Charles Perry Goodrich
Charles Perry Goodrich was born on February 8, 1831, in Stockbridge, New York, to Charles and Clarissa Goodrich. His father was a farmer who owned $800 of real estate in 1850. The family moved to Oakland, Wisconsin, around 1846, and by 1850, he was working as a farmer. He married Frances Bowen in the 1850s, and they had at least three children: William, born around 1859; Charles, born around 1867; and Dewitt, born around 1869. They lived in Oakland, and by 1860, he owned $1,600 of real estate and $300 of personal property.
Goodrich enlisted in the Union army on October 19, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company I of the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry later that day. The regiment took part in the Chickamauga campaign and the Atlanta campaign. He was promoted to sergeant major on April 19, 1864, and he mustered out on March 8, 1865.
He returned to Oakland after the war and worked as a farmer and surveyor. By 1870, he owned $3,400 of real estate and $1,458 of personal property. According to one writer, he “became one of the state’s leading dairymen.” He was “one of the first men honored by the university for work in the business of farming and scientific agriculture.”
He joined the University of Wisconsin staff in 1887. He applied for a federal pension in September 1890 and eventually secured one. His wife died in January 1900. By June 1900, he was living in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. A decade later, he was living in his son Charles’s household in Fort Atkinson. They moved to Koshkonong, Wisconsin, in the 1910s. He died in Fort Atkinson on January 21, 1921.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (1867) | Goodrich, Charles Perry | 1831-02-08 | 1921-01-21 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Private
- Rank out: Sergeant Major
- Rank highest: Sergeant Major
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 9
- (3358) [writer] ~ Charles P. Goodrich to Frances Goodrich, 25 April 1864
- (6110) [writer] ~ Charles P. Goodrich to Frances Goodrich, 2 February 1862
- (6112) [writer] ~ Charles P. Goodrich to Frances Goodrich, 16 February 1862
- (6113) [writer] ~ Charles P. Goodrich to Frances Goodrich, 9 March 1862
- (6114) [writer] ~ Charles P. Goodrich to Frances Goodrich, 1 May 1862
- (6115) [writer] ~ Charles P. Goodrich to Frances Goodrich, 26 June 1862
- (6116) [writer] ~ Charles P. Goodrich to Frances Goodrich, 5 July 1862
- (6117) [writer] ~ Charles P. Goodrich to Frances Goodrich, 3 August 1863
- (6118) [writer] ~ Charles P. Goodrich to Frances Goodrich, 29 June 1864
People - Records: 1
- (1868) Goodrich, Frances is the [wife of] (1867) Goodrich, Charles Perry
Places - Records: 2
Regiments - Records: 1
- (52) [enlisted] [I] ~ 1st Wisconsin Cavalry
SOURCES
1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865, available from Ancestry.com; General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934, available from Ancestry.com; The Capital Times, 24 January 1921.
