Joe Goodner
Joe Goodner married Ida Moore in 1910 and the young couple began their lives together as tenant farmers on a small farm in Denton County. Within two years of their marriage, Ida gave birth to their first child, Mattie, and in 1913 their second daughter, Opal, was born. Work was scarce and, with his small family in mind, Goodner stole a bag of corn in the winter of 1917. He was fined one dollar and given a sentence of ten days in jail. He worked off his sentence on the county chain gang and so, he did not register for the draft until the fall of 1918, less than two months prior to the armistice, and therefore did not deploy. To support their growing family, Joe worked as a laborer for wages while Ida worked as a laundress out of their home. In 1920, the Goodner family lived on an unnamed road in Quakertown, a thriving middle-class Black community in Denton, Texas, and attended the local AME church. Their first son was born in 1922 and Joe and Ida named him William Fred.[1]
Joe Goodner was one of at least two men who broke into N. B. Jones’s grocery store on April 5, 1923 looking for food. The men stole groceries. The crime was investigated by Deputy Sheriff Bell along with the inexplicable inclusion of special agents from the Katy Railroad and the MK&T Railroad. The officers arrested Joe Goodner and searched his home. There, they found sugar, canned goods, and crackers. During their search, the investigators stumbled across some rubber tubing that the railroad officials “thought” they recognized as being from a train. Goodner was subsequently charged with burglary of the grocery store and burglary of a rail car.[2]
With no option for recourse, Joe pled guilty to the crimes. In June, Goodner was sentenced to two years in the state penitentiary for each crime which, as Judge C. R. Pearman emphasized, would not run concurrently. Joe Goodner arrived at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, on July 22, 1923 where he was a model inmate. He was made Trustee in 1925 and was discharged on February 26, 1926 after serving only thirty-two months of his forty-eight-month sentence.[3]
No record of Joe Goodner exists beyond this discharge date. His wife, Ida Moore Goodner, was listed as a widow in the 1930 census four years later and no children were born after 1922. No death certificate exists for Joe Goodner. He is not mentioned in the Denton Record-Chronicle. According to the remaining records of the period, Joe Goodner disappeared after release from the state penitentiary. He is a blank space.[4]
[1] Thirteenth Census of the United States, Denton County Clerk, Denton (TX), Schedule 1 (Population), accessed October 28, 2019. Ancestry; Texas, Select County Marriage Records, 1837-2015, Denton County Clerk, Denton (TX), accessed October 28, 2019. Ancestry; Fourteenth Census of the United States, Denton County Clerk, Denton (TX), Schedule 1 (Population), accessed October 28, 2019. Ancestry; “Negro Pleads Guilty to Theft Charge; Fined $1 and 10 Days,” Denton Record-Chronicle, February 28, 1917, accessed October 28, 2019. Newspaper Archive (UNT); World War I Draft Registration Cards, United States Selective Service System, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington D.C., accessed October 28, 2019. Ancestry; Texas, Convict and Conduct Registers 1875-1945, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Austin (TX), accessed October 28, 2019. Ancestry.
[2] “Groceries Stolen from Jones Store,” Denton Record-Chronicle, April 6, 1923, accessed October 28, 2019. Newspaper Archive (UNT).
[3] Texas, Convict and Conduct Registers 1875-1945, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Austin (TX), accessed October 28, 2019. Ancestry; “Jury Cases for This Week End,” Denton Record-Chronicle, June 27, 1923, accessed October 28, 2019. Newspaper Archive (UNT); Texas, Conduct Register, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Austin (TX), accessed October 28, 2019. Ancestry.
[4] Fifteenth Census of the United States, Denton County Clerk, Denton (TX), Schedule 1 (Population), accessed October 28, 2019. Ancestry.