A Portrait and Biographical Record of Hendricks County (Chicago: A.W. Bowen & Co., 1895)--pages 995-996
Ira Goodrich, a native of Indiana and one of the old soldiers and honored citizens of Clay Township, Hendricks County, springs from English Puritan stock. His remote ancestors were settlers of the Connecticut colony, but early moved to western New York, near Oswego. Justin Goodrich, the grandfather of our subject, was a major in the War of 1812, was in the battle of Tippecanoe and was taken prisoner at one time by the Indians, but escaped. He settled in Putnam County, Ind., about 1815 or 1820, and cleared up a good farm. He married Hannah Ogden, of New York state, and to them were born eight children. Mr. Goodrich lived to be eighty-seven years old and was a typical pioneer. He had one son in the War of 1812, Jacob, who was in the regiment with his father. Elija Goodrich, father of our subject, was born in New York, and came with his family to Putnam County, Ind., when a young man. He married Keziah, daughter of John C. and Polly (Scott) Frazier. The great-grandfather of Miss Frazier was in the Revolutionary War, and her grandfather Scott was a captain in the same service and afterward was a captain in the War of 1812. Mr. and Mrs. Goodrich were the parents of the following children: Ira, May (died at sixteen years), Zilphia, John, Chauncy, Perry (died in the war), James, Sarah (died at six yers). Mr. Goodrich was a farmer in Putnam County, Ind., until 1856, when he moved to Christian County, Ill., where he died at sixty-five years of age. Both Mr. and Mrs. Goodrich were members of the Christian Church. They had four sons in the war, Ira, John, Chauncy and Perry. John and Chauncy were in the Forty-first Illinois Infantry and served four and one-half years. Ira and Perry were in the One Hundred and Fifteenth Illinois Infantry. Perry died at home of lung-fever after a service of a few months.
Ira Goodrich, our subject, was born in Putnam County, Ind., May 6, 1834, and went with the family to Illinois when he was twenty-two years of age. He enlisted in Christian County, Ill., in Company E, One Hundred and Fifteenth Illinois Infantry, August 13, 1862, and was honorably discharged, on account of the closing of the war, at Nashville, Tenn., June 11, 1865. He was in the battles of Chickamauga, where a ball grazed his left temple, Dallas, Resaca, Peach Tree Creek and Kenesaw Mountain, and was at the battle of Atlanta, where McPherson was killed, and he saw his body on the field. His regiment returned with Gen. Thomas to Nashville and engaged in the battle of Franklin, and the battle at Nashville, and was afterward (on Christmas, 1864) in the battle of Pulaski, and was also at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. He was in hospital but one month, with sickness, at Nashville, and was once taken prisoner with thirty comrades at Lexington, Ky., but was shortly afterward paroled. After the war he returned home and engaged in farming. He had married, November 10, 1859, Mary, daughter of John and Barbara (Shirley) Millman. John Millman was from Ohio, later from Decatur County, Ind., and was a hatter by trade and a farmer, and owned 120 acres of land, on which he settled in 1847. Mr. Millman was the father of Samuel, Joseph, Elizabeth, John, Andrew J., Adrian, George, Jacob, Mary and Harriet, by his first wife; and by Sarah Goodrich, his second wife, he had three children, Hannah, Barbara and Justus B. He had five sons in the Civil War, as follows: John, Andrew, Jacob, Andrew and Joel, all in Indiana regiments. Mr. Millman died at the age of eighty-seven, a prominent member of the Methodist Church. After marriage, Mr. Goodrich and wife went to Christian County, Ill.; afterward moved to Putnam County, Ind., and finally settled in Hendricks County in 1888, bought a homestead of forty acres and built a neat residence and barn. In politics he is a Republican and a member of John Layton post, No. 237, G.A.R., of Coatesville. Mr. Goodrich belongs to a family of American soldiers who have fought in all the wars of their country, and his descendants may well take an honest pride in the loyal patriots from whom they descend.