On Sunday morning in the week
of December 24, 1917, Rev. H. E. Phipps, pastor of Oakland Avenue M. E.
Church, Sharon, read a message of profound sadness to his congregation.
The impact of the message soon spread from the church into the
community, where sorrow was prevalent everywhere. The message told of
the death, in France, of Sergeant Grover Cleveland Goodall, Sharon’s
first martyr in the First World War.
Grover
Goodall was a young man of exemplary character, well known all over
Mercer County and highly respected by all who knew him. A member of the
Oakland Avenue M.E.Church, he was an earnest church worker, interested
and active in congregational, community, county and national church
work. He was for a number of years president of the Epworth League in
the District composed of Mercer and
Sergeant
Goodall was born in Wheatland, Pennsylvania. His entire life was spent
in the community which mourned his death. He was an automobile salesman
for the W. C. DeForeest & Son Company. He was a member of Truck
Train No 402, Company 405, U. S. Army in France. On December 22, 1917,
he gave his life for his country in the War For
Democracy. |
|
Grover Cleveland Goodall
Sergeant, U.S. Army, World War I
Buried: Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, Fere-en- Tardenois (Aisne), France. |
| (Source: 150 Years of Methodist, The Story of the First Methodist Church, Sharon, Pennsylvania, p.252-253) |
|
