A Good Family of Tiffin
Brothers Jeremiah and Reuben Good, born in Pennsylvania were admitted to Marshall College, now Franklin and Marshall, in 1838. After graduation, Jeremiah became rector of Mercersberg Theological Seminary, was ordained and became a pastor of the Reformed Church in Lancaster, Ohio. He later became editor of the Western Missionary and moved to Columbus. He then was assigned to Tiffin in 1848.
Jeremiah began to advance to Tiffinites the need of a college associated with the Reformed Church. Unable to get much interest from Tiffin and when a proposal came from Tarlton, Ohio, a college was briefly located there. After it failed, Good was the main force in relocating it to Tiffin.
At first the college was just a room in downtown, but later it moved to its present site when Founder’s Hall was built.
Rueben, after Seminary, moved to Dayton in 1845 to become a pastor. After an assignment by the Synod as an exploring missionary to northern Indiana, he returned to Ohio and began a drive to educate more men for the ministry. He came to Heidelberg in 1853 and became rector of the Preparatory Department and later held a professorship in geology and natural philosophy.
Rueben and Mary Jane Winters Good had three children, William, E. R. and Anna. Anna married Martin Kleckner. Kleckner is a much revered professor and his name is among those professors that have had a great influence on the college. Martin and Anna’s son Ralph is the father of Marjorie Kleckner Ewald.
In 1875 Reuben’s son, E. R. Good, started a printshop across Market Street from Heidelberg and beside the railroad. It was known as the E.R. Good and Brother (William) Print Shop. It printed the Heidelberg Catecism and did other print jobs for the college.
William and Olive Good lived in the building next to the print shop and Olive worked in the print shop and later Will joined the business in 1890.
In 1902 William Good moved the business to the site of the bank building at the corner of Washington and Market Streets. They started selling books and office supplies and became known as the Good Book Store. In 1919 they moved across the street to the Laird Building, 116 South Washington Street. The major thrust of the business was in office supplies. It was a long narrow store with the upstairs devoted to office furniture. It was then known as Good Office Supply.
A fire in the Laird building destroyed the store and for a time the business was temporarily located at the rear of the Advertiser-Tribune. After about a year, the Good Office Supply moved to 136 S. Washington Street, the former home of Bazely’s Meat Market.
Gene Good, (1890) son of William, graduated from Heidelberg in 1912. For a time he worked for Goodyear Tire in Akron. Gene’s wife was Florence Davis (1896), a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan, and originally from Columbus. Florence’s sister, Dorothy, married Paul Ebel, a prominent attorney in Tiffin.
Gene became a pilot in World War I. He was trained in Pensacola, Florida and also for a time in Key West. His seaplane had no pontoons; it landed on its belly. It was like a flying boat. This was the forerunner of the PBY’s. Lynn Troxel, Sr. also received training as a pilot of seaplanes at Pensacola.
He came home from the war and worked in Good Office Supply. Across the street was the competition, Sanford Typewriter and Office Supply. Mr. Sanford sold new typewriters and repaired them.
Gene and Florence had two children, Marjorie, and Gene, Jr. Marjorie married Bill Sheely and Bill and Gene, Jr. were partners in Good Office supply until it was sold to Evan’s Office Supply of Findlay in 1988. .
Heidelberg is celebrating its 150th year. The two founders of the college, Jeremiah and Reuben Good were very important to the success of the college. Reuben Good and his descendents have been very significant in their continued support to the life of the college and to Tiffin for 150 years. Gene, Jr. and his sister, Marjorie, are Rueben and Mary Jane’s great grandchildren, the grandchildren of William H and Olive Good and the children of Gene and Florence Davis Good.
The information about Jeremiah and Rueben was obtained from the Summer, 2000 Issue of the Heidelberg Bulletin. The remainder is from the recollections of Gene Good, Jr. in an interview.
Next week’s article will be about Gene Good, Jr. and his three years of service in the U. S. Naval Reserve in World War II.
– Percy