Person:Hans Gutknecht (1)

!source: TIB(1,262,937); ARCHIVE(1,274,158) History of Michael Goodnight 929.273 G624w, 929.273 G624j Michael Goodnight and first family came on the "Neptune" from the Palatinate in 1752 to Philadelphia.

Michael Goodnight probably setteled near Kannopolis, Mecklenburg (now Cabarrus), North Carolina before he left for Kentucky. His brother or father Christen was there.

Excerpts from THE GOOD (K) NIGHT (GUTKNECHT) FAMILY IN AMERICA By S. H. GOODNIGHT

LETTER 1

Ashmore, Ill., Dec. 24, 1883. Dear Porter and Thomas Goodknight:

Yours of the 18th is at hand . . . . . There were two gentlemen and their wives came across the Sea from Germany of the name of Goodknight and located in North Carolina. one was named John (Michael), the other George.

George is my grandfather.

George had four sons and three daughters; the names of the sons, David, John, Peter, and Michael which was the youngest of the sons and is my father.

The daughters were named Christena, Elizabeth and S. Catherine, the youngest. She married a British officer and went to Great Britain. David lived and died a bachelor, John had a family and died on Elkhorn. Peter and Michael emigrated to the Green River country.

John (Michael) had four sons, John, Isaac, Jacob and Abraham. If there was another, I don't now remember it. [Henry.)

John lived on Chaplin's fork not far from Perryville. I was at his home once; know but little about his family; he had a son who had a cork leg. I spent a night with him but don't remember his name; neither do I remember whether he had any more sons, but I suppose he had. He had one daughter who was struck with paralisis whose mind was considerably impaired. John was a good man; everybody loved him.

Isaac lived about fifteen miles above Boling Green on big Barren river. Raised a large and respectfull family of both sons and daughters and lived to a great age.

Jacob lived on the hanging fork in Lincoln Co. not far from Stanford; he raised a number of sons and daughters and is the grandfather of J[ames] L[incoln) Goodknight the celebrated schollar and divine a cumberlan Presbyterian minister of Covington, Ohio.

Abraham got off from his people and they lost the run of him.

The two brothers, John (Michael) and George, in the days of General Logan and Boon emegrated to the state of Kentucky and met sad misfortune. George and his entire family except two sons who were in the service were captured I think at Kentons [Ruddell's] station. George was massacreed in the most barbrous manner while his children were scattered among the Indians. My father was taken to Detroit and sold to the French and taken to Canada. Elizabeth never got to her people until she was twenty two years old.

John (Michael) and his son John went back after some of their goods which they had to pack on horses for want of roads, the Indians came upon them at their camp fire, killed the father. They shot the son, the arrow entered one side and came out at the other and the surprising part is in that condition he made his way to the horses, stopped the bell, concealed himself and the next day went to the white settlements.

I have given the outlines of our people in America . . . . . .

Respectfully, Farewell,

S. W. Goodnight.

THE MICHAEL GOODNIGHT FAMILY

As noted above, the migration to Kentucky of Michael Goodnight with his wife and the children of his last marriage may have occurred in the summer of 1777 or 1778. Happily, an interesting old document gives us the date of his first settlement on Kentucky land for the purpose of preemption.

The document is in The Certificate Book of the Virginia Land Commission of 1779-80. (See the Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society, for 1923, Vol. 21, p. 246) From this entry we learn that: "Michael Goodnight this day claimed a preempt of 400 acres of land at the State price in the District of Kentucky on Acc't of making an Actual settlement in Feb'y 1779 lying at the mouth of Doctors fork of Chaplins fork of Salt River on both sides of the s'd Creek Satisfactory proof being made to the Court they are of Opinion that the said Goodnight has a right to a preempt of 400 Acres of Land to include the above Location & that a Certificate issue accordingly."

This land, which the writer visited in the summer of 1934, lies several miles to the south of Harrodsburg, in the present county of Boyle. In his "Stations and Early Settlements in Kentucky," (Collins' History of Kentucky, Vol. II, p. 190) Collins locates Harlan's Station as "on Salt River, in Mercer (now Boyle) County, 7 miles s. e. from Harrodsburg and 3 miles n. w. of Danville; built by Major Silas Harlan, in 1778." It is clear that the Goodnight family, living on the land described, must have "forted," as the pioneers expressed it, at Harlan's rather than at Harrod's.

There is not the slightest doubt that Michael Goodnight's preempt of the 400 acres was honored, for, if further evidence were necessary, it would be supplied by the deeds on record in the Mercer County Court House. On the 25th of March, 1794, thirteen years after Michael's death, Christian Goodnight, a son of Michael by his first wife and who had remained in the east-see letters 19 and 21 above-and Caterinah his wife, of Mecklenburg Co., No. Carolina, deed to Jacob Goodnight for the sum of 5 shillings "one certain tract of Land containing one hundred and sixty seven acres lying & being in the County of Mercer on Chaplins fork . . . . part of a survey made for Michael Goodnight," etc. This is obviously a clearance of tide, a guarantee that the half brother in North Carolina will not at some future time lay claim to the land as an inheritance.

Two similar instruments, both dated Sept. 23, 1794, deed 147 acres of Michael's 400 from Christian to Henry Goodnight, "adjoining Jacob Goodnight on the lower side and Abraham Goodnight on the upper side"; and 105 acres on Chaplin's Fork "to a stake in the line of Michael's survey" to Abraham.

There is, further, a deed whereby Jacob Goodnight and Elizabeth, his wife, transfer ownership of the 167 acres described in the first mentioned deed to Charles Hart and his heirs on June 24, 1797. Two years later, Abraham. and Mary, his wife, convey 97 acres of Michael's original 400 to Isham Pruitt and wife, and, still later, Abraham sells his remaining seven and one-half acres to John Goodnight for C20. John, Jacob, Henry and Abraham were the four elder sons of Michael and Mary Goodnight.

It appears a bit strange that Michael's land should have been divided among Jacob (167 acres), Henry (147 acres), and Abraham (105 acres), with no reference to John, the eldest son, or to Isaac, the youngest. It is quite conceivable, however, that John had received his inheritance in money upon the sale of Michael's effects-see below-and that Isaac, who was only six years old when the estate was settled, was to be provided for by his mother.

1.   The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (TM) (July 1996 (c), data as of 2 January 1996).