JOSEPH L. GOE Joseph L. Goe, who has been engaged in business interests in Mount Pleasant from an early period in its development, but is now living retired, was born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, in 1826, and there spent his childhood and youth. His father was a shoemaker. In early manhood the son left the Keystone state for Ohio, settling at Seven Miles, where he was married to Miss Cynthia Samuels. In 1855 Mr. Goe came to Mount Pleasant and engaged in the dray and transfer business. This place was then a small town, and no railroads had been built through this section, so Mr. Goe engaged in hauling freight from the river. After the building of the railroad he continued in the transfer business, receiving a liberal patronage as the years went by, and successfully carrying on this line of activity until 1885. In the meantime he had also established a livery barn, and in 1889 formed a partnership with his son under the firm name of J. L. Goe & Son, but has not been active in the management of this enterprise, which has been left largely to the care of the junior partner, who has developed one of the leading livery barns of southeastern Iowa. Mr. Goe is now the oldest livery man actively engaged in the business in the state of Iowa, now being in his eighty-first year, although he appears much younger. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Goe have been born eight children, of whom five are yet living: Louis C.; Charles B.; Mrs. Mary Ogden, of Topeka. Kansas; Ola, living in this city; and Mrs. Emma Strawn, of Topeka, Kansas. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and are well known in the city, which has been their home for a half century, and where they have gained many warm friends. Mr. Goe is one of the oldest Odd Fellows of this part of the state, having been an exemplary member of the order for fifty years. He started upon his business career empty-handed, but labor has proven the foundation of his prosperity, and he has worked his way upward from a humble financial position to one of affluence. ©2009 Genealogy Trails