Gooch Connections
A Vintage Vignette by John P. Rankin
November 18, 2008

The impact of the 1849 California gold rush upon this area is often unnoticed, except by genealogical researchers who suddenly lose the trail of families during the time that they went to California. The local Gooch family pioneers could not overlook the effect of the gold rush upon them. One of their own died while traveling west to seek a fortune. According to various reports, including the Gooch family story written by Mary Ann Hamm in the book “The Heritage of Madison County, Alabama” (1998, on file at the Huntsville Public Library’s Heritage Room), Mary E. Gooch married Rufus C. R. Petty in Madison County in 1838. Her sister America Virginia Gooch married Isaac Newton Petty in Madison County in 1851. Mary Ann Hamm related that both Petty families were moving to California during the gold rush era, when Mary Gooch Petty died on the ship and was buried at sea.

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Identification of the relationships of these particular Petty men in this area has been elusive, but their brides’ Gooch family was extensively interconnected with other pioneer families of the area by marriages. Mary and America were children of Roland and Elizabeth Gooch, who were the first owners of the land that became Dublin Park today. Besides the two girls, their children included Eleanor, Nathaniel Matson, Nancy, William M., Louisa Cole, and George W. Gooch. George died at age 22, but his tombstone says that he was “Aged 23 years, 7 months, and 8 days”. However, it also says that he was born December 15, 1816, and died August 7, 1839. The stone was emplaced by George’s brother, Nathaniel Matson Gooch. Nathaniel also emplaced all other stones in the family cemetery. Nathaniel may have been wrong in his math, or he his memory may have dimmed by the time he had the stone made. Nathaniel was born in 1822, and he died in December of 1901, according to his own stone, so it may have been many years after George’s death that the stone was prepared.

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Nathaniel’s sister, Eleanor Gooch, married James Dublin in 1825. She later inherited her father’s land, thereby passing it into the Dublin family. Nancy Gooch married William Rowe in 1834. William M. Gooch married Mariah Combs in 1844, and Louisa Cole Gooch married first to Hezekiah Bailey in 1836, then to Joseph Hambrick after Hezekiah died.

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In 1850 Nathaniel married Susan Caroline Litzy, a daughter of Jacob Litzy of Limestone County. The Madison County marriage record shows her surname as Lightsey, but it is always Litzy in the family records. According to the 1910 census, Susan bore nine children, but only four were living at the time of the census. It is known that Nathaniel and Susan had children named Mary, Martha, William Tell, John, Matson (“Matt”) Roland, and Beulah Cora. Martha married Robert D. Tribble, John married Mary Donaldson, William Tell married Ada Louise Whitworth, Matson or Matt Roland (also called “Sam”) married Mary Elizabeth Pike, and Beulah Cora married Matthew Leven Foot Stewart. Seven of the ten children of “Leve” and Beulah Gooch Stewart were surviving in the 1910 census. The fact that they were part of a close-knit family taking care of one another was related in an earlier Vintage Vignette where it was told that Beulah’s parents provided the care for Beulah’s doomed daughter Katie until her death at age 7. As further evidence, for several years until her death, Leve and Beulah took care of Beulah’s mother, Susan Litzy Gooch, after a fall that broke her hip.

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Another of Beulah’s daughters, Cora Mable Stewart, married Richard Balch in 1924. The Balch connection is compounded by the fact that Matt Roland Gooch had a son named Richard Matson Gooch (namesake of Gooch Lane), who married Ada Mable Balch, a daughter of Jesse and Gertrude Clutts Balch. Beulah’s husband Leve was a son of Thomas and Sarah Litzy Stewart. Thomas had a brother, Calvin Stewart, who married Mary Ann Litzy. Catherine Elizabeth Litzy married Wesley M. Dublin, son of James and Eleanor Gooch Dublin. Sarah, Mary Ann, and Catherine Elizabeth were all sisters of Susan Caroline Litzy, wife of Nathaniel Matson Gooch and mother of Beulah.

Roland Gooch

 Early resident of Madison City

Born:

April 22, 1778, Albemarle Co., Virginia

Died:

August 29, 1850, Madison County, Alabama

Buried:

Gooch Cemetery in Madison, AL.

Notes:

•  "The earliest records indicate the Gooch family lived in England. Some of the early spellings were Guche, Guch, Gooche, Goodge, and Googe. The Gooch family arrived in the United States in the early 16th century, settling in Virginia and New England." - Heritage, Rankin

•  Son of James Gooch. - Heritage, Rankin

•  Husband of Elizabeth Gooch - Memories, Rankin

•  Marriage to Elizabeth "Betsy" McGEHEE April 14, 1801 Louisa Co., Virginia - Ancestry.com 2

•  Father of :

     Eleanor Gooch
     Nancy A. Gooch
     Mary Gooch 1802 - 
     Nancy A GOOCH ROWE 1806 - 1875
     Eleanor W GOOCH DUBLIN 1808 - 1884
     William McGehee Gooch 1810 - 1861
     Virginia America Gooch1812 - 
     Louisa Cole GOOCH 1814 - 1891
     George W Gooch 1816 - 1839
     Nathaniel Matson GOOCH 1822 - 1901
     Mary Gooch 1824 - 1868
     Virginia America Gooch 1824 - 1868 - Ancestry.com 1

•  Father of Nathaniel Matson Gooch and of Eleanor Gooch Dublin (wife of James Dublin) - Vintage Vignette, Rankin

•  "He was born April 22, 1778 and died August 29, 1850. He has the earliest birth date of a pioneer in the current city limits of Madison.
     Roland and John Cartwright were the first American settlers to record purchase of land on the first day of legal sale. Both purchased land on February 2, 1818. Original land purchase: first owners after the Indians gave it up.
     Roland purchased 160.45 acres February 2, 1818. He went back to Louisa County, Virginia and sold land he owned there on September 14, 1818. He then returned to Madison. On July 19, 1830, he purchased 80.22-1/2 acres from the State of Alabama under the River Improvement Act.
     In June of 1837, a deed was issued by Rowland and Elizabeth Gooch to the Trustees of the Methodist Church for the plot of land on the corner of the present Old Madison Pike and Hughes Road. The Gooch-Dublin Cemetery is located on this property.
     Roland married Elizabeth McGee, who was born April 16, 1780 and died February 25, 1858. They had eight children. They were Nancy A., Eleanor W. (Ellen), William M., Louisa Cole, George W., Nathaniel Matson, America Virginia, and Mary E. Roland and Elizabeth are buried in the Gooch-Dublin Cemetery on Hughes Road in Madison." - Heritage, Rankin

•  "Roland sometimes spelled (Rowland) Gooch was born in Albemarle County, VA on 22 Apr 1778. On 16 Apr 1801, he married Elizabeth (Betsy) McGehee, daughter of William McGehee and Martha (Patty) Cole McGehee. He purchased 108 acres of land in Louisa County, VA on the waters of the Hickory Creek from John and Elender Gooch and lived there until around 1818. He purchased 160.45 acres of land from the Huntsville Land Office in Huntsville, AL, on 2 Feb 1818. He returned to Louisa County, VA and sold his land there to Charles Poindexter, and returned in Madison AL. Their first five children were born in VA They were: 1. Nancy A. Gooch married William M. Rowe, 2. Eleanor (Ellen) married James Dublin, 3. William McGehee Gooch married Mariah H. Combs, 4. Louisa Cole Gooch married 1st Hezekiah Bailey 2nd Joseph Hambrick and moved to New Market, AL., 5. George W. Gooch. The next three children were born after arriving in Madison, AL. 6 . Nathaniel Matson Gooch, was called Matt (my great grandfather was born in Madison, AL on 2 Feb 1822 and married in Madison County, AL to Susan Caroline Litzy on 26 Dec 1850. 7. America Virginia Gooch married Isaac Newton Petty and number 8 . Mary E. Gooch married Rufus C.R. Petty, (both Petty families were moving to California during the gold rush era where they went via the Mississippi River. Mary Petty, wife of Rufus C.R. Petty died on the ship on the way and was buried at sea)." - Heritage, Rankin

•  "The United Methodist Church on Church Street was organized in 1828. According to Gladys True in her book Reflections of Madison, 1869-1999, the church is the oldest in Madison and the second oldest in the county. The building was originally constructed immediately north of Old Madison Pike and east of Hughes Road on land deeded for the purpose in 1837 by Roland and Elizabeth Gooch. Entries in the Madison County Commissioners Court Minute Book for 1856-61 referred to it as "Gooches Meeting House" and the location as "Gooches Cross Roads." It was moved in 1873 to what became Church Street in Madison by using mules to pull it on logs to the site deeded by Dr. Isaac Deloney. The church chimes that one hears today throughout the historic district were donated by Gladys True in memory of her husband, Robert True." - Memories, Rankin