August 2010

William Mason (1814-1895) great-great grandfather of Jim Goohue, was a sailor who came to Iowa from New Jersey by way of Ohio. He first came to Van Buren County, and then to Warren County. William helped construct the army barracks by the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers with wood from the Parmelee sawmill. For that work, President Willard Fillmore granted him 800 acres of land. William claimed his land north of Palmyra.

Family lore says the first furrow in Warren County was plowed on that land. It is also thought corn was planted from seed which had been picked up along the road by the family of William Mason's wife, Jane Neal, as they traveled from Tennessee to Iowa in 1844.

William and Jane had five sons and one daughter. Each son was given 160 acres of land from the original federal grant. James A. (Jim) Mason (1864-1930) made his farm famous for seed corn improvement before the days of hybrid corn. He won state and national recognition and prizes with his seed corn. He taught young farmers about the selection of better seed corn.

Jim Mason and his wife, Cora Patterson (1865-1949) built their home between Carlisle and Hartford around 1910. Jim died in 1930, during the time when Old Highway 60 was being built. His funeral caused construction of the Highway to be shut down for the day. Sadly, the Jim Mason home on old Highway 60 was in the way of new Highway 5 construction in 1996, so it no longer stands.

Jim and Cora had one daughter, Ermile (1888-1964.) Ermile's daughter was Lucile Goodhue (1909-2009.) Lucile's son is Jim Goodhue.

Jim Goodhue grew up in a farming culture begun by his great-great grandfather, and continued by his great grandfather. Jim owns a portion of the original land granted to William around 160 years ago. A point of pride says the land never had a debt against it. Jim and his wife Nadine, have three sons, Mike, Mark and Steve. With Jim, Mike and Mark carry on the family tradition, farming land first owned by William Mason. Steve is a businessman in Ames.