Logsdon	John		2	4		1	2	1			1
33	38	Reynolds	David				1		2		1
33	39	Logsdon	Tho.					1					1
33	40	Richardson	Wm.	1	1			1	6	1	2	1
46	2	Goodman	John Jr.	1			1				1
39?	5	Goodman	Jacob	2	2	3		1		1			2

Amos Goodman was in the new Hart (previously part of Barren) County, with Arthur and Stephen. Arthur and Stephen therefore probably came to KY after Amos, and between 1810 and 1820. Other Goodmans appear in the other counties formed from Barren County in the intervening years, primarily Hardin and Monroe.

In the 1830 census for Barren County, were found only John, Varda, and Mary Goodman families. Varda and Mary appear to be Matriarchs, at 45+ each. John was a single male, age 50+. John and Varda were both on pg. 117, and Mary was on pg. 157. Other details were hard to decipher from the microfilm.

In the 1830 Hart County census, Amos, Ansolom (sp.Anselm), and Arthur Goodman are on pg. 211. Steven was on pg. 213. Amos was residing with 4 young males, 5 young females and his wife. Ansolom had 2 young girls, and 2 young boys, and his wife. Arthur also had 2 boys and 6 girls. Steven's family consisted of 3 young males and 3 females. Interestingly, the 1830 census appears to have been done by several methods. Some enumerators just took the information as they encountered families, and some alphabetized their results. Since pages 211 and 213 were of the alphabetized form, it is hard to surmise anything by the proximity of the names on the list, as one could with the 1810 Barren Co. census.

In "Kentucky Land Warrants", In 1821, Jacob Goodman patented 71 ac., Monroe County, on Spring Creek. In 1832, John W. Goodman had 200 ac., Muhlenberg County, on the Green River.

A Jacob Goodman was married to Sarah Reynolds, according to the will of Charles Reynolds, father of Sarah, probated in 1821. Several Goodman and Reynolds families were members of the Green River Baptist Church in the early 1800s, and so John W. Goodman was probably related to them.