ALBERT J. GOODBROD Civil and Indian War Veteran.

 ALBERT J. GOODBROD Civil and Indian War Veteran.

     Is one of the best known among the early pioneers of this state, in which he has spent the major portion of his long and active life.  He is indeed one of the battle-shattered veterans of the civil war and notwithstanding the hardship of his early pioneer days and the all but death-dealing experiences through which he passed as a defender of the stars and stripes, he is still an active member of society and one of the successful agriculturists and fruit-growers of Union county.

     He was born at Wittenberg, Germany, February 27, 1844, and is the son of

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Goodbrod, both of whom were natives of that country.

Thomas Goodbrod with his wife and two children emigrated to America in 1852 and on reaching the new world he established his home at Newark, New Jersey, where he maintained his residence for many years and where five of the nine children born to himself and wife were called in one year from the fireside of their parent’s home to the land beyond, the cause of their death having been the result of an acute and malignant attack of measles.

     Albert J. Goodbrod was reared in his father's home and received his early education in the public schools.  After coming to America he became an

apprenticed baker and continued in that work until he had acquired a complete

knowledge and understanding of the trade, and for some years gave his entire

time to the pursuit of that vocation.  At the age of seventeen years he heard

the cry of his adopted country calling for volunteers in defense of her flag and on the 3rd day of January, 1862, he enlisted in Company B, Eleventh New York Volunteer Cavalry, which later in army parlance was nicknamed "Scott's Nine Hundred," with Colonel James P. Swine in command.  He was mustered out into the United States service in New York city and left at once with his regiment for Washington, D. C., where for a brief time only the personnel of the regiment was maintained.  Some of its companies were commissioned to do duty in Maryland, others were distributed through various places where the army was in the field and some were retained in Washington.  Company B, to which Mr. Goodbrod belonged, was first engaged at Muddy Branch and in various part of Maryland, also doing patrol duty at Washington, D. C.  It has the distinction of having at one time served as a bodyguard to President Lincoln.  Later it was transferred to New Orleans and in June, 1863, Company B and Company L, of the old New York regiment, were sent to Virginia for the purpose of heading off a part of Lee's army.  On that expedition they encountered the enemy at Fairfax Courthouse, June 27, 1863, and at once gave battle.  Acting on the offensive, they assaulted by a desperate charge their well protected and half-hidden foes, who immediately responded with true southern valor and fury and in vast and overwhelming numbers.  The repulse of the Federal troops in that engagement was complete and Mr. Goodbrod was numbered among the many wounded and dead left upon the battle field.  In retreating with his command he was shot in the back, the bullet piercing his left lung and passing out through his shoulder, leaving that part of his body broken and shattered.  His wound was too severe for further attempt to escape and he fell, a helpless German-American soldier boy, among his dead and wounded companions on the battlefield.  There he lay for several days, suffering and struggling against the violence of his wound for an added lease of life, as the Confederate troops passed over the ground so recently covered by the enthusiastically fighting Federal forces but now a plain of confederate victory covered with the spoil of Union sacrifice.  Mr. Goodbrod was only disturbed by having his weapons of warfare removed from his person and he was left as one dead among the many others of his silent comrades.  In that condition he was later found by a squad detailed from his own command to bury their dead and by them rescued and later removed to a hospital in Washington, D. C., where he remained for several months.  In the engagement above described those of his command who did not escape or die upon the field were taken prisoners by the Confederate troops.  Mr. Goodbrod eventually recovered from his wounds and completed the term of his enlistment in doing duty in the ranks at Washington, D. C.  On the 30th day of September, 1865, he was honorably discharged and mustered out of service at Memphis, Tennessee, but March 1, 1866, he reenlisted in Company D. of the First United States Cavalry and with his command was sent to San Francisco, doing detached duty.  His company was sent to Camp Lyons where its purpose was in part to release Company B of the First Oregon Volunteer Cavalry, and on the way to that camp they encountered a band of three wagons and sixty-seven Chinamen who were moving across the country to Silver City, Idaho.  The Chinamen were allowed to travel and camp with the company until they reached Dry creek, on the Winnemucca stage route, and at that place Major Hunt, who was in command of Company D of the First United States Cavalry, ordered the Chinamen to separate from the shelter of his troops on account of insufficient water with which to supply so large a company moving in the same direction.  He accordingly directed the Chinamen to move on to the Owyhee river by a new route, the distance for water for their party being only seven miles away, promising them at the same time to rejoin them on the day following.  Company B started on its march early in the morning following the departure of the Chinamen and on entering the canyon they found a dead Chinaman who had been recently killed by Indians, having been shot to death by arrows from the red men's bows.  Major Hunt immediately detailed a portion of his command to make a careful and vigorous search in and about the environs of the canyon and the scouting party very soon came upon the battlefield, where they found sixty-five dead Chinamen, only one among their original number having escaped with his life, the entire party having been attacked by the savage Piute Indians and in their defenseless condition had become the helpless victims of the native wild Indian of the west.  Two of the bodies of the women had been

horribly mutilated but the men had been spared the degradation of being scalped, which is the final tribute of the savage red man to his pale-faced brother.

This refusal of the Indian to take the Chinamen's scalp was no doubt occasioned by the Chinaman's queue, which in some respects simulates the custom of the Indian's manner of wearing the hair.  The massacre as above recited occurred on May 6, 1866.  Mr. Goodbrod remained in the service under the command of the famous Indian fighter, General Crook, during nearly the entire time of his second enlistment and with his command took part in all the engagements under that famous general in suppressing the Indian at that time in the inter-mountain territory.  On March 1, 1869, he was honorably discharged from duty and mustered out of service at Camp Lyons, after which he settled in eastern Oregon, spending, however, some time in Pendleton, Walla Walla and Baker City.

     In 1876 Mr. Goodbrod located in Union, where he was engaged for five

continuous years in the operation of the Centennial Hotel.  He later sold this property and located his present home on a most picturesque spot at the south end of the Grande Ronde valley, where he is now engaged in the cultivation and growing of apples and small marketable fruit.  In this business he has been very successful and in addition to the other improvements upon his place he has built a perfectly equipped cider mill and is engaged in the manufacture of cider, a portion of his product being converted into high grade vinegar.

     Mr. Goodbrod was united in marriage December 10, 1890, to Louisa  Shoemaker, of Oregon, and to them three children have been born:  George A. and Adrian, who are students in the high school at Union; and Miriam E., who died in infancy.

     Mr. Goodbrod has served for three terms as city marshal and as councilman for two terms.  He has, however, avoided as far as is consistent with good citizenship political positions of any kind.  He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and in that fraternal society has maintained an uninterrupted membership for the past twenty-eight years.  He is also a member of the Improved Order of Red Men and Preston Post, No. 18, G.A.R.,  and has passed through all of the chairs in the post and state, serving in 1900 as department commander of this state.  He has been twice a member of the council of administration and is a member of the National Encampment.

     Mr. Goodbrod as a pioneer of this state, a veteran of the Civil war and a private citizen of Union county, has so lived among his associates and friends as to be understood and recognized by them to be one of the most honored, respected and useful citizens of Oregon.  By virtue of his loyalty to the flag and his adopted country and his consistent interest in the nation's welfare he has for many years past been known in this portion of the state as General Goodbrod, a title which he honorably bears as an evidence of the high respect in which he is held by his generous countrymen and comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic.  Though his years are now leading him into the sunset days of his earthly pilgrimage he is nevertheless deeply interested in every matter of public interest that concerns the welfare of his country and his state and he is always enthusiastically identified with every measure of a public character that seeks to improve the condition of the people with whose business life and society he has for such a long period been closely identified.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in October 2005 by Diana Smith. Submitter

has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.

Gaston, Joseph.  "The Centennial History of Oregon, 1811-1912."  Vol. 4. 

Chicago, Clarke Publishing Co., 1912. p. 421.

“Well-to-do woman dies strangely” May 13, 1912

 The following is an article published in the Observer Newspaper on May13, 1912.

“Well-to-do woman dies strangely”

Union resident either killed or suicides today.

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Body found in stream with hands tied behind her.

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Early indications point to suicide but murder theory has superceeded it.  In latter case indeed deep mystery would veil the situation in every detail. Inquest on.

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Union, May 13. –Special--Brutal murder or shrewdly outlined suicide with Mrs. Fred Ratz, a wealthy middle-aged resident of Union as the victim, is holding Union agog today.  What at first was deemed to be suicide by drowning has become a mysterious horror having all the earmarks of a fiendish murder and mystery veils the affair from beginning to end.  At a late hour today no clue has been found that offset the tangible theories of murder in a most brutal manner.  Unless subsequent investigation discloses otherwise, the belief will prevail otherwise, the belief will prevail that MRS. Ratz was taken to a vacant piece of ground adjoining Little Creek in Northeastern Union, divested of her outer garments, and her hands tied behind with a corset string and a shoe string and thrown into the creek where the waters, now roaring in a torrent from melting snow are ferocious enough to float a horse, much less a human body.  The body was carried down an irrigation flume to the crossing of the road at the Hutchinson place, a distance of several hundred yards where it was unloosened by patrollers under direction of George Huffman.

--Suicide First Admitted—

In the beginning of the search by about 50 people which was occasioned this morning by Mr. Ratz when, about 4 o’clock he found his wife missing, there was every indication to point to suicide. In an informal search for the whereabouts of his wife, Ratz soon located his wife’s outer clothing, lying in a field near the road.  He summoned help and officers and a careful search was instituted that led to the discovery of the body a considerable distance below the spot where the clothes were found.  It had been carried under than fastened to a heap of brush which was loosened by the polers.  When the body was floated to the surface officers immediately removed it to the morgue.  

--Hands are tied.—

It was after the body had been recovered that the murder theory cropped out on tangible facts.  Her hands had been tied behind her in such a way that it w-Demonstration Convinces the Jury of Suicide-as barely possible for her to have done it herself in an effort to throw officers off the suicide scent, but many who have inspected the remains are concluding that such would be impossible and hold that murder had been committed.  In the search for the body the field had been tramped and retramped in such a way that it would be impossible to discover the presence of other footprints than her own on the scene where the body was either willingly or murderously thrown into the water.  When tied, her hands were about eight inches apart, and there is a possibility of her having concocted the notion of covering her tracks in this way.  It is scouted by many as impractical and almost impossible.

-Cause for Crime Unknown-

Though there may yet develop some fact to throw more light on the dreadful accident, there is now nothing to base a cause for either suicide or murder.  The woman was middle aged and her full grown family, like Mr. Ratz and herself, are well provided for with worldly goods. Hints of family troubles have circulated about Union but nothing is substantiated.  The home was deserted long before daylight by the woman, for her absence was discovered at 4 o’clock by Mr. Ratz.  Had she been lured from her home and then murdered, further mystery as to how the details were worked out are created.  In this particular phase there is an earmark of suicide.  The posse that found the remains eventually, was formed about 6 o’clock, and kept growing in size and numbers until a goodly portion of the city was in the hunt. 

-Inquest this afternoon.-

Immediately after luncheon, the coroner’s jury went to the scene of drowning and then convened in a special session to determine if possible any facts other than those known.  

Much speculation is rife as to what the jury will do, if nothing more substantial in the way of facts are unearthed.

The following is an article published in the Observer Newspaper on May14, 

1912.

“Suicide agrees Union Jurors”

-Demonstration convinces the Jury of suicide.-

Unable to give any legitimate reason for the suicide than despondency from illness, jurors return verdict in Union case—New developments are that clothes misleading.

Union May 14.—Special—unable to come to any other conclusion than that Mrs. Fred Ratz met her death by voluntary action, the coroner’s jury late last night returned a suicide verdict.  Several witnesses were called with Attorney J.F. Baker of La Grande representing the state but no inkling of murder proof cropped out.  One or two sensational features developed to add to the facts and surmises already common property and one of them is that the body could not have floated of its own accord from the point where the clothes were found to the Hutchinson crossing on the Cove road.  This is a distance of a quarter mile and is over hung with brush and crossed by wire fences in various places.  The general belief is that this does not change the suicide feature but does change the probable place where Mrs. Ratz plunged to her death.  She must have disrobed at one point in the field and gone to a lower point to step into the water.  The body could not have been carried the quarter of a mile between the spot where the clothes were found to the point where the body lay.  

-Knot tying demonstrated-

Before the coroner and his jurors practical demonstrations of hand tying were made.  It was proven to the satisfaction of the jurors that one could tie his hands himself in the way Mrs. Ratz evidently had.  With the verdict is no explanation of cause other than, as shown by the evidence Mrs. Ratz had been in ill health of late and had been despondent.  At one time she is said to have remarked that she was indifferent as to whether she lived longer or not, in fact, expressed a willingness to die.

-Funeral tomorrow-

With the actual details of the departure from her comfortable home at night, her death walk to the banks of the torrent stream, her deliberate delay in tying her hands after divesting herself of outer clothing, the selection of a satisfactory spot to leap to her death in the mad, dirty waters of Little Creek, the brief struggle between life and death and subsequent mystery by the latter, wrapped into the coffin with the dead woman preparations for the funeral have been carried out.  Rev. Cockrum of the Presbyterian Church will preach the funeral sermon.

-Large family survives-

The husband, three daughters and two sons survive the suicide.  Two of the daughters have been making their homes in La Grande of late.