Goodman, Alfred Thomas

Born in London, England, May 22, 1829 and came to Detroit in 1830. Purchased the Grand River House in 1862 and in 1868 built the Goodman House on the site. His son Frederick A. built two more stories on it and renamed it Griswold House. Alfred Goodman married Ulenna H. Bradley in 1856 and had besides Frederick a daughter, Nellie. (from Port. & Biog. Album of Oakland Co. Mich, 1891. pp. 813-814 ; Detroit News, May 20, 1936.)

Alfred Thomas Goodman (1845-1871) was a writer and historian who served as Secretary of the Western Reserve Historical Society. born in Washington, Pennsylvania on December 15, 1845, Goodman moved with his father, John, a jeweler and watchmaker by trade, and his mother An, To Cleveland, Ohio, in time to begin his education in the Cleveland public school system. After graduating from Central High School with honors in 1864, Goodman joined the 150th Regiment of the Ohio National Guard and served in Washington, D. C. After his military service, Goodman went to Pennsylvania where he became assistant editor and reporter to the Daily Patriot and Union.

Within four years Goodman returned to Cleveland. In 1868, he was elected to the post of Secretary of the Western Reserve Historical Society, a position for which he received no monetary compensation. During his appointment he solicited historical manuscripts and materials for the society.

Goodman was an enthusiastic autograph collector. He possessed one of the finest collections in the country. It included signatures of all of the American presidents, many European monarchs, and various writers. Goodman contributed many of his autographs as well as maps, journals, pamphlets, coins, and books to the Western Reserve Historical Society.

Goodman was particularly fascinated by the history of the American West and prominent Americans. From 1868 to 1870 he produced a number of works in these areas, including an edited Journal of Captain William Trent, and an unfinished biography of Arthur St. Clair, first governor of the Northwest territory. Goodman also published newspaper articles on the governors of Ohio, a biography of Colonel William Crawford who was massacred by Indians in Sandusky, Ohio, and a brief history of General Josiah Harmar's campaign of 1790 against the Miami Indians. Other works, including "First White Child in Ohio," "First White Settlers in Ohio," and "Judges of the Supreme Court of Ohio" were published in the Western Reserve Historical Society's Historical and Archaeological Tracts . He also composed over one hundred short biographical sketches for Drake's American Dictionary of Biography. At one time Goodman began to study law but his poor health forced him to withdraw. He died from hemorrhages of the lungs at the age of twenty-six on December 20, 1871.