John Edward Goodson (1808 – 1892) was a 19th-century North American classical music educator, performer, composer, and conductor. Goodson, a highly skilled pianist and organist, was born and raised in London, England, and received his early education at the St. Paul's Cathedral School. The son of a London shoemaker, he fled the cholera epidemic of 1832–33 and emigrated to York, Upper Canada. After immigrating to the United States, he met Ralph Waldo Emerson while living and teaching music in Cincinnati, and was eventually lured to Boston by Emerson for a brief time. It was during this time that Goodson became the conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society. He was also mentioned in Emerson's notes about forming a "Boston Club" along with Nathaniel Hawthorne and Bronson Alcott. After leaving Boston in 1852, he lived out most of the remainder of his days in St. Louis, Missouri, continuing to teach music and also continuing to write and perform publicly. While unproven, it has been passed down within the family that Goodson was a direct descendant of Vice-Admiral William Goodson, one of Oliver Cromwell's Admirals during the Protectorate. It is quite possible that the memoirs of his Grandfather, William Goodson of Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, may shed some more light on it.
Early life, family, and education
Goodson was born in Clerkenwell, London, England, on March 24, 1808, the youngest child of Henry Goodson Sr. (a shoemaker) and Ann (Goldsmith) Goodson. Goodson and his family were religious non-conformists and were members of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion. By the time Goodson was 10 years of age, he and his family had moved to the Bloomsbury area of London. His father had a shop on Little Russell Street near the present day Charles Dickens Museum. In September 1818, when Goodson was 10 years of age, he began attending St. Paul's Cathedral School. Goodson's early education in music at St. Paul's would become a building block for his lifelong musical pursuits.
Early adulthood
On December 26, 1829, Goodson married Emma Jane Clark (b. 1806) at St Anne's Church, Soho. Emma was the third daughter of Richard Clark, the well known Musical Antiquary b. 1780 in Datchet. In 1832, they would have their first child, a girl named Emma, but she would die during a particularly bad cholera outbreak in 1832. Just a few weeks later, Goodson and Emma fled the cholera epidemic and settled in York, Upper Canada. Goodson's mother, father, and brother all died in the London cholera epidemics. Upon arriving in York, Goodson was immediately faced with another cholera epidemic, one which would take the life of his wife, Emma (recent research has shown an Emma Goodson living at St George the Martyr, Southwark, London, in the 1841 Census her occupation being 'Musical Professor'. She is living here with her brother in law, James Adcock, and her elder sister Sophia Louise Adcock- née Clark). Historical documents estimate that this particular epidemic killed approximately 1,000 people. Given the population of York at the time, all families must have been affected. A grief-stricken Goodson agreed to perform at the first public bazaar in York on December 27, 1833. The bazaar was organized in order to obtain relief funds for the families of those killed by the cholera epidemic. His performance, the singing of a song entitled "Raven Plume", was a song specifically written for the bazaar. The song, a romance from a Welsh legendary tale, was composed by I. W. Cawdell, who later was librarian and secretary to The Law Society of Upper Canada at Osgoode Hall.
Mormon years
It was during 1836 that Goodson became associated with the Latter Day Saint movement. The Mormons had sent a missionary, Parley P. Pratt, into Upper Canada to minister and establish a new branch of the Church of the Latter Day Saints. It was during this time that Goodson received the word of the Mormons and was subsequently baptized in the Black Creek near Charleston Settlement. Others baptized that day included a good friend, John Taylor, who would later become the third president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and Margaret Dawson, who would become Goodson's second wife. Also during 1836, Goodson travelled to Kirtland, Ohio, to establish a farm and open a publication firm with Pratt. It was in 1837 that Goodson and Pratt performed all of the editing tasks for the second edition of the Book of Mormon.