The largest of Arkansas’s
counties geographically, Union County was formed in 1829 from parts of Clark
and Hempstead Counties. It originally encompassed what would later become
Ouachita County, and the first county court was held at Ecore Fabre, now known
as Camden. By 1843, El Dorado became the county seat.
It was between El Dorado
and Lisbon that James C. Goodwin purchased a plantation after he and his family
had migrated there from Jones County, Georgia. Though Goodwin died only three
years after settling in Arkansas, his wife and children remained and became
contributing members in the area.
The collections at SARA
contain two ledgers from the stores of two of the Goodwins’ sons, William
Harrison Goodwin and Elisha Hamilton Goodwin. William Goodwin received a degree
in medicine from Tulane in 1867, practicing in Lisbon and later in El Dorado.
The larger of the two ledgers is from the T. C. Chew Drug Company that William
purchased an interest in, later buying out the interest of Chew. William ran
the store for another twenty-two years until his death in 1906.
The smaller of the two
ledgers relates to William’s older brother Elisha, who moved to neighboring
Claiborne Parish, Louisiana in the late 1850s. Elisha also practiced as a
druggist until the start of the Civil War. After the war, Elisha and his family
returned to Union County where he engaged in farming until his death in 1901.
Research compiled by
Goodwin descendants on the ledgers and the family’s history is also among the
library collections at SARA. As always, donations of original materials are
welcome. For more information, please contact Archival Manager, Melissa
Nesbitt, at melissa.nesbitt@arkansas.gov.
