BIOGRAPHY: John J. GOOD, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 145-6
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JOHN J. GOOD, a retired train dispatcher of East Taylor township, is a son of 
Jacob and Elizabeth (Gochnour) Good, and was born on the farm adjoining the one 
on which he is now residing, in Cambria county, Pennsylvania, March 20, 1831. He 
is a grandson of Christian Good, who owned the farm on which he now resides, and 
whose father, was a native of Germany. Christian Good was a large land-owner, 
and a native of Pennsylvania, and died on his farm in East Taylor township in 
1852, aged eighty years. He was a great hunter and fisherman, and found 
enjoyment with his rod and gun as well as food for his table. He was a member 
and a deacon of the German Baptist church, and married and reared a family. His 
son, Jacob Good, was born in Conemaugh township, in the last year of the last 
century, and died in 1873, when in the seventy-fourth year of his age. He was an 
excellent farmer, and a strict German Baptist, being a deacon in his church, 
where he was highly respected for his piety and many virtues. He married 
Elizabeth Gochnour, who survived him until 1884, when she passed away in the 
eighty-fourth year of her age. She was a member of the German Baptist church, as 
was her father, Christian Gochnour, who died on his East Taylor township farm in 
1852, at eighty-five years of age. He was of German descent, and in early life 
entertained the ministers of his church when they were often compelled to preach 
in barns, whose owners generally provided dinner for the whole congregation.
     John J. Good was reared on the farm, and after enjoying such meagre 
advantages as was afforded by the common schools of his neighborhood, assisted 
in the cultivation of the farm until he attained his majority. He then engaged 
in the saw-mill business, and two years later became a day-laborer for the 
Pennsylvania Railroad company, which, in two days after his employment, gave him 
the position of night watchman. He discharged every duty assigned him so well 
that he was made switchman at Conemaugh, and promoted from position to position 
until he was made conductor of a local freight train running from Pittsburg to 
Conemaugh. One morning in January, 1865, when pulling out with his train the 
engine boiler blew up, and injured him seriously, but not fatally, and when he 
recovered he was at first given the superintendence of some track laying, and 
then made train dispatcher at Conemaugh, which position he resigned in 1867, to 
remove to his present home-farm. Beside this farm, which is considered one of 
the best farms in the township, he also owns another valuable farm and some 
desirable property at Conemaugh.
     In November, 1852, Mr. Good was united in marriage with Louisa Cobaugh, a 
daughter of Daniel Cobaugh, of East Taylor township. To their union have been 
born eleven children, three of whom died in infancy. The four sons and four 
daughters living are: Elizabeth, wife of R. H. Kelley, of Allegheny county; 
Isabella, married William S. Headrick of East Taylor township; Asbury R., now a 
railroad engineer, and residing at Conemaugh; Mary Jane, wife of V. T. Kisel, of 
Westmoreland county; E. Edgar, who resides in Conemaugh township; John R., a 
resident of Franklin borough; Alice Ann, wife of J. C. Sensebaugh, of Allegheny 
county; and Howard J. R., still at home.
     In politics Mr. Good has always been a staunch republican, and has always 
taken an active part in all political campaigns. He has served as auditor, 
supervisor and inspector, besides filling other township offices, and has been 
annually re-elected as judge of election at his voting precinct for the 
remarkable number of twenty-one times -- a record that has seldom been equaled, 
and scarcely ever surpassed, in the State of Pennsylvania. He is among the 
active and substantial citizens of his township, and always interests himself in 
all other matters as well as farming, in which he has been very successful.