Theodore Wallace Goff

THEODORE WALLACE GOFF, active manager of the Barton County Lumber Company at Hoisington, has made the lumber business his life work and career. It was a somewhat casual experience in the great lumber woods of the Northwest that proved the occasion of his becoming permanently identified with the business in Kansas. He has lived in Kansas since early infancy, his people being early settlers in Riley County.

His grandfather, also named Theodore W. Goff, was a native of Wales and coming to America settled in New York State, where he lived out his life. One of his sons bore his own name, and the other, Hiram, lived in Nebraska for some years, and sold his property there with the intention of settling in Western Kansas, but at that point the knowledge of his subsequent movements has never been known to his relatives. There were also two daughters, Achsena and Emma.

Theodore Wallace Goff of the second generation of the family in America was born in New York State in April, 1830, and when a young man moved to Wisconsin, and from there in 1869 brought his family to Kansas and settled near Randolph in Riley County. He continued farming there for many years, afterward lived for a time in the Town of Randolph and then went to Quinlan, Oklahoma, where he died in February, 1917, at the age of eighty-seven. In Wisconsin he married Abbie Brownrig, a native of England. She died near Randolph, Kansas, the mother of Lovisa, wife of Arthur Willey, of Ethelbert, Manitoba; Ida L., who became the wife of John L. Inman, of Parallel, Kansas; Casper G., of Lawrence, Kansas; Theodore Wallace; Fannie, wife of Thomas Lamar, of Oklahoma; Henry J., of Randolph, Kansas; and Cyrus E., of Manhattan. The father of these children married for his second wife Mrs. Susan Wagoner who bore him two children, Abbie A., wife of C. B. Lard, of Leonardsville, Kansas; and Cora, Mrs. Robert Baird, of Manhattan.

Theodore Wallace Goff, of Hoisington, was born near Madison, Wisconsin, June 20, 1867, and was two years old when his parents came to Kansas. He grew up on his father's farm near Randolph, had a common school education, and worked on the home place until he was grown. About that time he spent a year on the Pacific coast, largely to satisfy his desire for travel and new experience, and while there worked about the lumber mills near Portland, Oregon. In that way he acquired some practical insight into the lumber business at its source. About the time he returned to Kansas the farmers at Randolph established a lumber yard, and they insisted that young Goff take charge of it. He accepted the responsibility, and thus it was he became a lumberman in the retail end of the industry. He was at Randolph 10 1/2 years as manager of the yard.

Mr. Goff came to Hoisington in 1914, taking the management of the Barton County Lumber Company, in which he is also a stockholder. The other stockholders are Fred and Adolph H. Humburg, of Bison, Thomas Gunter, of Kansas City, and George Gunter, of Salina. The business at Hoisington succeeded the Ochs Grain Company and has a branch yard at Susank, Kansas.

During his residence at Hoisington Mr. Goff has been an active factor in local commercial affairs and is a member of the Commercial Club. He is a stanch advocate of good roads and modern highway construction. He has never been a politician, contenting himself with casting his vote. He is a member of the Masonic Lodge and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

April 2, 1903, at Randolph, Kansas, Mr. Goff married Miss Ida J. Powell, daughter of Elbert and Mary A. (Bailey) Powell. Her father came to Riley County, Kansas, after the Civil war from Tennessee, was a farmer, and spent his last years near Winkler, Kansas. Mrs. Goff is one of two surviving children, the other being Mrs. Mabel G. Coxen, wife of an educator at Commerce, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Goff have three children, Myrtle Evalia, Forest Wallace and Clifford Walter.

Pages 2362-2363.