John Randolph Goodin
Politician. Democrat. Born: December 14, 1836, Tiffin, Ohio. Died: December 18, 1885, Kansas City Kansas. Served in U.S. House of Representatives, 2nd District: March 4, 1875, to March 3, 1877.
Born in Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio, on December 14, 1836, Goodin moved to Kenton, Ohio, as a boy of eight and later attended the high school there and Geneva College. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1857, and commenced practice in Kenton, before moving to Humboldt, Kansas Territory, in 1859. Goodin immediately became involved in local politics, running for the state senate under the Wyandotte Constitution in December 1859 (apparently as a Democrat), and he remained active in the Kansas Democratic Party, being elected secretary of the state convention in June 1864, and the state house of representatives in 1866. While serving as judge of the seventh judicial district of Kansas (1868-1876), Goodin was elected as a Democrat (really as the nominee of the Independent Reform Party, which included Sidney Clarke and Charles Robinson in 1874) to the Forty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1877). After standing as an unsuccessful candidate for reelection, Goodin returned to Humbolt where he edited the Inter State (he had previously worked as an editor on Humbolt's first newspaper, the Herald, in 1864). He received the Democratic nomination for governor in 1878 (lost to Republican John P. St. John) and moved to Kansas City, Kansas, in 1883, where he died on December 18, 1885.
Entry: Goodin, John Randolph
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: June 2011
Date Modified: May 2012
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