The Church S Debt to the Goodwin Family

THE CHURCH’S DEBT TO THE GOODWIN FAMILY A Century of Faithful Service By J. W. Ware

The Rt. Rev. Frederick D. Goodwin, D.D., Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of Virginia, is a representative of a family, having a record that is almost, if not quite, unique, in the history of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia, or elsewhere.

The grandfather of Bishop Goodwin was the Rev. Frederick Deane Goodwin, the first of the family to serve as a clergyman in Virginia. He came to Virginia in 1826, as a tutor at “Vaucluse.” Near Winchester. He attended the Episcopal Church at Millwood. It was during several years as tutor that he came under the influence of Bishop Meade, which was the beginning of a lifelong friendship.

The history of the Goodwin family, previous to the coming to Virginia of the ancestor of our Goodwins is interesting. The Rev. F. D. Goodwin was one of ten children of a Puritan family. Of these nine connected themselves with the Episcopal Church. The explanation of this change is one of many illustrations indicating the value of the Book of Common Prayer as a missionary.

An older brother, Daniel, when a student at Brown University, during an illness, was read to by his roommate, Benjamin Cutter, later the distinguished rector of St. Anne’s, Brooklyn. The selection of the Epistle and Gospel for the Sunday greatly interested young Goodwin; and after his recovery he studied the book, and decided to enter the Episcopal Church.

Out of this decision, in the providence of God, the Church in Virginia has been richly blessed. The record of the Goodwin family is written in the ministries of the following clergymen. The names and the years in which they graduated at our Virginia Seminary are as follows:

THE GOODWIN ROLL OF HONOR

F. D. Goodwin, Class of 1831, Died 1881

Sons: R. A. Goodwin, Class 1875, Died 1914 E. L. Goodwin, Class 1880, Died 1924

Grandsons: W. A. R. Goodwin, Class 1893 R. A. Goodwin, Jr., Class 1910 C. H. Goodwin, Class 1918 F. D. Goodwin, Class 1917 J. F. Ribble, Class 1892, Died 1927 F. G. Ribble, Class 1893 G. W. Ribble, Class 1899

Great-grandsons: W. L. Ribble, Class 1927 Arthur L. Ribble, Class 1928 C. H. Goodwin, Jr., Class 1951 (added) notation made in “Scrapbook” Aggregate years of Service is 342.

A daughter of the Rev. F. D. Goodwin, Mary, married the Rev. T. H. Lacy, D. D., who spent his ministry of forty-five years in Virginia and West Virginia.

I may be pardoned a personal allusion. It is not unnatural that I should feel a personal interest in the history above. The Rev. F. D. Goodwin’s last charge was Nelson Parish, Nelson County, Virginia. Here he served faithfully in his old age what Bishop Whittle considered the most laborious parish in Virginia. He was succeeded by the Rev. Edmund Withers; and he by this writer. I was a fellow student at our Seminary of his two sons; also the pastor of W. A. R. Goodwin, and of Frank, Fred, and Wallace Ribble. It is also a privilege to have loved and admired the father of the Ribbles – the “beloved physician.”

As we consider the ministries of those who compose the above roll of honor, we can truthfully affirm of each one that he was (or is) a “workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Note: The Southern Churchman would add to the above roll of honor and gratefully point with pride to its own Associate Editor, Mrs. Conrad Goodwin, who had conducted with notable success the Family and Children’s Departments and the Thoughts for the Thoughtful column of this paper ever since she assumed charge during the editorship of her father, the Rev. E. L. Goodwin.

--From “Southern Churchmen” November 28, 1931 St. John’s “Scrapbook” Wytheville, VA

Found in the papers of Elbert Moncure Goodwin Williams (Mrs. Peyton Randolph Williams), daughter of the Rt. Rev. Frederick Deane Goodwin; died July 1, 2002