Emery Von Goodykoontz
The fine farm of Emery Von Goodykoontz, one of the representative and most successful farming men of Liberty Township, lies eight miles due south of Marion, Indiana, and four and a half miles northwest of Fairmount, comprising one hundred and sixty acres of the fairest and productive soil in the county. Here Mr. Goodykoontz was born, reared and trained in the business of farming, and here he came into ownership of the property in due season, continuing in the work to which he was bed in his boyhood. The place known as Heimat Farm, was the property of his parents, Abram and Eliza (Moore) Goodykoontz, and here the subject was born on October 1, 1874.
His father was a Virginian, born in Grayson County, and the mother was born in Marshall County, Indiana. Both are now deceased. Abram Goodykoontz came to Indiana when he was a boy of eight years. He was for the most part dependent upon his own initiative and resource for the educational advantages he received, and it is worthy of mention that he worked his way though Franklin College, earning the money by cutting cord wood in his spare hours. He carried his education forward to the point where he was able to teach school, in later years identifying himself with farming activities. He was married three times. His first wife was Margaret Phelps, who died young and left four children, Eugene, G.B., Leah A., and Jonathan. He later married Eliza Moore, who bore him one son, the subject of this necessarily brief review, and after the death of his second wife, he married Malinda (Miller) Conger and left no children by this third marriage.
Emery V. Goodykoontz was reared on his father's farm, and as a boy attended the district schools, finishing his educational training with a term in Fairmount Academy. He was fitted for the work of a teacher, but farming made a stronger appeal to him than education work, and when he was ready to set out in life on his own resources, he elected to devote himself to the soil, and has so continued, with a generous measure of success. As a breeder of Jersey cattle, he is well known in these parts, and Spotted Poland-China Hogs are also bred on his place, while he has a handsome flock of Black Langshang chickens on the place, in which he manifests a pardonable pride.
On September 13, 1903, Mr. Goodykoontz was married to Miss Myrtle Davis, the daughter of N.F. Davis. She was born in Fairmount Township and is a graduate of the Fairmount Academy. Mrs. Goodykoontz, prior to her marriage, was engaged in educational work, and was at one time an instructor in the W.C.T.U. Industrial School at Hadley, Indiana, and she was for three years an instructor in the Friends' Mission at Matamoras, in Mexico, her work being that of a missionary teacher. She is a woman of much refinement and learning, and her influence in her home community is one of the highest order. Mr. and Mrs. Goodykoontz have three children. Olive is now seven years of age; Harold is five, and Kent is aged four years.
Mr. Goodykoontz is a member of Amana Lodge No. 82, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he is Past Noble Grand, and he has represented his lodge in the Grand Lodge of the State. Politically, he maintains an independent viewpoint, and is guided by the exigencies and demands of the occasion when he is called upon to exercise his right of franchise. The family is one that enjoys the fullest confidence and regard of their fellow citizens, and they have a host of stanch friends in and about the township.
Submitted by: Gina Reasoner
Myrta and Nellie Davis were also the daughters of Hannah Beeson who was the daughter of Dr. Charles and Prudence Roberts Beeson, all of Grant County, IN.