Ichabod Goodwin

Who was Ichabod Goodwin?

Ichabod Goodwin was the 27th governor of the state of New Hampshire from 1859 to 1861.

Goodwin was born at North Berwick, Maine and educated in South Berwick. He became a merchant in Portsmouth, New Hampshire working in the counting house of Samuel Lord, becoming master and part owner of several ships, and eventually the owner of two railroads, two banks, and a textile factory. In 1827 he married Sarah Parker Rice. Their daughter Susan married admiral George Dewey.

Goodwin was elected a State Representative, running as a Whig, in 1838, 1843, 1844, 1850, 1854, and 1856. In 1856 he ran, and lost, as the last Whig candidate for Governor of New Hampshire. He switched parties, becoming a Republican, and won his bid for governor in 1859, and again in 1860. He was a delegate at large from New Hampshire to the national conventions at which Henry Clay, Zachary Taylor, and Winfield Scott were nominated by the Whigs for the presidency, serving as vice-president of the first two bodies.

During his tenure, the New Hampshire legislature did away with the Courts of Common Pleas, transferring their duties to the State Supreme Court. Goodwin supported a legislative resolution opposing the extension of slavery, and an anti-immigrant act aimed at the defining of police courts' powers to suppress "intemperance." He also supported efforts to regulate railroads.