J. E. Goodson

John Edward Goodson (1808 – 1892) was a 19th-century North American classical music educator, performer, composer, and conductor. Goodson, a highly skilled pianist and organist, was born and raised in London, England, and received his early education at the St. Paul’s Cathedral School. The son of a London shoemaker, he fled the cholera epidemic of 1832–33 and emigrated to York, Upper Canada. After immigrating to the United States, he met Ralph Waldo Emerson while living and teaching music in Cincinnati, and was eventually lured to Boston by Emerson for a brief time. It was during this time that Goodson became the conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society. He was also mentioned in Emerson's notes about forming a "Boston Club" along with Nathaniel Hawthorne and Bronson Alcott. After leaving Boston in 1852, he lived out most of the remainder of his days in St. Louis, Missouri, continuing to teach music and also continuing to write and perform publicly. While unproven, it has been passed down within the family that Goodson was a direct descendant of Vice-Admiral William Goodson, one of Oliver Cromwell's Admirals during the Protectorate. It is quite possible that the memoirs of his Grandfather, William Goodson of Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, may shed some more light on it.