James Goodwin died

03/15/1878 |

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James Goodwin died while riding a street car into downtown Hartford.

More details

During the afternoon, Goodwin attended the directors’ meeting of Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company.
After the meeting, he visited Charles H. Brainard at the State Bank.
At 5:45 PM, Goodwin headed home to 83 Woodland Street. At this time, he was “bright, talkative, and very cheerful.”
Around 8:10 PM, Goodwin caught the street car at Garden Street. There was no one else on the street car other than the driver.

The driver of the street car opened the front door and exchanged a few remarks with Goodwin.
The door of the street car was closed at Ann Street.
The street car reached the switch at the corner of Asylum and Trumbull Streets.
At this point, the driver noticed that Goodwin was swaying from side to side.
The driver called out to Goodwin and received no answer. He called out to another driver “going down who went into the car.”
They sent for Dr. M. Storrs, who quickly arrived on the scene.
Storrs attended to Goodwin, who “gasped two or three times after he arrived.”
They laid Goodwin on the seat.
Storrs pronounced Goodwin dead.

Storrs, E. S. Sykes, and G. W. Ballard, among others, placed Goodwin’s body on a carriage.
E. P. Parker, who was “passing near, was invited to carry the sad news to the home.”
Parker, Storrs, and Sykes “preceded the remains.”
At 83 Woodland Street, they broke the news to Lucy Morgan Goodwin, Mary Goodwin, and Mary Jackson Goodwin.

Also present at the house were “Professors Holbrook and Smith of Trinity college.”

Soon after, James G. Batterson, William H. Post, and other friends and relatives arrived “to assume the cares of the situation and give such comfort as could be rendered.”

According to the Courant article, “[s]hortly after 8 o’clock on Friday evening, the rumor ran rapidly through the city that Major Goodwin was dead. … The particulars of the sad event were eagerly sought.” The article is apparently the result of that “eager search,” and so the “particulars” should be viewed in that context.

The present illuminated

Francis Goodwin was traveling in the west, “near Chicago or St. Louis,” with Jacob L. Greene.
James Junius Goodwin was traveling in the south.

Neat little tidbit

According to the Courant, Goodwin typically joined his colleagues downtown in the evening. Over time, he began taking the street car downtown because his house “on the corner of Woodland street and Asylum avenue” was a “full mile and a half from Main street,” but “Thursday and Friday evenings he walked the larger part of the way.”

Caught my eye

“The suddenness of the death shocked this community, yet those who knew him best were probably not greatly surprised. Nature seldom takes a man away so suddenly without some premonitions.”

For the record

E. S. Sykes owned a drug store near the corner of Asylum and Trumbull Streets.
E. P. Parker was the pastor of South Congregational Church.
Lucy Morgan Goodwin was James Goodwin’s wife.
Mary Goodwin was James Goodwin’s daughter.
Mary Jackson Goodwin was James Goodwin’s daughter-in-law and Francis Goodwin’s wife. She lived next door to James and Lucy.
James G. Batterson, founder of Travelers Insurance, was James Goodwin’s nephew.
Francis Goodwin was James Goodwin’s son.
James Junius Goodwin was James Goodwin’s son. At this point in time

Source

Unattributed. “Death of Major James Goodwin,” Hartford Daily Courant, March 16, 1878, page 2.

James Goodwin

History

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