Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Goodenow, John M.

GOODENOW, John M., lawyer, b. in Massachusetts in 1782; d. in Steubenville, Ohio, in 1838. He received a public-school education, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised in Steubenville, to which place he was an early emigrant. He was a prominent mason, served in the legislature, and held other public offices. He was elected to congress as a Jackson Democrat, serving from 7 Dec., 1829 till 9 April, 1830, when he resigned to become judge of the supreme court of Ohio. He had a large practice at the bar, and published “American Jurisprudence in Contrast with the Doctrine of English Common Law” (1819). The object of the work, of which only 100 copies were printed, was to prove that the courts in the state were not possessed of common law jurisdiction.