Eastman-Goodale-Dayton family

The principal family members represented in the Eastman-Goodale-Dayton Family Papers are sisters Elaine Goodale Eastman (9 Oct 1863-22 Dec 1953) and Dora Read Goodale (29 October 1866-12 Dec 1953). Their mother, Deborah (Dora) Hill Read Goodale (1839-1910), teacher and writer, married Henry S. Goodale (1836 -1906), teacher, farmer, and writer, in 1862. They settled at "Sky Farm" on Fray Mountain in the town of Mt. Washington, Massachusetts, not far from where Henry was born in South Egremont. Henry's father, Chester Goodale, a successful businessman who operated a marble quarry, had settled in the Berkshires around 1820. Besides Elaine and Dora, the Goodales had two other children, Rose Sterling Goodale (Dayton) (1870 -1965) and Robert (1878-?).

Following in the footsteps of their parents, who published poems and essays in local and national publications, both Dora and Elaine were writers from early childhood. Beginning in the late 1870s their poetry was published widely in newspapers and magazines such as St. Nicholas and Scribner's Monthly. They published three books of poetry between 1878 and 1881, achieving wide renown as child-prodigies. Elaine also published Journal of a Farmer's Daughter in 1881. In the early years, Elaine and Dora were educated at home by their mother who had taught school before her marriage, and they were briefly enrolled in a New York City boarding school in 1881.

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