George Edward Goodman

The bridge generation

In the long arc of the Goodman family, George Edward occupies a precise and pivotal position. His father, William Nicholas Goodman, was the English-born pioneer who brought the family to Arizona and died young. His eldest son, George Nicholas Goodman, would become Mesa's five-term mayor, pharmacist, and civic institution. George Edward is the link between them: the generation that turned frontier survival into settled permanence.

Minersville and the journey south (1870-1883)

George Edward Goodman was born on November 11, 1870, in Minersville, in Utah's Beaver County. He was the eldest son (and third child) of William Nicholas Goodman and Margaret Ann Taylor. He was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on February 24, 1881, at the age of ten.

In 1882, when George was twelve, the family left Minersville for Arizona Territory. They reached the Salt River Valley first, then pushed on to the San Pedro River Valley in January 1883. George drove a four-horse team on the journey, taking turns with his brothers. The Simkins family traveled with them. Coming through Box Canyon the wagon struck a large rock and threw George's father from the seat, injuring his head so badly he could not drive for some time. The children kept the teams moving.

Two years and two months after arriving in St. David, William Nicholas Goodman suffered a paralytic stroke and died. George Edward was fourteen.

A young man's work (1883-1893)

George attended school in Minersville and in St. David, where he studied in an adobe schoolhouse. On May 3, 1887, an earthquake estimated at 7.25 to 8.1 magnitude struck southern Arizona from an epicenter in Sonora, less than a hundred miles south. The west wall of the schoolhouse collapsed. The children were at recess and no one was injured. George was sixteen. His formal education ended soon after and his working life began. He worked hay camps, hauling loads to John Montgomery's livery stable in Tombstone. He worked on the railroad in Cochise County, out at San Simon.

At nineteen he hauled lumber for Joseph Allred in the Mt. Graham Mountains and worked the railroad river bottom at Tempe. At twenty he began freighting into Bisbee, driving teams for John J. Busby and freight teams for Heber C. Reed into Old Mexico. He drove for Harry Clifford through Mexico, Contention, and Patagonia. He hauled lumber from the Chiricahua Mountains to Bisbee, cut and hauled black jack (oak) into the Grand Central Mills, and farmed.

The geography of George Edward's twenties reads like a map of southern Arizona's extractive economy in the 1890s: mines at Bisbee and Tombstone, railroads at San Simon and Tempe, lumber camps in the mountains, freight routes stretching into Sonora. He handled four-horse and freight teams across country that was, by any standard, still raw.

Marriage and family (1893-1906)

On February 13, 1893, George married Roxanna Othelia Reed, daughter of Heber C. Reed and Louisa Sheen. They married at the home of her parents, presided over by Joseph McRae, "and had a big wedding."

Eight children were born to them: six in St. David and two in Safford after the family relocated. Their eldest, George Nicholas, was born on September 5, 1895, in St. David.

George Edward served as a Sunday School teacher and for several years as Superintendent of the Sunday School in the local ward.

Safford and the lumber years (1906-1933)

In 1906, George Edward moved his family to Safford, Arizona, in the Gila Valley. He went to work for a lumber company there and stayed for twenty-seven years. On May 28, 1928, he and Roxsana traveled to Mesa to work in the Arizona Temple.

Roxsana died on May 31, 1933, in Safford, after a long and serious illness. The family sketch records that George "cared for her during her long, serious illness and never complained, and was faithful and considerate of her."

Second marriage and the family organization (1936-1952)

On September 18, 1936, George married Louisa Ann Reed Goodman, the widow of William G. Goodman.

George Edward had served as Third Vice President of the Goodman Family Organization since June 20, 1922, rising to First Vice President in January 1934 and to President in 1936. He held the presidency until his death and was, by that point, the recognized patriarch of the entire Goodman clan. A March 1990 journal entry records the annual reunion of "George Goodman's descendants" at his late wife's house in Mesa, decades after his death. The gathering was still organized around his name.

Last days

George Edward Goodman died on February 25, 1952, at a hospital in Phoenix. His grandson, Clifford James Goodman Sr., M.D., was an intern at Good Samaritan Hospital at the time and helped care for George Edward during his final stay. Three generations in one hospital room: the teamster who had driven freight into Bisbee, and the young doctor just beginning the medical dynasty that would define the next chapter of the family story.

He was buried on February 28, 1952, at Safford Cemetery, next to Roxsana.

The soda fountain and the grandchildren

While George Edward lived in Safford through most of his life, his son George Nicholas had settled in Mesa and opened Apache Drug on Main Street in 1924. The grandchildren who visited Mesa in the summers found their way to "Grandpa Goodman's" store, where the old man's cronies gathered at the soda fountain before dawn, drinking coffee in felt cowboy hats. Young Clifford Goodman Jr. sat behind the cigar counter at 4 a.m., reading comic books and making himself milkshakes on the professional mixers. Whether "Grandpa Goodman" in those recollections refers to George Edward visiting from Safford or to his son George Nicholas is sometimes ambiguous in the family record, but the soda fountain world they both inhabited is vivid and unmistakable.