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Meet Isaac Newton Good and his twin Abraham

Bluffton News editor Ted Biery had lots to say about them; They may have been the oldest living twins in Ohio

No one denies Bluffton has a proud history of town characters. Some claim we have more than our share. 

Either way, it’s one element making our community such an interesting place. Just when we thought each colorful individual became cataloged in our memories, two more appear from our lost horizon.

 

They are twin brothers, Abraham and Isaac Newton Good. (Apparently Abraham was not given a middle name.)

 

We’ve discovered at the time of their deaths – both died within a month of each other in 1946 – they were described as perhaps the oldest living twins in Ohio, according to  Bluffton News editor Ted Biery.

 

Biery’s remarkable sense of description wrote this about the brothers: “well known because of their eccentricities in dress and manner.”

 

Now to the stories with an editor’s note First, enter world heavyweight boxing champion Jim Corbett,  Whether factual, Jim certainly adds to the mystic of the Good twins.



Bluffton News, March 28, 1946  - One of Ohio’s oldest sets of twins, Abraham and Isaac Good, of Lima, former Bluffton residents, will celebrate their 88th birthday this Thursday.

 

For some time the twins have been in the Kollmeier convalescent home at Findlay, where, it is reported they are “getting along well” despite their advanced age.

 

In Bluffton and Lima the twins were well known because of their eccentricities in dress and manner.

 

In their younger days, the twins were expert gunsmiths, and Isaac often entertained with stories of the days when he was a sparring partner for Jim Corbett, when both were employed on southern Ohio farms.

 

From Dec. 3, 1943 – Abraham and Isaac Good, 86, northwestern Ohio’s oldest living twins and former Bluffton men are in Lima Memorial Hospital, Their condition is reported as fair.

 

Isaac is suffering from burns on his face, neck and hands received when a kerosene lantern exploded at his home on the outskirts of Lima.

 

Summoned to the home of the two men by the report of the explosion, police found Abraham suffering from what hospital attaches said apparently was exposure and hunger.

 

From May 22, 1940 – When twins live to be 82 years old they apparently don’t always think alike. At any rate Isaac Good “jumped the gun” last week and appeared with a venerable and broad brimmed straw hat.

 

His brother Abraham, refused to defy tradition, and said he would wait till official straw hat day to brush off his similar headgear.


Further details Isaac Newton and Abraham Good were born on March 28, 1858, in Fairfield County, southwestern Ohio. Their father was Samuel S. Good, and mother, Elizabeth Miller Good. It is not known when the family relocated to Bluffton.

 

Isaac died April 4, 1946, and brother Abraham died May 21, 1946, both at the age of 88.

 

Isaac married Mattie Prine on Feb. 14,1907, and she died in the 1930s. The couple had no children. How long after that did the twins live together? It's not known.

 

Their brother, Henson Good, was a Bluffton blacksmith most of his life. Henson later became town marshal and an early member of the Bluffton fire department.


Sadly, we are not aware of any photos of the Good twins.


Jim Corbett, world heavyweight boxing champion, from 1892 to 1897


Who was Jim Corbett

Isaac Good claimed to be a sparring partner for Jim Corbett. It certainly makes for a good story and no one can prove it did or did not take place. The dates certain fit, and the Goods grew up in Fairfield County, Ohio, but was Corbett there also at the time? Decided for yourself.

 

James J. Corbett (Sept. 1, 1866 - Feb.18, 1933) was an American world heavyweight boxing champion from Sept. 7, 1892, when he knocked out John L. Sullivan in 21 rounds at New Orleans, until March 17, 1897, when he was knocked out by Robert Fitzsimmons in 14 rounds at Carson CityNevada.


Corbett was described as a quick and agile boxer, and he led the movement toward what came to be called scientific boxing.


March 1946 Bluffton News article




 

 

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