The Story of Wright Goodwin...His Journey to Goose Creek Island

The Wright Goodwin home of Lowland in 1913

The year was 1900 and Wright Goodwin of Cedar Island was a widower.  At the age of 42, he was left with six small children who needed to be tended to.  In need of a wife and companion, Wright met an attractive widow from Goose Creek Island at a Primitive Baptist Church meeting.  His luck was about to change.  Below is the story of Wright Goodwin of Lowland by his grandson Jack Goodwin who lives at Cedar Island.

Wright Goodwin and His Family

by Jack Spencer Goodwin

     Wright Goodwin (1858-1935) was the son of Lewis Goodwin and Mary Simmons.  He was a tall man, but was called “Little Wright’ to distinguish him from his  grandfather, another Wright Goodwin (1773-1855.) He was the great-great-great grandson of Thomas Goodwin (ca 1725-ca 1785), the first Goodwin in Carteret County.
     “Little Wright” married Lenora Ann Daniels (1862-1900), daughter of John D. Daniels and Mary Styron. Lenora Ann was named for her grandmother, Lenora Ann Jones, who had married Brian Daniels. Lenora Ann Jones was descended from Captain Josiah Jones who had come to Bath, NC, from England, in the early 18th century. He prospered greatly there, and built “Kirby Grange”, one of the most beautiful buildings in North Carolina, and now on the National Register of Historic Places. Due to shipping losses to pirates, however, he sold the home to Governor Eden. Bath was then the capital of North Carolina and Kirby Grange provided an impressive residence for the Governor. Captain Josiah then moved to what is now Pamlico County (then Beaufort County), where he had extensive land holdings.
      Lenora Ann and Wright had six children: Joseph Adams, Murray Ross, Leonard Gold, Calvin Pharoah, Burney, and Iva Pearl. The home which Wright built for Lenora Ann still stands and is thought to be the oldest remaining home on Cedar Island. It is now the property of Lois Irene (Mrs. Swindell) Goodwin. Lenora Ann died from complications of measles in 1900. She is buried in the Goodwin Family Cemetery on Cedar Island.
     With six small children, and Pearl was only two years old, Wright faced a dilemma. He badly needed a wife — both for companionship and to take care of the children. Luck was with him when he met an attractive widow from Lowland, Goose Creek Island, Pamlico County, Martha Ann Watson Howerin, at a
Primitive Baptist Church meeting. After a short courtship, he proposed. She accepted, but only if he would agree to move to Lowland, where she was born and raised. “I will not live on Cedar Island,” she stated firmly. It was not so much that she disliked Cedar Island, but rather that she wanted to be with her extended
family, the Watsons, at Lowland and Hobucken.
     It turned out to be a fortunate move. Wright had been making a living at Cedar Island as a fisherman, but he branched out in several directions after he built a new home at Lowland. He built a large country store where he sold everything from horse harnesses, farm implements, feed, to dress goods, china, patent
medicines, etc., etc., and of course groceries. When he became postmaster, a post he held for many years, he established the post office in a comer of the store. He also acquired a farm and part interest in a sawmill.
     He had brought his boat with him from Cedar Island. After some years he was elected county commissioner for his district of Pamlico County. He was a popular figure and was known as “Uncle Wright” by many people throughout the county. It seems to have been a happy marriage although no children were born to the couple. They always addressed each other as “Mister Good’in” (Martha’s pronunciation) and “Miss Marthy” (Wright’s pronunciation.) It seems odd now, but that type of formality was fairly common at the time. The children addressed him as Papa, but called her Miss Marthy, except for Pearl, who called her Mama as she, of course, could not remember her own mother.
     Wright liked to dress well, usually in a frock coat, white shirt, black string tie, and a broad-brimmed Stetson hat. Martha was also well dressed, but always in somber colors. She made all of her own clothes except for her shoes. She even hand-knitted her stockings. She made beautiful clothes for the grandchildren and trimmed them with yards of lace which she tatted. As clothes became worn, she cut them into strips and braided them into rugs.
     They had an automobile, a Model-A Ford, which Wright painted a bright blue and christened it Blue Heaven. They traveled a great deal, chiefly to Primitive Baptist meetings. Even in the hottest weather, Martha always wore, when motoring, a voluminous linen coat, called a duster, and a large hat with a veil that covered her face and tied under her chin. As paved roads were few and far between, such protection was a common-sense precaution as the roads were dusty when dry and muddy when wet.
     When pressed, Martha would tell her grandchildren tales of her girlhood. She was older than Wright and could remember the Civil War and the difficult times that followed that conflict. No battles took place on Goose Creek Island, but sometimes they could hear cannon-fire in the distance. At such times, she said,
they would hide all the farm animals in the swamp.
     After the war, everyone, including the children, would work in the fields from sun-up to sun-rise. They would then have supper lighted only by the light given off by the fireplace. Kerosene lamps and candles were saved for emergencies. Living on a farm, they were never hungry, but did not have the cash to buy many
things. It was a year or so after the war before they could afford to buy flour to make white bread. Eventually they were able to buy enough to have biscuits on Sunday, then later on Wednesdays and Sundays, but cornbread at all other times. She was a great cook and never wasted a drop of anything.
     Joseph Adams Goodwin (1881-1967), Wright’s oldest son, like almost all Goodwins, began his working life on the water. He married Deletta Rice of Pamlico County and fathered two daughters and a son. He began working in real estate in Norfolk, Virginia, in the 1920s and was quite successful at it. He invested heavily in Florida real estate, however, but went “broke” when the great Florida land bubble burst. Like a typical Goodwin he just went back on the water and became a captain in the merchant marine. He was able, however, to hold onto part of his real estate holdings, including, most importantly lake-front property in Orlando, adjacent to what is now Disneyland. When World War Two came along, he went back in the merchant marine until one of the ships he was captain of was torpedoed by a German submarine. Fortunately he and all his crew were rescued. He ended his career as vice president of the Moran Towing
Company. His son, Joseph Jr., died in boyhood. His daughter Hazel married a doctor and moved to Tennessee; his daughter Thelma married several times and was also a successful business woman. She made her home in Florida.
     Calvin Pharoah Goodwin (1884-1931), Wright’s second son, also began as a fisherman and oysterman with his brother Ross (see below) in Oriental. Calvin married Nancy Jane Watson of Lowland; they had no children. Ross preferred active life on the water and was so successful that he became known as “Oyster
King of the Carolinas.” The two brothers established two factories, one for canning oysters and vegetables and one for making lime from oyster shells. Calvin liked the business life and ran the day-to-day operations. Unfortunately, Calvin was struck by lightning and killed. The business was later sold to Garland Fulcher.
     After Calvin’s death, Murray Ross Goodwin (1891-1960) decided to try tug boating. He captained a number of tugs for the Wood Towing Co. of Norfolk, Va. Where he moved his family in 1935. After tug boating for several years he went to work for the Norfolk, Baltimore, and Carolina Line as a captain of a number of their large feight boats. In 1913, Ross married Nancy Margaret Casey (1895-1975), daughter of James Oliver Casey and Cora Lee Spencer. Cap’n Jim, as he was called, was a lighthouse keeper and ended his career as a keeper at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Ross and Margaret had four children: Murray Ross Jr., Burney Hughes, Jack Spencer and Margaret Pharoah. Ross Jr. had two sons (Murray Ross III and Michael); Burney had two daughters (Beth and Edie); Jack has one daughter (Amy Elizabeth), and Margaret had one each (son Robert Lee, and daughter Linda).
     Leonard Gold Goodwin (1895-1954) also began life as a waterman but managed to get into the Naval Academy at Annapolis during World War One. Despite his limited education he managed to graduate and was commissioned as an ensign and later became a lieutenant. He is thought to be the first person from Carteret County to have graduated from the Naval Academy. After the war he resigned from the Navy and became an officer in the merchant marine. He married Glennie Powell from Pamlico County. They had two sons, Leonard Jr. and Clifton. While Leonard Sr. was off on a sea voyage, Glennie abandoned the two boys, then about five and seven years of age, and disappeared. Leonard hired the best detectives available, but she could not be found. Many years later after Leonard had died she contacted her son. She had been living with a lover all those years. The two boys were a handful and were parceled out to various family
members although none of these arrangements was really successful.
     Despite his very irregular upbringing, Leonard Jr. was ambitious. After a period of tug boating he, completely on his own, enrolled in the Merchant Marine Academy at Kingsport, NY, and graduated with honors. He became a captain in the merchant marine and is thought to be the youngest man to lead a convoy
across the Atlantic during World War Two. He later became a vice president and chief of operations for the Moran Towing Corporation.
     Clifton, the younger brother, served in the merchant marine during World War Two, but later became involved in a life of petty crime. He did eventually “reform”, married, and settled down.
     The youngest of Wright’s sons, Burney, was teaching school when he became ill and died at the age of twenty.
     Iva Pearl, the youngest of the children and the only daughter, married Frederick Alfred Lewis of Lowland. Fred’s father died when Fred was only seven and he had to go to work on the Lewis farm to help support his large family. His lack of education caused some of Pearl’s family to feel that she had married “beneath” her, but they were a handsome, hard-working couple, and Pearl regularly taught Fred reading, writing, and arithmetic. In the winter when farming slacked up, Fred would go oystering. After her father died, Pearl operated the store business that Wright had established. She was a successful merchant and continued to operate the store until her age made it impossible to continue. Pearl and Fred were stalwart members of, and generous contributors to, the Wardens Grove Free Will Baptist Church at Lowland and are buried in the churchyard. They had one child, a son named Cecil, who unfortunately died of pneumonia at the age of four. They later adopted a child, Maurice Lewis.
     As a grandson of Wright and Lenora Ann I am proud of the heritage they left to me. Even though the family left Cedar Island in 1902, they have all visited frequently over the years and I think all have been proud of their Cedar Island origins.

Pearl Goodwin Lewis standing with her grandchildren Mary Lewis and Martha Lewis in 1970.

Pearl Goodwin Lewis and Fred Lewis outside of their Lowland store.

Photos courtesy of Martha Lewis Pegram and O.B. Howerin.  Story courtesy of the Carteret County Historical Society and Jack Goodwin.