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Dr. Lincoln Goodale and His Living Legacy
Part One: The Goodale Family |
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Goodale Street and Goodale Park lie in the heart of the Short North. Both were named after Dr. Lincoln Goodale, a man whose story deals in superlatives but is scarcely remembered today. He was one of first and oldest residents of Columbus and Ohio and the county’s first doctor. As Columbus’ first millionaire, he was one of the city’s greatest and most benevolent benefactors. Through marriages and business dealings, the Goodale family interwove the fabric of central Ohio’s business community and society. |
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Dr. Lincoln Goodale and His Living Legacy
Part Two: The Goodale Family in Central Ohio |
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When Dr. Lincoln Goodale and his mother arrived in Franklinton in 18051, it was still a wild and fairly unsettled place. The settlers continued to live in fear of Indian attacks, and as late as 1811 there was not one church, schoolhouse, pleasure carriage or bridge over any stream within 100 miles. Physicians of the time had to reach patients by crossing streams on horseback (or even swimming across) and traipsing through dark forests in the middle of the night using only the stars to guide them to a patient’s cabin in the woods. The Franklinton homesteaders frequently suffered from fevers and other sicknesses but were blessed in the early days with not one but four physicians: Dr. Lincoln Goodale, Dr. John Bull, Dr. Samuel Parsons and Dr. John Edmiston. Dr. Goodale is considered to have been the first of these four physicians to practice in Columbus and Franklin County. |
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Dr. Lincoln Goodale and His Living Legacy Part Three: Goodale Park--A Park for the People of Columbus |
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When Lincoln Goodale died on April 30, 1868, at the age of 85¹ of pneumonia, he was one of the oldest citizens of Columbus and Ohio. As a member of the first band of pioneers that began Ohio’s first settlements at Marietta and Belpre, “one of his earliest recollections was of being stationed, when a boy of seven or eight years old upon a stump in the midst of a large field at Belpre, to watch for the Indians and give the alarm so that the men who were at work with their ploughs and hoes, might seize their muskets in time to defend themselves; and an allusion to this period of his life, so full of hardship and suffering, and associated with the terror and grief of the family at his father’s disappearance, and the long suspense that broke their hearts before any tidings of his reached them, affected him deeply, even to tears.”² |
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Dr. Lincoln Goodale and His Living Legacy Part Four: Goodale Park--A Brief History from the Beginning through the Civil War Years |
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Columbus, Ohio, was a rapidly growing city in the early 1800s with numerous construction projects in the downtown area. As buildings sprang up, the city’s trees were felled and green space was rapidly disappearing. Much of the timber in the central downtown area was destroyed with the State House construction in 1812 and 1813. Eventually realizing this was a mistake, several large trees were successfully transplanted in 1834 to recover some of the green space in the central city. |
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Dr. Lincoln Goodale and His Living Legacy Part Five: Goodale Park--The 1870s Improvements and a Menagerie |
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After Goodale Park was reverted from a Civil War camp to a park in 1861, there seems to have been little news regarding the park for the remaining decade, other than the passing of Dr. Lincoln Goodale, donator of the park land, in 1868. As designated by the original park deed, Dr. Goodale had served as one of the four park oversight committee members. After his passing, the park was managed by a three-person committee of city council. |
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Dr. Lincoln Goodale and His Living Legacy Part Six: Goodale Park - The 1880s through the early 1900s |
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The late 1800s and early 1900s seem to have been tumultuous years for Goodale Park as the park might have frequently been used as a political tool in city council partisan politics. While the 1870s were a time of improvements, witnessing the construction of a commissioned gate for the south entrance and a lake in the northeast quadrant, the 1880s might be described as a time of retrenchment and catching up on unpaid bills. |
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Dr. Lincoln Goodale and His Living Legacy Part Seven: Goodale Park - At The Center of History's Crossroads, The Early 1900s |
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With the exception of residential housing, the Goodale Park area had remained fairly undeveloped until the city started extending gas, water and electricity to this sector in the 1870s and 1880s. These services, combined with the proximity of railroads, highways, and waterways, created ideal conditions for industrial development that included an iron foundry and The United States Pipe and Foundry Company in the 1870s, Columbus Forge and Drum Company and the Commercial Paste Company in 1900, and the Franklin Lumber and Furniture Company in 1901. The Columbus, Piqua and Indianapolis Railroad was another large employer. When Rosenthal Brothers Wool-Pullers opened on Spruce Street, there was a housing shortage for their workers. Housing “flew up” almost overnight in the area known as “Flytown” to accommodate these workers. |
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Dr. Lincoln Goodale and His Living Legacy Part Eight: The 1950s through the 1970s – A Toned-Down Era for Goodale Park |
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The early 1950s marked another era of change for Goodale Park – one that seems to have been more about toning down and leveling off the excitement, activity and plans of the previous years. Over 100 years had passed since the land was deeded to Columbus as a pleasure ground and the concept of what that entailed was shifting again. According to local historian Terry Sherburn, the idea that parks should provide beautiful, wooded, scenic places for adults was gradually turning to the definition of parks as playing fields and open grassy areas for children. |
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Dr. Lincoln Goodale and His Living Legacy Part Nine: Political Seesaws in Goodale Park |
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The Train Controversy |
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| Photo by Don Damron |