David Finney Goodfellow, c. 1805–1858

“In the late 1700s there were two brothers, James (Big James), and David (Big David) Goodfellow from Killeshandra, County Cavan, Ireland. David was the younger brother . . . David married a Finney and had David F. (1805), William (1810), and Joseph (1815) (three brothers who traveled to the United States).”

“Big David” and his wife had three sons:

David Finney Goodfellow, who married Mary Gordon Day
William Goodfellow, who married Margaret Beggs
Joseph Goodfellow, who married a woman named Margaret, surname unknown

David Finney Goodfellow was born about 1806 in Killeshandra, County Cavan, Ireland. He died on 16 September 1858 in St. Louis County, Missouri. David Finney Goodfellow and Mary Gordon Day were married on 11 January 1836 in St. Louis. Mary Gordon Day, daughter of Solomon Day and Rachel M. Easson, was born on 22 March 1822 in Lynchburg, Virginia. She died of inanition (failure to thrive) due to paralysis of the throat muscles on 31 August 1911 at the age of eighty-nine in St. Charles County, Missouri.

David had immigrated on 30 September 1826 to New York City, on the ship Trident from Liverpool, England. After he made his way to St. Louis, he purchased a parcel of land in St. Louis known as Country Grove from General William T. Clark (of the Lewis and Clark Expedition). When a road was needed to connect Easton Avenue to a section to the south, David donated a strip of land from his farm that was sixty feet wide and a mile long. That strip of land became Goodfellow Boulevard.

In 1850, David owned four slaves, three males under the age of nineteen and one eight-year-old female. After David’s death, Mary continued to operate their farm in Rock Hill, where she continued to own slaves—a twenty-year-old male, a seventeen-year-old female, and a one-year-old boy.

David and Mary were parents to seven children: Anna, Sarah Jane, Henry, Charles K., Joseph Solomon, Adoniram Leever, and Mary L., known as “Mamie.” Henry and Charles died as teenagers, but the other five lived to adulthood and married. Joseph was the founder and president of the Kelly-Goodfellow Shoe Company. He also had a lifelong interest in billiards and won a billiards tournament in 1931 at age eighty-two. David and Mary and several of their children are buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

Written by Ted Steele
January 2024

© 2024, St. Louis Genealogical Society

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Last Modified: 15-Jul-2024 11:36