St. Paul daily globe., 1888-02-10
WHAT WAS HIS INTENT?
An Interesting Point Developed Over
Judge Goodrich's Bequest.
NO HARD FEELING RAISED.
More Opinions From Well Known
Il Members of the Two Churches
= Interested.

tween the First Methodist and Peoples
churches over the Goodrich legacy, as
published exclusively in yesterdays
GLOBE has raised most interesting
legal question which is now being dis
clssed OH every hand. 1t is whether or
not the action of the board of church
trustees was legal as far as it concerns
THE will of the late Judge Goodrich.
The question was raised by several
Of the gentlemen in yesterdays
GLOBE and is now being discussed
quite generally. Even the law
yers are divided on the question.
The First church people are waiting to
see whether the vote returning the
$1,000 to Mrs. Goodrich will be con-
sidered legal, and, with self-Satisfed
air, say that If the Peoples church can
afford to take the money, they can well
afford to give it up. The Peoples
church on the other hand does not feel
like resting under the imputation that
this matter, and they are busily explain
ing that the late Mr.. Goodrich had al
ways been a large contributor to the
First church, and that is enough for the
Goodrich family to go out of the First
church and give up their interest in that
property without paying over this adj
ditiOnal $1,000. Furthermore, they
claim that MI. Goodrich intended to leave
this money for the purpose of erecting
a large new church for DR.. Smith, and
that were he alive he would have un-
doubtedly gone into the new movement
with his family. With few exceptions,
keeping quiet in regard to the matter,
but good many of them are, neverthe-
less, thinking a great deal which is
bound to come out in the end.
NO BAD FEELING.
''There is no bad feeling between the
people of the two churches" said M. ID.
Miller, member of the First church
board of trustees, yesterday. 81 don't
think any action has been taken by the
First church to get the money, and l
don't believe any will be taken. The
last action of the old board of trustees
of the First church was to return this
money. The old board had nine mem
bers-all except two are now in the Peo-
pies church. | voted to return the leg
acy for the reason that |
thought we could well afford
to give it up if they could afford to ask
for it. The report that the First church
is in a bad way financially does us
great injustice. We are not in need of
money. Of course we are not as flush
as might be desired, but see what we
have done in the past year. The First
church has given birth to two churches
the new Oxford church and this new
movement. The Oxford church was
built by the First church altogether,
and drew some few members from us,
while we lost no less than fifty by the
Peoples church movement. We now
have an excellent pastor and as large
audiences as ever before. really don't
think we have lost anything to speak of
by the new movement. OF course out
Siders will talk about the matter. [ do
not know of any legal measures having
been taken to recover the legacy, and
do not know whether it has ever been
paid over to the treasurer. Mr.. NicolS
was the treasurer of the old board, and
has not yet handed in his final state
ment. The resolution passed by the
, Old board was that the bequeSt be re-
ceived and the treasurer be ordered to
pay it over to Mrs. Goodrich. This was
passed by the board Saturday, and
DR.. Smith preached his farewell ser
mon the next day. OF course the, ground
for the resolution was that the family
had contributed largely to the church,
and when about to go into a new Or
ganiZation they ought to have the
money 10 pay III Cnere. j QOnC see now
this thing got out. There is no one in
the First church who is disposed to
make any trouble. / wish also to state
that the church is not weak; we still
have 250 members left. This is more
than the new church has, and more than
many of the churches of the city have.
There was a circular sent out, but this
was done to let the members know
where to pay their contributions. This
was rendered necessary by the old treas
urer going into the new movement and
is no sign of weakness"
HE so INTENDED IT.
"Mr. Goodrich intended that this leg
acy should go towards building new
church large enough to accommodate
DR.. Smiths large audiences" said
prominent member of the Peoples
church yesterday. ''He had promised
this to DIR. Smith some time before he
died, and this is the reason it was left
to the trustees of the First M. E. church.
It's fact, however, that the NicolS and
Goodrich families furnished nearly all
the money with which to build the first
church, and surely its enough to go out
and leave all this without being required
to contribute this last amount"