J. J. Goodwyn - teacher and minister

I ran across this while doing Baptist history research, from a book called Who’s Who Among the Colored Baptists of the United States, Volume 1, by Samuel William Bacote (Kansas City, MO: 1913, pages 161-62).

Though he was born in Shelby County and later settled in Panola County, J. J. Goodwyn pastored churches in Rusk County, including the Bethlehem Baptist Church at Laneville in at least 1890-91. (I have not been able to confirm whether Bethlehem was an early name for the Bethel Church at Laneville, or a completely different church.) He also pastored the Corinth Baptist Church, just outside the Rusk County line in Panola County, near Pine Hill and Long Branch. The write-up “Jeff J. Goodwin” in Shelby County, In The East Texas Hills (edited by Charles Edward Tatum, 1984) says that Pastor Goodwyn organized churches in Rusk County, but does not mention the names of them.

In 1884, he united with the Shady Grove Baptist Church in Panola County on profession of faith and was baptized by Elder Ben Johnson. He was ordained October 16, 1886. Pastor Goodwyn served for 21 years as clerk of the East Texas Bethel Association, and later as the moderator.;

James Jefferson Goodwyn was born February 25, 1854. Around 1878 he married Narcissus White, and they had 13 children. After the death of Narcissus, Pastor Goodwyn married Cora Lee Nelams in 1930. J. J. Goodwyn died April 4, 1941. He and Narcissus are buried at the Roquemore Cemetery near Clayton in Panola County, Texas.