The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-02
FOUR SCORE AND ACTIVE
REV. II. a. GOODWIN CELEBRATES
HIS ANNIVERSARY TODAY.
A Character in the States History
Tribute of Judge ID. T..
Baldwin.

Rev. Thomas A. Goodwin d. D., to-day
puts on the royal purple of the octogenar-
ian. He is probably more familiar with In
diana, its history its men and measures,
its wants and needs than any other living
man. And the best of it all is that he is as
bright and alert as he was fifty years ago.
Last month he occupied the pulpit of the
Meridian-street NJ K. Church and hardly
week passes that the Journal does not pub
lish some bright incisive article from his
pen, which articles are almost universally
read by the patrons of this paper. Mr..
Goodwin will observe his anniversary by
being at home to his friends this afternoon
at 1920 College avenue
IF DR.. Goodwin was not born in Indiana
he came here very early in life" said ex-
Judge d. +. Baldwin in speaking of the VEN
cradle minister, for in September, 1887, we
find him boy not yet nineteen years old,
at Greencastle, with eighteen other lads who
were members of the old Putnam County
Seminary then under the charge of DR..
Cyrus Mutt AS DR.. Goodwin did not reside
in Putnam county, he had to be enrolled as
a student of Asbury University then in Its
swaddling clothes To Dr. Goodwin belongs
the double honor of not only being the first
enrolled student, but in 1910 the first grad
uate of old Asbury University.
After his graduation he spent the next
thirteen years of his long and useful life in
pastoral work, occasionally varied by taking
charge of some embryo college. 1t is good
for us to pause and reflect upon Indiana as
it was in those primitive days before the
war; no roads, no cities; its rivers I'M
bridged; its people poor and its institutions
undeVelOped. Matthew Simpson, however,
greatest OF Methodist bishops was at the
head Of Asbury and the Methodist Church
of Indiana, and specimens of his handiwork
can be found in men like DR.. Goodwin, ex-
Governor Porter Judge Hauk United
States Senators Newton Booth, James Har-
Ian and Daniel w. Voorhees, ali pupils of
his. Verify, there were giants in those days
How comes it that our schools do not now
turn out such timber? Is it because there
are too many elective or too much athletlcs,
and altogether too much luxury? Or is 1t
because, as Shakespeare puts It, Rome hath
lost the breed of noble bloods?
DIR. Goodwin is a born fighter and his
lifelong contest has been and still is with
King Alcohol What gray-haired man does
not recall The Sons of Temperance, as they
used to be in the SOS? OF this order, our
venerable friend was successfully grand
chaplain, grand scribe and grand worthy
patriarch, and to promote its interests and
aims DIR. Goodwin. in 1S59forty-hve years
ago. remember-purchased the Indiana
American, then published al Brookville, and
began the battle which in 1855 resulted in
Indianas first and only prohibitory liquor
law; a law which, for political reasons.
tional by Judge Perkins, of the Democratic
Supreme Court. To render his newspaper
more effective DR.. Goodwin, IN 1897, moved
it to Indianapolis, where he has ever since
This paper espoused the cause of the
slave as well as the wrongs OF the drunkard
fighter it soon became great power in poll
tics, so much so that at the close or the
great campaign of 1860 Henry s; Lane;
newly elected Governor of Indiana, declared
1t had done mora to carry Indiana Tor LIN
coin than any other one agency. From the
start this paper was l.e Dr. Goodwin NM
the North said Let our erring sisters go
in peace DIR. Goodwin preached fight and
denounced all schemes Tor peace cominlls-
sions and peace conventions His instincts
in this respect were better than the cohclu-
sions of timid and learned statesmen or inn
posing conventions s nag tne saSaey the 9e
Union was not worth q rush. When the
war was over Dr. Goodwin's weekly paper
he voluntarily retired for this reason from
the field of editorial labor, but his pen mas
ever since been active. Wherever wrons
makes its appearance 1t may calculate upon
a bout with u. l.. See and in such con-
tests DR.. Goodwin seldom or never comes
out second best. This is largely a matter
of heredity for the GoodwinS nave peeh
for generations a race of aggressive men, .
Or Goodwin's excellent health makes lt
fairly certain that he will see the twenuern
will then cover a stretch of stXty-nVe years,
from 1885 to 1900. What field to survey!
From weakness to strength; from an I'M
known border State, as Indiana then her WAS, was,
to its present great wealth and high liter
aTv and commercial standing; from slavery
to freedom; from the bigotry Of 1885 70 the
religious freedom of 1900. What chahge!
And il all lies within his living memory.
s'Dr. Goodwin has been one or the lead-
ors fn, Law representation within his church
and an earnest advocate for Tefo r1in{
other lapses into which the great Me5n u.o9S
hierarchy has almost unconsciously drl1teq;
At eighty it is too late for man 10 repeat
his Ben Ezra.
Grow old along with me-
The best Is yet to be-
"He rather intones his Prospice'
"'Fear death!
I am near the place
where the barriers fall
7 was ever fighter-so one ngnt more
The best is the last.
sIf DR.. Goodwin were called from us To-
morrow he could truthfully say naNe
added somewhat to the sum OF nuIi! IN ia ,,,
niness and taken somewhat from the sun, sum
Of human misery, and so nave not hVeu
in vain.
STORIFS FROM THE OCClDEN /.