Gamaliel Bailey Goodykoontz
When Abram Goodykoontz, who was among the highly honored pioneers of Liberty, names his second son Gamaliel Bailey, it was in honor of the editor of the National Era, published in Washington, and in the columns of which "Uncle Tom's cabin" was printed as a serial. The friends of Mr. Goodykoontz called him "Gay," and he is a genial gentleman reflecting the name characteristic. Abram Goodykoontz was a man much in advance of his day and generation in his conception of questions of state, about which the public mind centered, and he was always an independent thinker.
Abram Goodykoontz was three times married. The mother of his older children was Margaret Phillips, who died when her children were small, leaving with them the precious memory of an ideal mother. Abram Goodykoontz was born in Grayson County, Virginia, and when a small boy his father's family moved to Madison County, Indiana. He located in Monroe Township, Grant county, after his marriage. Several years later he moved to Liberty Township, where he cleared and improved the homestead now known as Heimat, which is still in the family possession, and it has always been one of the best cultivated farms in the county.
When Abram Goodykoontz was a young man he attended Franklin College, being in school with John Ratliff. Together they worked to pay their college expenses, chopping wood at from twelve and one half to forty cents a cord. All through life there was evidence of culture in this man, -the most genial of all companions because he had read everything and was familiar with all the questions of the day. He was one of the pioneer teachers. He first taught in Madison County, then in Monroe Township, Grant County, and later in Liberty Township.
While he may not have been the first by whom the new was tried nor yet the last to lay the old aside, Abram Goodykoontz always investigated for himself, was always a student, and the question of health was early reduced to a science by him. He was temperate and regular in all of his habits, would not eat a meal after the usual evening hour, and when he died it was without sickness, had simply lived out his allotted day, and the whole community realized that it had lost an excellent citizen. All regarded him as a gentleman of culture, and an economist whom it is well to emulate in many things. His orchard, garden and fields all spoke of the careful husbandman and this tribute written by one who knew him is to a studied compliment, but the proof about Abram Goodykoontz. He had the logic that an apple a day kept the doctor away, and his orchard produced an abundance of that fruit.
Mr. Gay Goodykoontz first married Miss Sarah Booram who only lived a few years. On March 25, 1869, he married Miss Nora J. Mart, who is historian of Liberty Township in this Centennial History. She is a daughter of Joseph J. and Mary (Clark) Mart, who came to Liberty Township from Clinton County, Ohio. They were members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Samuel and Andrew Mart were brothers of J. J. Mart, and all were men who left their mark in the community. There were three Mart farms, and the parents of Mrs. Goodykoontz were among the successful prosperous farmers in the community. When she was only a baby in her mother's arms, they located at the Joseph J. Mart homestead in the spring of 1864, still owned in the family, and they were the first white family to live there. Only one field had been cleared and only one crop raised before they came into possession of it.
While Mr. Goodykoontz was named for the editor of the National Era, Mrs. Goodykoontz was named after a book "Nora Wilmot," which her parents had read and enjoyed. Although she has never been able to procure a copy of this book to read herself as it was long ago out of print, she was often told the story and it must have influenced the life of the child, as it was a temperance story, and Mrs. Goodykoontz has long been an active worker in the Women's Christian Temperance Union, her membership being in the Oak Ridge Union. She is a frequent contributor to farm appears, always writing about home problems, although not signing her contributions. She is the letter writer in both the Goodykoontz and Mart families, absentees always knowing she will favor them with newspaper clippings of interest, and detail all the news of the community. As historian of Liberty, Mrs. Goodykoontz reached many absent friends when the chapter was published in a Marion newspaper.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Goodykoontz attended Marion Normal School and taught in the common schools of the county. Mrs. Goodykoontz also attended Lebanon, Ohio, National University. A country home contains for them highest possibilities of usefulness and happiness, and they have named their home "Good Cheer." It is near the family homestead of each, and includes the old camp meeting grounds of the colored people. They were moving spirits in the organization of the Bethel Farmers' Club. They affiliate with Bethel Friends Church and she has charge of a class in Sunday School there. Mr. Goodykoontz was a member of the Grange and the F. M. B. A. when those organizations flourished in the community. He has been a member of the I. O. O. F. lodge at Jonesboro for twenty-two years. Mrs. Goodykoontz was a charter member of the Grant County Historical Society, and with books and magazines at hand she and her husband are quite content to keep "the noiseless tenor of their way." While Mr. and Mrs. Goodykoontz have no children, their home has been a haven for some relative or orphan the greater part of their married life. They hope that "Good Cheer" may mean to their guests something of what the name implies.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.