Hon. Patrick Gaines Goode
This name is found not only in judicial records of Ohio, but also in the legislative records of the Nation. Judge Goode was born in Prince Edwards County, Va., May 10, 1798, and came to Ohio, near Xenia, with his father in 1805. Here he worked on a farm until sixteen years of age, when he entered the classical school of Professor Espy at Xenia. Three years later he followed the same instructor to Philadelphia, Pa., where he remained about two years, and then removed to Lebanon, Warren County, and began the study of law under Judge Collett. At the age of twenty-three he was admitted to the Lebanon bar, which then boasted of such legal lights as Thomas Corwin, Benjamin Collett, and other advocates of celebrity. Removing to Madison, Indiana, he entered upon the practice of law, but in 1828 he moved to Liberty, Indiana, and again in 1831 to Sidney, Ohio. At the latter place he stepped to the front rank of his profession, but as the country was yet new, be devoted a portion of his time to teaching. About the year 1832 he was appointed agent of the State Sabbath-school Society, for Shelby and the counties north of it. For several months he was zealously engaged in this field, organizing Sabbath-schools and otherwise laboring in the interests of the society’s cause. In 1833 he was elected to the Ohio House, and was honored by a. re-election the following year. In 1835 he was a candidate for the Ohio Senate and received the certificate of election; but as a number of votes for his opponent, Colonel Hunt, had been thrown out on technical grounds, the judge refused to claim the office to which he did not believe himself fairly elected. The following year he was elected to Congress from a district extending from Dayton to Toledo, and comprising fourteen counties. He was twice re-elected, but after the redistricting of the State he refused to be a candidate for a fourth term. In Congress he was an indefatigable worker, and received great praise from his constituents for his successful labors in behalf of improvements in the Maumee Valley. In 1844 the sixteenth judicial district was cre ated, and was composed of Shelby and Williams, with all intervening counties, ten in number. Judge Goode was elected President Judge of this district by the General Assembly, for seven years, when the district was remodelled and the old constitution was superseded by the new. He then resumed the practice of law at Sidney, but finally abandoned this profession to enter the ministry. In 1855 the M. E. Conference gave him a temporary appointment to fill a vacancy, and the next year he was regularly appointed, so that by 1857 his full time was devoted to Gospel duties. In the fall of 1862 he attended the conference at Greenville, Darke County, where, owing to his knowledge of parliamentary law, he was burdened by grave responsibilities. These, taken in connection with the arduousness of his preceding labors, seem to have over taxed his endurance, for he only survived the conference about two weeks, his death occurring at his home, October 7, 1862. On July 3, 1832, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary, daughter of Benjamin and Catherine Whiteman, near Clifton, Greene County, O. They had three children, of whom two survived childhood. These were Catherine, who married Wm. McCullough, of Sidney, O., and Benjamin W., who married Miss Anna S. Evans, of Franklin, O. Judge Goode was a lover of books, a classical scholar, and an earnest, persuasive advocate. In all the stations and relations of life he won the confidence and esteem of the constituency which he served and the people who had opportunities of knowing him. Everywhere he was given credit for high mindedness and a keen perception of justice, whether in the halls of Congress, on the bench, or in the pulpit. As a lawyer, too, he was said to have arisen above the abuses of that profession, and to have relied, not upon trickery or technicality, but upon the broader principles of fairness and justice. At the establishment of the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, he became a member of the board of college trustees, and held the same relation to the institution up to the time of his death. As nearly as we can to-day estimate his life-work and individual character, we feel safe in saying he shed a lustre upon Shelby County, and is entitled to the grateful veneration of the people not only of this county, but throughout that larger field to which his work and influence extended.
From History of Shelby County, Ohio; R. Sutton & Co, Philadelphia PA, 1883