• My grandmother was Lois Agnes Gooding - the daughter of Clarence Cyril Gooding and Mattie Peal Bowers. Albert Gooding was one of Clarence's younger brothers. My grandmother married Russell Cleon Dunn. They had two sons. My father was their oldest son - Malcolm Graeme Dunn. He was born in Anderson, Indiana.


• My name is Deborah Jean Dunn (Debbie). My married name is Moore. My pen name as the author of 2 books is DJ Lyons. I am the author of “The Bell Witch Unveiled At Last! The True Story Of A Poltergeist” published in March of 2008. I am also the author of “White Reindeer, Kudzu Monster, & Other Tales Of Wonder” to by published later in 2009. Visit my home page of http://askdjlyons.com for information about both books.


• My grandmother was 22 years old at the time when the tornado happened. She was home on her Easter break from college. She was helping her father in the Anderson courthouse. Her mother was home working in the garden in Frankton. They all saw the blood red skies. I asked my grandmother if it was like a sunset. She said that it looked as if the sky was on fire. My grandmother, her younger brother, and her father drove home as quickly as possible. Her mother wondered whether the world was coming to an end.


• The principal, Mr. Albert Gooding, also saw those blood red skies. He taught the older grades (5th through 8th) upstairs in the two-room, two-story schoolhouse. There was a woman teacher who taught the lower grades (1st through 4th) downstairs.


• Mr. Albert Gooding was going to send the kids home right away. The lower grade teacher chided him. He kept the kids inside and allowed them to play games. Then he got this horrible premonition that he could not shake. He ordered everybody to go home as quickly as possible. He urged the older kids to help the younger kids. He then got in his car to go to his home in Frankton that was about 3 miles away.


• The next morning, Mr. Albert Gooding drove back to Orestes. The bridge was out. Some parents of some of his students were waiting for him. They told him that it was a good thing that he had sent the kids home at exactly the time that he did as there was not one brick left standing of the schoolhouse. He waded across the roaring brook to view the devastation. My grandmother said that only one child got a broken arm from flying debris and that all the other kids were okay.


• I had to fictionalize some of the names as my grandmother did not recall the name of the lower grade teacher or the names of the parents who met him the next morning to show him around. Any help on that would be appreciated.


• My grandmother, Lois Agnes Gooding, became a music teacher at the consolidated school that they built. Her husband, Russell Cleon Dunn, also was a teacher at one of the schools where she taught music. They eventually married.


• My story would be more correctly called historical fiction. I wove together some newspaper accounts of the tornado and created a personal connection between my grandmother and the older couple, Sam and Rachel Jones, who tied themselves to the bed so as to have a soft landing should their roof come off and the bed go flying – which it did.


• Unfortunately, both of my grandmother' s parents died before I was born. I never got to meet any of the Gooding relatives. I know more details about Albert as a child, but I know very little about him beyond the time of the tornado. Was it correct that he became the principal of that Consolidated School? What was the name of the Consolidated School? Does anybody know?


• If you have more information I can add to my story, please e-mail me at moredunntales@yahoo.com. Thanks so much and best wishes to you,
  Debbie Dunn aka DJ Lyons

Notes on Captain David Gooding

Captain Gooding was the Aide-to-Camp to a General in the Battle of Tippy Canoe. This was written up in the HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY. Captain Gooding fought in the battle when Tecumseh, the Chief of an Indian Tribe, was killed. My Great-Uncle Lloyd told me that Captain Gooding actually killed him. History books state otherwise.

Great-Uncle Lloyd also told me that at the end of the Civil War, Captain Gooding rode his horse into a courtroom, right up to a Judge's desk. The Judge told the baliff to take that horse out to the barn as he was clomping around too much.

Captain David Gooding was the father of Nelson Gooding, the grandfather of Frank Gooding, the great-grandfather of Albert Gooding (the principal of Orestes Elementary School when the tornado hit), and the great-great grandfather of my grandmother, Lois Agnes Gooding Dunn.

Martha Haggerty King Gooding

Martha Haggerty wed Mr. King. They had 2 girls: Mary Ann & Jane King. Then Mr. King died.

Mrs. Martha Haggerty King then married Nelson Gooding, a widower with a son, Frank & a step-son, ______ Owens.

Nelson Gooding had first married a widow, Mrs. Louisa Howard Owens. She already had a son. Then Nelson Gooding & Mrs. Owens Louisa Gooding had a son together: Frances Marion Gooding ("Frank").

Mary Ann King & Frank Gooding were step-sister & step-brother to each other. Frank always said that Martha, his step-mother, treated him far better than his own mother. His mother, Mrs. Louisa Owens Gooding, when walking through a doorway, would knock Frank into a wall.

When Mary was 17, she and Frank were married.

Family Folklore: Frank came home one night to find young Clarence & Charlie fast asleep behind a door. They had been frightened & hidden there.

Frank and Mary had 3 sons:
1. Clarence Cyril Gooding
2. Charles Theron Gooding
3. James Albert "Allie" Gooding.

Mary died at age 23. The boys were age 6, 4, & 2. Clarence & Charlie stayed with Frank. Martha King Gooding raised little Allie.

Later, Frank re-married. This was a woman from Illinois who he used to know. Her name was Mary Ann Wilson Pye. She was a widow with a daughter, Pensy Pye. He, in a letter, "bestowed the honor of being his wife upon her" (quote from Lois Gooding Dunn). Mary Ann accepted, but she neglected to tell him she had T.B. He didn't know what to do, but he went through with the marriage. He brought her into the house with little Clarence and Charlie. Mary Ann and her daughter, Pensy, died within the year. It's possible that Charles picked up T.B. at that point, for he died from this disease years later.

For a third time, Frank married. This time, it was a spinster school-teacher, Alice Mary Canfield, age 26. They had five children together: Harry, May, Miles, Arthur, and Beatrice.

GOLDEN WEDDING IS A HAPPY EVENT

More Than Eighty Persons Guests At Gooding Home (1936)

Scores of their friends took advantage of the open house which was held Sunday afternoon by Mr. and Mrs. Frank M. Gooding at their home southwest of Alexandria, in observance of their golden wedding anniversary.

At the noon hour Mr. and Mrs. Gooding, who are among the best known farm residents of the community where they live, entertained their children and families at a dinner party. All of the seven children were present at the dinner except Mrs. Beatrice Smith of Ellingwood, South Dakota, who could not come.

Mr. and Mrs. Gooding were married in Alexandria on May 3, 1886 and went to housekeeping immediately on the farm where they have lived ever since. Mr. Gooding was born and reared in the community where he still lives, being 82 years of age. Mrs. Gooding who was Alice Canfield before her marriage, was born at Cambridge City in 1858.

An interesting part of the day was the presentation of numbers of gifts to Mr. and Mrs. Gooding by their friends. Their children presented them with a beautiful gold-ornamented eight-day clock.

More than eighty persons were their guests during the day, and among them were Mrs. Kate Thornburg of Anderson; Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bowers and children, Joe, Marilyn, and Betty Jane, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Gooding, Mr. and Mrs. James Gooding and daughter Freda and son Herbert, Mr. and Mrs. Carl Reichenbach and children, Harold, Calvin, Virginia, and Carolyn of Pendleton, Mr. and Mrs. Miles Gooding and sons Earl and Arthur, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Gooding and children, Margaret, Herschell, Wilbur, and Hubert, John Wright and son Virgil, Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Blake, Mr. and Mrs. Clifford A. Thurston, of Summitville, Mr. and Mrs. Leo Wisehart and son, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Gooding and son Donald, Mr. and Mrs. Shirley Teeters and daughter Jane, Mr. and Mrs. Claud Little, Rev. Otto Stroup, of Frankton, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Jarrell, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Gooding and daughters Phyllis and Betty, Mr. and Mrs. Ray Daugherty, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Little, Mr. and Mrs. Weldon Barber and sons Leon, Bobby, and Jackie, Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Gooding and son Francis, Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Rice, of Frankton, Mrs. E. A. Feight and daughter Lois, Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Gooding, Norval Gooding, Don Nash, Joe Fealer, Robert Dwiggins, Mr. and Mrs. Ashley Swindell, of Anderson, Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Gooding, of Muncie, Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Kelly, and Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Thornburg of Las Vegas, N. M.

Albert Gooding WED Jessie Hudson

They had 4 children:

1. Norvel Gooding wed Hazel Richardson
Norvel was born in Alexandria, IN.
They had 2 children: Margie and Sharon Gooding.

2. Marguerite Gooding wed Shirley Teeters
Marguerite was born in Florida. She died of cancer.
They had 1 child: Jane Teeters wed Mr. Vandeventer.

3. Herbert Gooding wed Jean ___.
Herbert was born in California.
They had 2 boys..

4. Fredia Gooding wed Phillip Crull.
Fredia was born in Alexandria, IN. She died of cancer.
Phillip is an Abstractor in Anderson, Indiana.
They had 2 children: David & Cynthia Crull.

1936: HERBERT GOODING WEDS MICHIGAN GIRL IN A CHRISTMAS EVE RITE:

Thursday evening at 7 o'clock, at the home of Rev. S. B. Wenger, pastor of the First Congregational Church in Lowell, Mich., Miss Jeanne Beatham of Alto, Mich., became the bride of Herbert Gooding of Alexandria, Indiana. The young people were unattended.

Mrs. Gooding, who is a teacher in the district schools near Lowell, will complete the work of the present term there, coming to Alexandria to join her husband when her school work is finished in April. At the close of the school term here, Mr. and Mrs. Gooding will leave for Arizona, where they will spend the summer.

The bride, a very popular young woman in the community where she was born and reared and has spend the most of her life, has made her home with her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Klahn, during her teaching work in Michigan. Her parents live in California.

Mr. Gooding, who is a son of Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Gooding, southwest of Alexandria, has lived in this community all of his life, although he spent the past several summers in the west. Following his graduation from high school and college, he entered the teaching profession, and taught for a year in the Monroe township schools. He is now is his eighth year as a teacher in the Alexandria schools having been a teacher at the Tomlinson school until he became principal of the Central grade school at the beginning of the present term.