Phoebe Goodell Judson (October 25, 1831 – January 16, 1926; sometimes called Phoebe Newton Judson) was a Canadian and American pioneer and author. Along with her husband, Holden Judson, she founded the city of Lynden, Washington. In 1886, she started the Northwest Normal School , which would become Western Washington University.
Judson kept a diary of her experiences following March 1, 1853 (the day she and her family left for Washington Territory), which she later abridged and rewrote into A Pioneer's Search for an Ideal Home: A Personal Memoir, published shortly before her death.
Because of the large role she played during the 1870s through 1890s in the development of the Nooksack Valley (including giving Lynden its name), she is often referred to as the "Mother of Lynden".
Life
Background
Born Phoebe Newton Goodell on October 25, 1831, Judson was born in Ancaster, Canada, the second eldest of eleven children with her twin sister Mary Weeks Goodell, and named after her father's sister, Phebe Goodell. Her parents were Jotham Weeks "J. W." Goodell, a Presbyterian minister descended from British colonists, and Anna Glenning "Annie" Bacheler. In 1837 her family emigrated to Vermilion, Ohio, where she and her siblings were raised.
On June 20, 1849, at the age of 17, Judson married Holden Allen Judson (born mid-1827), with whom she had grown up. (Holden's only sibling, Lucretia "Trecia" Judson, had been a close friend of Phoebe's in Vermilion.) The Judsons lived in Holden's parents' home in Vermilion. Their first child, Anna "Annie" Judson, was born the following year.
Following the Donation Land Claim Act, the Goodells traveled to the Oregon Territory in 1851, leaving Phoebe and her elder brother William behind. Judson's twin sister Mary and her fiancé Nathan W. Meloy settled in Willamette, Oregon (today part of West Linn) and J. W. Goodell named and established the town of Grand Mound, Washington, with his wife and younger children, where he took up a job as postmaster and part-time minister alongside George F. Whitworth (who would later found Whitworth University).
Inspired by her family, and Holden's desire for independence from his parents, Judson set off for the month-old Washington Territory with Holden and Annie on March 1, 1853, a few days following her brother William's wedding to Maria Austin, both of whom would take the same Westward route the following year and witness the Ward Massacre.
Overland Trail
Upon the outset of Judson's emigration to the American West, she laid out the criteria for her "ideal home":
Boarding a train to Cincinnati, Ohio, they reached St. Louis, Missouri by steamboat, where they transferred to a smaller steamer headed for Kansas Landing (now Kansas City, Missouri). Here they traveled to West Port, Missouri (now part of Kansas City), where they roomed in a hotel for five weeks, making preparations for their journey and building their wagon. Having read Uncle Tom's Cabin, Judson disapproved of the hotel's use of slaves and even argued on behalf of them with the landlady.
In West Point they allowed a "young Scandinavian" named Nelson to ride with them, and in turn were invited to join the wagon train of Rev. Gustavus Hines, made up of six covered wagons (including the Judson's) and a carriage. Phoebe and Holden traveled with four oxen (Tom, Jerry, and Nelson's—Berry and Buck) and a cow. The parties who made up the caravan were:
Holden and Phoebe Judson, Annie Judson, and Nelson. Gustavus and Lydia Hines (née Bryant), Lydia's sister, and Lucy Ann Lee, their adopted daughter. Jeddadiah "Diah" Hines, his wife, and his daughter. Harvey K. Hines, his wife, and his wife's sister. Mr. Bryant, his wife, and their children Alta Bryant (3) and Lee Bryant (1). Mr. Leonard, his wife, and possibly children.
The Hines–Judson Wagon Train left West Point of May 1, 1853, and by the following Sunday (May 8) the Leonards abandoned the train because Gustavus Hines insisted on resting on Sunday, which they felt was dangerous and wasteful (the Judsons were inclined to agree, but stayed with Hines because they had elected him captain). Incidentally, the Hines–Judson Wagon Train surpassed all the caravans which did not rest on Sunday (including the Leonards'), because their oxen could keep their strength. On June 26, 1853, Judson gave birth to her second child, Charles La Bonta "Bonta" Judson (named after La Bonta Creek in Wyoming, where he was born, upon the suggestion of Gustavus Hines).