What the Doctor warned Sherd Goff

In addition to moving the family every year or so, Sherd Goff fathered eleven children. By the time his wife gave birth to Willis, her eighth baby in eleven years, she was worn out. The doctor warned Sherd that it would be a good idea to let her get some rest between babies.

From the memoir of their firstborn, Leora: “It was the spring of 1902. Willis was born March 8, 1902. Grandmother and Grandpap Goff were with us the winter of 1901-1902. Grandmother took care of baby Willis until Mamma could, and we had a hired girl for awhile, too. . .”

But by the next spring, Sherd bought a farm in northern Minnesota. “Mamma told Pa that she would move to any State he thought best to make a living, but wouldn’t move to Canada or out of the United States,” Leora wrote. “We almost made it to Canada when we went to Minnesota in 1903. It was 80 miles from the Canadian line.”

“Grandmother and Grandpap Goff were with us. Pa and Grandpap left with a stock car train a week or more before we did. There were two cows, some chickens, and household goods. We stayed at Grandpap Jordan’s a few days and left by train about March 20th. It was nice spring weather in Iowa. We had a wait of a few hours in St. Paul, Minn., and some or all of us [including the eight children] were getting colds, even Grandmother Goff. Mamma was the only one all right when we got to Grand Forks, North Dakota. My father had come to meet us from Key West, Minnesota, a little place 13 miles eat from Grand Forks, and Grandpap Goff came in a bobsled in a blizzard to meet us at Key West. . .”

Two More Sons

While they lived in Minnesota, Perry Goff was born September 15, 1903. So much for the doctor’s warnings. By early 1905, they were all ready to move back to Iowa, where Clarence was born September 4, 1905. Ten births in fifteen years. So much for the doctor’s warnings.

But all the Goff children (except the last one, Virgil, who lived just a year) lived into adulthood. One daughter (Georgia) died in 1922. The rest outlasted their father, Sherd Goff, and lived into their eighties and nineties. In spite of all those births and moves in such a short time, Laura Goff outlived her husband by 32 years.

Leora Goff Wilson (oldest child of Laura Jordan Goff), JB (Jennings) Goff from Omaha, Laura Jordan Goff (age 89), CZ (Clarence) Goff from Omaha, Wayne Goff from California, Ruby (Goff) Blockley (ten years younger than Leora), Willis Goff from California, Merl Goff from Omaha. Bachelor brothers, Perry and Rolla who lived on the East Coast, were the only living siblings not at the reunion. (Georgia Goff, who is buried in Guthrie Center) had died in 1928.) Guthrie Center, Iowa, 1957. Photo by Gary Blockley