Person:Moses Goodno (2)

Named after his Uncle Moses Jackson

Moses' father, Henry built a cabin and cleared a farm on what is known today as Gorham golf course. Moses was the first white child born at Shelburne Addition (Gorham). Henry died when Moses was still young, so he move back to Newry to live with Grandfather Joseph Jackson. In 1824, he returned to the Addition.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Banvard, Theodore James Fleming. Goodenows who originated in Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638 A.D: they came from Wilts and Dorset, England : across America they roamed and multiplied. (Baltimore [Maryland]: Gateway Press, c1994)
   184.
2. ↑ FamilySearch - International Genealogical Index v4.01
   New Hampshire Death Records, 1654-1947 - Moses Goodno.
3. ↑ United States. 1840 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (National Archives Microfilm Publication M704).
4. ↑ United States. 1870 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (National Archives Microfilm Publications M593 and T132).
5. ↑ United States. 1880 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (National Archives Microfilm Publication T9).
6.   Wight, Denman Bartlett. The Androscoggin River valley : gateway to the White Mountains. (Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle, c1967).
7. ↑ Strangulated Hernia
8. ↑ 1882- [I realize this is a long story, but a real "thriller" so I've included it]
   The Great Freshet of 1882 - Dr. True secured, in 1882, from Moses Goodno this description of that freshet on Peabody and Androscoggin rivers, known as the Great Freshet of August 28, 1826: "I was living with Elijah Evans, on the spot where I was born, in the interval near where Hitchcock's barns are situated. This was on August 28, 1826, when I was nineteen years old. It began to rain the previous night, and rained very hard all the next day, and in the afternoon the water began to rise in the river, when at seven o'clock in the evening it touched the stringers of the bridge. It rained fearfully hard till eleven o'clock that night before it ceased. It seemed like pouring water through a sieve, or as if a cloud had burst. A man could hardly keep from drowning when standing still, it rained so fast. In a short time the water rose about eight feet higher than ever known before, and carried away the bridge. About nine o'clock the water began to run into the doors and windows, and the family started for the mountains. It was totally dark, but they waded across the interval and crossed a small bridge, and came to another which had just been swept away, and we could not go any further. We then turned back, hoping to reach the barn for shelter, but the bridge we had crossed before was now swept away and we could not reach the barn. Trees floating down from the Peabody river near us, and swept us down with them. We caught into the tops and were borne down with the current a third of a mile. I succeeded in putting the children into the tops of the floating trees. At last the trees formed a jam about some stumps, but the water ran so swiftly that a part of the trees were torn away and carried down stream, and with them Harriet Evans and her brother, John C. Evans, and in a minute more it swept away the young man, Elijah Evans and Harriet Wilson, then living in the family. I succeeded in reaching the girl and bringing her back, and then the boy. The father of the family, Elijah Evans, was in Shelburne at this time. I could hear the others screaming, and though it was pitch dark I swam part of the time and waded and followed the direction of the sound till I succeeded in reaching them, and found Harriet in the water clinging to the tree tops. I pulled her out of the water with her brother clinging to her clothes without her being aware of his being there. I succeeded in getting them onto a dry knoll. The old lady and two boys, Harrison and Sam were still on the first jam, holding on to a stump. I thought they were quite safe there. I saw a streak of light in the sky, and being a good swimmer I struck for the mountain, well knowing that I could do no more for them there, and they they would all be drowned if the water rose much higher. I swam part of the way, and waded the rest. I struck a sheep pen just below John Burbank's barn, climbed into it, and jumped down into the water, well soaked with manure, to the armpits, and had some trouble getting out. I went to the house, opened the outside door, when the brooks from the mountains rushed in. I succeeded in shutting the inner door, went to the fire-place, caught a burning brand and put it in the oven so it should not be put out by the water, and shouted for Mr. Burbank. His wife sprang out of bed, lighted a candle, when Mr. Burbank followed, but fainted as soon as he arose. We placed him on a bed, and called her hired man. Isaac Carleton, and we let the cattle out of the yard, which was full of water, to keep them from drowning. We now lighted a lantern, took off the great doors from the barn and made a raft, but it flopped over, and we could do nothing with it. We next yoked the oxen and went to Mr. Joshua Kendall's house, who had a large lye-trough, which had been made by digging out a large tree like a boat. We hitched the oxen to this, Kendall rode in the boat while Carleton and I each road an ox. In this way we went across the interval, but did not dare to take the women into the boat, through fear of tipping over, and waited until daylight, when we made bridges of plank, and succeeded in bringing them all safely to Mr. Burbank's house about eight or nine o'clock in the forenoon. One of the boys had gone further down the stream on a jam, when he caught near Merrill Head's house at a distance of half a mile. He could not swim, but succeeded in keeping out of the current in the main river, and the family had given him up for drowned, but when they reached the house, to their great joy, and surprise they found him. The escape of the whole family was certainly a marvellous one. The effects of that freshet were remarkable. The channel of the Peabody river previous to this time could be crossed on a single plank, but the floods of water tore away the banks, taking out large trees by the roots, and widening the channel to its present condition. The river was a milk white color, from the mud taken from its banks. It tore away about ten acres of excellent interval, and the land where Hutchinson's interval now is, making hollows and channels all over it, some of which still remain. Jams of trees covering five acres of land and fifteen feet high were formed. These were afterwards burned off. The reason why Evans's buildings were not swept away was owing to a jam of trees which lodged on some pine stumps and against the orchard which divided the current of water. The only building swept away was a vacated log house belonging to a man by the name of Brooks. It was several days before the news of the Willey catastrophe reached us." Such was Mr. Goodno's story of one of the most interesting events in the history of the town. It was a very disastrous freshet to the crops. Large quantities of wheat and other grains floated down the river and were lost. Such another rain-fall never occurred in modern times in the vicinity of the White Mountains. (Gorham, Coos County)