Roland Goodman was born in 1860 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Andrew T. Goodman and Adelaide B. Dewey. His father was a clerk who served in the Union army from 1862 until 1865. Goodman was baptized on April 5, 1866. He grew up and attended school in Philadelphia, and by 1880, he was working as a clerk. He moved to Dallas, Texas, in the late 1800s, and he married Susan A. Shepard on February 10, 1891. They had at least three children: Mary, born around 1892; Henry, born around 1894; and Drusilla, born around 1896. He worked as an insurance agent and a traveling salesman. He died in Dallas on February 18, 1921.