Good now House
Isaac and Ellen Goodnow were abolitionists who came to Kansas Territory to establish the free-state community of Manhattan. He and Ellen Goodnow purchased the limestone cabin that became their home in 1859. Constructed in 1857, the cabin was made from locally quarried stone. The Goodnows quickly began upgrades on the cabin, adding fireplaces and chimneys, more rooms, a second floor, and numerous other updates over time. Isaac was involved in politics and education and became known as the father of formal education in Kansas.
Isaac Goodnow was working as a professor of natural sciences when he attended a passionate lecture by Eli Thayer of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company. Thayer was leading a crusade to encourage antislavery supporters to go to Kansas and ensure it would become a free state with Northern sympathies. An as abolitionist and temperance advocate, Goodnow was eager to “build up a village” in the new territory.
Goodnow led an advance party to the territory with support from the emigrant aid society. They left by boat March 6, 1855, and reached Kansas City two weeks later. He and a few other men followed Samuel Pomeroy, the company’s agent, west to the junction of the Kansas and Big Blue rivers. Goodnow agreed, the plains had “a magnificent grandeur about them that may be felt, but not expressed.” Two other settlements nearby combined to form a new town named Boston, soon renamed Manhattan.
After two failed attempts to develop a constitution in the path toward statehood, delegates were chosen for a third effort. Goodnow was among those delegates at the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention in 1858. He offered his hopes for the process in a letter to a friend on April 1, 1858.
The Constitutional Convention is now in Session in this City & are rapidly bringing their labors to a close. They will present to the People a Constitution that will be a Constitution of the People! One that will be no discredit to their heads nor their hearts.
Goodnow was proud that he could participate in writing “the best Constitution in existence.” This third constitution, completed on April 3, 1858, would have allowed men of all races the right to vote. Kansas voters ratified the document on May 18, but Congress rejected it, just as Goodnow had predicted.
As an educator, Goodnow was most interested in establishing a university. He spent several years traveling to the East to raise funds for the college, as well as for a Methodist church. Construction was completed; and the Methodist Blue Mont Central College opened to students in 1860. Goodnow initially served as principal and taught algebra and astronomy. Then he worked to convince the Kansas legislature to convert the institution to a state college. Now Kansas State University, this was the first land grant university in the nation under the Morrill Act. Goodnow was elected state superintendent of public instruction in 1862 and again in 1864, serving from 1863 to 1867. He traveled the state by horse and wagon to organize schools. Ellen often accompanied him on his journeys.
After Isaac’s sister died, he and Ellen adopted her two-year-old daughter, Harriet Parkerson. For their family home, they purchased a limestone cabin at the west edge of town in 1859. The cabin had a basement and wine cellar to which they added a frame structure, second story, and two chimneys. Ellen focused on making their house livable:
“. . . there is no door . . . so that we shall have to carry everything around the house up the front stairs. I don’t know what to say about furniture we shall need chairs, table . . .” Ellen wrote to Isaac in 1859 while he was traveling.
Over the next 10 years they added limestone to the front of the house, two fireplaces and chimneys, a second floor, and a porch. The chimney on the south wall was built to curve around the centered window. Ellen was known to carry keys in an apron under her bustle that opened doors around the house. She had fragile health through much of her adult life. To avoid having to climb stairs to the bedroom on the second floor, they built an extension for a first-floor bedroom in 1876. Isaac developed an air circulating system for the room. Ellen decided she wanted an iron picket fence with rounded posts so horses would not be injured. Governor George Anthony prepared fence plans to satisfy her needs that she could take to a blacksmith.
Isaac served as land agent for the college and as land commission for the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railway. In these roles he was responsible for selling excess land lots. He retired as land commission in 1876 and returned to farming, focusing special interest on his apple orchard. The Goodnows shared an interest in the temperance movement, and the natural sciences, assembling a collection of rocks and specimens. They maintained a large garden and planted hundreds of trees in their orchard. Isaac kept a diary throughout his life. Many of those original manuscripts along with correspondence were donated to the Kansas Historical Society
The Goodnows spent their remaining years in the house. After their death, Hattie continued to live in the family home, and adopted a nephew. When she died in 1940, the house passed to a friend, Mary Payne, who donated it to the State of Kansas in 1969. The house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
Quick Facts
Date Built: 1857
City: 2301 Claflin Road, Manhattan
County: Riley
Significant People: Isaac T. Goodnow, Ellen Goodnow
Architect: Currier
Style: Plains Vernacular
Timeline
1812, May 19 – Ellen Denison born in Massachusetts
1814, January 17 – Isaac T. Goodnow born in Vermont
1838, July 25 – Isaac Goodnow marries Ellen Denison in Massachusetts
1855, March 7 – Isaac Goodnow leaves for Kansas Territory
1855, March 24 – Isaac Goodnow first sees the townsite
1858, February 9 – Blue Mont Central College is chartered
1858, April 3 – Leavenworth Constitution is completed
1858 – Goodnows purchases limestone cabin
1858 – Isaac Goodnow organized Good Templars, temperance supporters
1858, June 6 – Methodist church opens
1860, January 9 – Blue Mont College opens
1894, March 20 – Isaac Goodnow dies in Manhattan
1900, April 23 – Ellen Goodnow dies in Manhattan
1971, February 24 – Goodnow House listed in the National Register of Historic Places
