John A. and Alise R. Goodwin

The Goodwins had grown up, worked, married and began having children while living some 30 years in South Carolina. John Arthur Goodwin (February 19 1885, Greenville, SC - March 3, 1969, Greensboro, NC) had gone to Clemson, graduated in Agriculture and found his first job as a supervisor of the Summerville Experimental Station for Clemson. Meanwhile Elise Cuthbert Rudd (May 8, 1887 Saluda, SC - Aug 9, 1970, Greensboro, NC) had earned a scholarship to attend Winthrop College and began work as an organizer for school improvement. On graduation she was employed as a teacher but soon was working for the state government as an agent working with the School Improvement Association and appeared often in newspapers as she toured many rural area schools. A year after John got his job working at the Summerville station they married. Around 1922 they moved to Greensboro and did not much appear in newspapers though Elise did pick up work with Thomas A. Hunter at least by 1935 and was a founding member of the Winthrop Alumnae Association. In the fall of 1941 Elise had a serious illness but by the winter of 1941-2 she had returned to work.

There is no commentary on or by the Goodwins yet found for the spring 1942 apart from of Elise's work in the school following her being out many weeks for illness in the fall of 1941. From Coverage of the Bahá'í Faith in Greensboro, NC, newspapers, and North Carolina in the ''Baha'i News'' it is known a successful presentation on the religion was underway in March 1942 followed by some additional meetings in November. In April 1943 the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Greensboro was elected. But in December 1944 John Goodwin was listed as convening chair of the state convention at which he would be elected as a delegate for the 1945 national convention and served on the organizing committee again in 1946. In 1949 the convention chair was Elise.

By the 1950s their daughters were married and there was relative silence in the newspapers. After about a decade John initiated a campaign of presentations at the then Bahá'í Center beginning February, 1960 and continuing every week or two until October 1960. When he died in 1969 the death certificate noted he had been ill 10 years - back to just before this campaign perhaps. Except for an occasional society page mention, the family was off the newspapers. They had spent their first 30 years in South Carolina and now spent about 40 in North Carolina. John died in 1969 and Elise in 1970 just as South Carolina entered a large scale of growth in South Carolina and a substantial jump in North Carolina as well.

South Carolina

Elise C. Rudd, not infrequently "Elsie" in newspapers, born May 8, 1887, to father Carl F. Rudd, mother Sallie Graham, was raised and went to country (rural) schools, finishing in the Saluda High School in 1904. In 1904 she was among the 546 women who applied for a scholarship at Winthrop College and passed the first entrance exam applying from Saluda, SC, and she won a state scholarship. While at college she worked in the College School Improvement Association, and she graduated with an AB degree in 1908.

She started work as the primary teacher in 1908 of the Saluda High School. In December she spoke as president of the Saluda County School Improvement Association at a public meeting, and then was treasurer of the State School Improvement Association. She resigned from Saluda High after one year to take on the one-room school in Orangeburg and began plans for a local association to fund a better school building, while she was one of the members of the excutive committee of the North Edisto Teachers' Association just organized. Speaking as the treasurer of the Northern State School Improvement Association of SC she wrote to the Conway chapter of the state improvement association which the representative turned around and sent as a letter to the editor of the Horry Herald to expedite quick work. Elise continued as treasurer of the School Improvement Association that met in Colombia, SC in 1910.

Rudd was hired by the SC Department of Eduction as a field agent and embarked on a campaign for the improvement of rural schools in the spring 1910. In summer Elise spoke as field agent of the Improvement Association of South Carolina in Sumter SC spending one day per school. In July Elise attended a week-long conference of the National Education Association in Boston and after a tour of schools was going to issue a bulletin on the work accomplished since she was hired as an agent. She visited Pickens, SC, in late July, where she spend a week visiting schools in the area. The newspaper called the association the Womans Improvement Association. She handled the afternoon session of a regional conference, a "school rally", held in Dacusville, Aug 3, 1910. She spoke for an hour on improving the rural schools. She supported the idea of combining the various one-room school houses into one with the same number of teachers but more efficiently than the separate school buildings and gave examples from places that had already done this and succeeded then in gathering equipment for the schools with the funds pooled. In 1911 Elise was among the speakers at the Teachers Association meeting at Healing Springs closing the school year.

The next summer Elise spoke at the school rally for Pickens County Schools again.

In 1912 Elise accepted coming to talk to the Newberry SC teacher association meeting. The superintendent addressed the community asking for a wide turn out to hear Rudd following which he was hoping to immediate meet for implementing some ideas. The followup of the meeting Rudd's talk was summarized. It pointed out that the fundamental aim of the schooling was character development and to even influence the parents and about "training the heart, mind, and hand; thus taking in the spiritual, physical and moral training. Teach them to respect the rights of others or public property."

John A. Goodwin was born in Greenville, SC, February 19, 1885, and graduated in the Agriculture and Animal Industry department of Clemson Agricultural College in 1911. He started at Clemson Agricultural Experimental Station at Summerville January 1912.

"Elsie"(sic) Cuthbert Rudd married John Arthur Goodwin in Columbia, December, 1912. Their first child was born in 1913. John was last at the Summerville station in 1915 (not listed in 1916).

In 1918 John registered for the WWI draft living in Henderson, NC.

Greensboro

The Goodwins came to Greensboro about 1922. So far there is hardly any newspaper mention of either John or Elise over the next couple decades. In 1935 Elise was in a list of teachers at Thomas A. Hunter Elementary school in Greensboro.

Things begin to pick up in 1938 when Elise was mentioned as a member of the Winthrop Daughters group. Indeed she was a charter member of the Winthrop College Alumni Association. The Goodwins visited family in Greenville, SC, in that summer as well.

In 1940 Elise was a member of the Winthrop alumnae association. Elise was in another meeting a month later, and in another.

Elise hosted a meeting of the Winthrop Alumnae meeting with a color film on Williamsburg being shown, and attended a meeting a month later. In November Elise was in the hospital, and was away several weeks but returned to work at Hunter school in December. She was teaching 1st grade that year.

Bahá'ís

In a report by Ruth Moffett to the National Teaching Committee of the Bahá'ís in May 1942, she reports contact with the Goodwin family by name from March 30, about a month and a half after arriving in North Carolina, where she has dinner with them at their home. Presumably this is following their attending presentations of hers.This effort was visible in some of the Coverage of the Bahá'í Faith in Greensboro, NC, newspapers, and North Carolina in the ''Baha'i News''. In fact the report details also that Elsie reaches out to her sister living in Charlotte and this sister and niece come to hear Moffett's presentations and then Moffett goes to Charlotte April 10-12 which forms a small study group. During a followup intensive study course in early July the Goodwins are again mentioned for dinners for the group. In early November the Louise H. and Joseph J. Sawyer and Goodwin homes are again noted as hosting meetings for Moffett - the observance of the Birth of Bahá'u'lláh is particularly noted at the Sawyer home before leaving for Greenville, SC.

The membership of the first and the successive annually elected Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá'ís of Greensboro available from 1943 through 1948 included John Goodwin in all of them, and Elise lacking only in 1946-7.

First spiritual assembly of North Carolina - Elise is on the far right back and John is seated

In the summer of 1943 the Goodwins were occupied with the marriage of a daughter, and Elise was a teacher at Hunter in the fall.

In December 1944 John Goodwin was listed as convening chair of the state convention at which he would be elected as a delegate for the 1945 national convention. This election would have been a recognition and respect of him among the majority of Bahá'ís of the state, most of whom were in or near Greensboro, in a community less than 2 years old.

In February 1945 John gave a presentation on Soil for the American Agricultural Chemical Company at a State Agricultural Extension, and in March Elise served on a committee for the Winthrop alumnae, and returned to teaching in the fall.

In 1946 a daughter of the Goodwins visited their home, and Elise was a teacher again in the fall of 1946. That December the North Carolina convention committee was Catherine Whitmore, chair, Naomi Simmons secretary, and John A. Goodwin. In 1949 the convention chair was Elise.

About a decade later comes the next mention of the Goodwins when another daughter married.

Campaign

After 11 years of relative silence about the Goodwins, John initiated a campaign of presentations at the then Bahá'í Center. He began, it seems, in late February, 1960. He continued giving talks at the Bahá'í Center about once a week or two. The next one was in early March. Amidst the May 1960 period Elise visited kin in Greenville. The once-a-week talks continued on through early October - a nine month series of talks. When he died in 1969 the death certificate noted he had been ill 10 years - back to just before this campaign perhaps.

In August 1961 the Goodwin family visited in Cross Hills near Clinton SC for several days. and the Goodwins sold some land in 1962.

Deaths

John Arthur Gibson died March 3, 1969 at Evergreen Nursing Home. He had worked for American Agricultural Chemical Company to retirement, and burial was at Forest Lawn Cemetery. He had been sick 10 years.

Elise died died August 9, 1970, Greensboro, living at the Evergreen Nursing Home as well. The Bahá'í Faith in South Carolina had just entered a phase of growth.