Goodwins of Cascade, Iowa from about 1856

Posted this on Rootsweb this week. A brief summary of the Goodwin family, the family of Lydia LaBrune's biological mother, from 1856 Dubuque co. to California in the mid-1900s.

Thomas Jefferson Goodwin m. Eliza A Summers

Thomas Jefferson Goodwin, b. 1832 Indiana, m. Eliza A Summers, she b. 1841 in Iowa, in 1856 in Dubuque, Iowa. They had 5 children and raised them in Cascade township: Emma (1880), Alonzo (1862), Ida (1863), Rollie (b. 1876, d. 1877), and Monroe (1879). The 1880s brought big changes for the families.

Emma had married Oscar Albert in 1879, but he apparently abandoned them in 1885 and she was granted a divorce in 1887. By then, the Goodwin family, including Emma, had moved across the state to Sioux County. Emma had four children (as far as I can tell), of whom she was granted custody. I know that Verda was adopted by the Board family in Cascade and that Lydia was adopted by the LaBrune family (my family) in Jefferson twp. [Verda went on to marry William Gearhart, then Daniel Moore; Lydia married Frank Schirmer.] I don't know what became of the other two kids, nor why the children were given up (taken?) for adoption. Emma began a new family with Lars Peterson in about 1894.

Emma's sister, Ida, married Pedermar (?) Jester. They had seven kids before he died in the late 1890s. She remarried Stanley (?) Tibbets.

I don't know what became of Alonzo.

Sometime around 1908 the whole clan moved out to southern California: Eliza Goodwin to LA with Monroe, Emma Peterson and family to San Diego, and Ida Tibbets and family to Long Beach (LA co.). Some of the older grandchildren may have married and stayed in Iowa, as did Emma's children from her first marriage.

I'm especially interested in finding out why the Emma Goodwin Arnold children might have been given up for adoption.