John Goodwin (1824-1887) a U.S. Representative and a Delegate from the Territory of Arizona, was born in South Berwick on October 18, 1824. He attended public schools and the local academy at Berwick, and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1844. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1848, commencing practice in South Berwick.
A member of Maine State Senate in 1854, he was elected as a Republican from Maine to the Thirty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1861-March 3, 1863), but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1862.
Goodwin was appointed March 6, 1863, by President Lincoln as chief justice of Arizona Territory and on August 21, 1863, as the first Governor of the Territory. He entered the Territory and formally proclaimed its organization at Navajo Springs, on December 29, 1863. Elected as a Republican Delegate from Arizona Territory to the Thirty-ninth Congress (March 4, 1865-March 3, 1867), he was not a candidate for reelection and did not return to Arizona.
Goodwin resumed the practice of law in New York City and died in Paraiso Springs, California on April 29, 1887, with interment in Forest Grove Cemetery in Augusta.
Additional resources
John Noble Goodwin Congressional Biography: https://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Home/MemberDetails?memIndex=G000301 (accessed December 21, 2020)