Goodrich, Hiram Carleton (1849–1933) and Anna Elizabeth (Hafer) (1853–1951)

Hiram C. Goodrich and his wife, Anna Hafer Goodrich, devoted 30 years to the early development of Seventh-day Adventist work in Central America and Cuba.

Early Years

Both Hiram Goodrich and Anna Hafer became Seventh-day Adventists in part through the ministry of the church’s leading pioneers. Another commonality, far less significant but interesting, is that both were born on New Year’s Day, Hiram in 1849 and Anna in 1853, to mothers named Julia Ann.

Anna’s parents, William H. Hafer (1817-1901) and Julia Ann Dow Hafer (1818-1906) operated a farm near the village of Colon, located about 30 miles south of Battle Creek in St. Joseph County, Michigan. They were Baptists but in 1858, when Anna was five years old, they joined the Seventh-day Adventists through the ministries of James and Ellen White and Joseph Bates. Throughout her life, Anna cherished the childhood memory of Ellen White’s affectionate embrace as she sat on the prophet’s knee. John Byington, the first president of the General Conference baptized Anna in Colon on October 15, 1871.¹

Born in Dover, Ohio, Hiram was the eldest of seven children (surviving infancy) in the family of James A. Goodrich (1818-1895) and Julia Ann Aldrich Goodrich (1820-1907). James Goodrich was a Baptist minister. Due to changes in his pastorates the family moved several times during Hiram’s childhood. In 1862, they settled on a farm in Colon, Michigan. Hiram and Anna both attended the local public school and in all likelihood that is where they first became acquainted. Hiram became attracted both to Anna and to Adventism and learned more about the faith from studies presented by his future father-in-law, William Hafer. Hiram also studied for himself and was baptized as a Seventh-day Adventist in 1870 by Joseph H. Waggoner at a camp meeting in Genoa, Michigan.²

Marriage and Ministry in Michigan

Hiram studied at the denominational school in Battle Creek, Michigan, for a year (1873-1874). He and Anna married in Colon on December 10, 1874.³ They had three children: Luella Amanda (Allen) (1875-1969), James Harry (1878-1940), and Mildred F. (Ludington) (1890-1978).

In 1887, Hiram entered denominational work as director of District No. 3 in the Michigan Tract and Missionary Society. Anna served with him as secretary. Hiram began pastoral-evangelistic ministry in the Michigan Conference in 1892 and was ordained in 1894 by Michigan Conference president Irwin H. Evans.⁴

Service in Central America

In 1900, Hiram, along with Anna and their daughter, Luella, moved to Bonacca, one of the Bay Islands of Honduras, in response to a call from the Foreign Mission Board to serve as superintendent of the Central American Mission. At that time the mission had two churches along with nine companies (small groups not formally organized as churches) with a combined total of 126 members. Alvin N. Allen joined the mission not long afterwards to engage in canvassing literature, the primary means used in that setting to disseminate the Adventist message. He and Luella married in Belize, British Honduras, in 1901. In 1902 the mission headquarters moved to Belize. Hiram, the mission’s only ordained minister, remained in charge until 1907. During his watch, the number of churches grew to five, with five companies and some 40 “isolated” believers making for a total of 200 “Sabbath-keepers.”⁵

Anna was called home to Michigan in 1903 to care for her mother, who had become an invalid. Hiram was “left alone to carry forward the work as best I could” for three years until Anna returned in 1906, following her mother’s death. Hiram seems to have missed both Anna’s companionship and her contribution to the work of the mission. When the couple moved to Cristobal, Canal Zone, Panama, in 1907 to work in the newly-organized West Caribbean Conference, Anna was assigned a formal role as director of the Sabbath-school and Young People’s Work. She served in that capacity until 1912 and was instrumental in starting numerous Sabbath schools.⁶

Hiram served as president of the conference. Part of the West Indian Union Conference, its territory included Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and the St. Andrews, Providence, and Corn islands. The conference membership grew from 304 to 529 during Goodrich’s tenure of leadership which concluded in 1914, the same year that construction of the Panama Canal was completed. Hiram was said to have been a “spiritual advisor” to Col. George W. Goethals, Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal Project, and to his officers and advisors.⁷

Cuban Mission

At 65, Hiram was ready to lay down administrative responsibilities. But rather than return to the United States for a comfortable retirement, he and Anna accepted a call to work among the English-speaking settler population in Isle of Pines, Cuba. In 1917, Hiram was placed on sustentation but in reality this meant doing the same work for lesser pay, since he continued pastoral-evangelistic labors with two churches. The Goodriches built a home that included a 40-seat chapel for meetings, all at their own expense.⁸

They continued at their post until Hiram became physically unable to continue. In a letter of February 19, 1928, E. E. Andross, president of the Inter-American Division, wrote that Elder Goodrich had become so feeble that “the brethren fear that he may drop off at most any time.”⁹ The assessment was premature, but in 1929, Hiram and Anna finally concluded their mission service and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to live near their son, James Harry Goodrich.¹⁰

Legacy

Elder H. C. Goodrich passed away at Bourdeaux, near Nashville, on February 28, 1933, at age 84. Already past 50 when he and Anna began mission service in Latin America, he persisted with remarkable tenacity for nearly three decades, facing down rigors that often overcame younger men, such as arduous travel to remote locations, frequent natural disasters, debilitating heat, and the ever-present danger of tropical disease. The couple’s homes were destroyed three times—twice by hurricanes and once by fire. In all of this, Elder Goodrich was remembered as a kind and unpretentious leader, eager to minister to those in need, and a man of “unswerving integrity.”¹¹

Anna Hafer Goodrich was not only a bulwark for her husband but also made her own distinct contribution by giving leadership to work for children and youth. She spent her final years in Collegedale, Tennessee, with her daughter Mildred and son-in-law, Elder Don C. Ludington. “Mother Goodrich,” as she was affectionately known in the community, went to her rest on January 6, 1951, at age 98.¹² She was interred alongside her husband in Bourdeaux Adventist Memorial Gardens, Bourdeaux, Tennessee.¹³

Sources

“Anna Elizabeth Hafer-Goodrich obituary.” Southern Tidings, March 7, 1951.

Annual Statistical Reports. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Online Archives (GCA). http://documents.adventistarchives.org/.

“Hiram Carl[e]ton Goodrich.” FamilySearch. Accessed February 13, 2025. https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/pedigree/landscape/KZ9F-LKS.

“Rites Saturday for Veteran Churchman,” Nashville Banner, March 3, 1933.

Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, Record 114916. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Archives, Silver Spring, MD (GCA).

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbooks. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Online Archives (GCA). https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/Forms/AllItems.aspx.

Sustentation Files, RG 33. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Archives, Silver Spring, MD (GCA).

Thurber, R. B. “Elder H. C. Goodrich.” ARH, April 27, 1933.

Notes

1. "U.S. Census, 1850,” FamilySearch, accessed February 13, 2025, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MF8G-LVH; B. Hagle, “Wm. H. Hafer obituary,” ARH, June 4, 1901, 14; J.H. Goodrich, “Julia A. Hafer obituary,” ARH, April 26, 1906, 23; “Anna Elizabeth Hafer-Goodrich obituary,” Southern Tidings, March 7, 1951, 13; Anna Elizabeth Goodrich Biographical Information Blank, July 2, 1912, Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, Record 114916, GCA.↩

2. “Hiram Carl[e]ton Goodrich,” FamilySearch, accessed February 13, 2025, https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/pedigree/landscape/KZ9F-LKS; R.B. Thurber, “Elder H.C. Goodrich,” ARH, April 27, 1933, 22; Hiram Carleton Goodrich Biographical Information Blank, July 2, 1912, Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, Record 114916, GCA.↩

3. Hiram and Anna Goodrich Biographical Information Blanks, July 12, 1912, GCA.↩

4. Ibid.↩

5. Thurber, “Elder H.C. Goodrich”; Hiram and Anna Goodrich Biographical Information Blanks, July 12, 1912, GCA; Annual Statistical Report for 1900 and 1906, GCA.  ↩

6. “Anna Elizabeth Hafer-Goodrich obituary”; Hiram and Anna Goodrich Biographical Information Blanks, July 12, 1912, GCA.↩

7. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1907-1914, GCA; Annual Statistical Report for 1906 and 1914, GCA; “Rites Saturday for Veteran Churchman,” Nashville Banner, March 3, 1933, 24.↩

8. Hiram C. Goodrich Sustentation Fund Application, January 1917, and Sustentation Questionnaire, April 22, 1923, Sustentation Files, RG 33, Box 9698, Mrs. Hiram C. Goodrich, GCA; “Rites Saturday for Veteran Churchman,” Nashville Banner, March 3, 1933; Thurber, “Elder H.C. Goodrich.”↩

9. E.E. Andross to Claude Conard, February 19, 1928, Mrs. Hiram C. Goodrich Sustentation File, GCA.↩

10. Thurber, “Elder H.C. Goodrich.”↩

11. Ibid.↩

12. “Anna Elizabeth Hafer-Goodrich obituary.”↩

13. “Anna Elizabeth Hafer Goodrich,” Find A Grave, Memorial ID 93435619, July 11, 2012, accessed February 14, 2025, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/93435619/anna_elizabeth-goodrich; “Hiram Carlton Goodrich,” Find A Grave, Memorial ID 93435548, July 11, 2012, accessed February 14, 2025, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/93435548/hiram_carlton_goodrich.↩