Elmer E. Goodsell, of Hunter, station agent, telegraph operator, and agent of the American Express Company on the Stony Clove & Catskill Mountain Railroad, was born in Jewett on April 17, 1865, to Amos and Harriet (Egbertson) Goodsell. His great-grandfather Goodsell was one of the pioneer settlers of Jewett, coming to that place from the State of Connecticut. His grandfather, John Goodsell, who finished clearing the tract of land taken up by the great-grandfather and spent his life engaged in farming, died at the age of fifty-seven. John Goodsell's wife, whose maiden name was Samantha Peck, married for her first husband a Mr. Bogardus. She died at the age of fifty-four. By her second marriage she had ten children, as follows: Amos, Amelia, Mansfield, Amanda, J. Emory, Lois, Adela, Anna, Elbert, and Sarah.
Amos Goodsell was reared on a farm, and during boyhood he attended the common schools of Jewett, his native town. For over twenty years he carried on his farm in Jewett Centre. He then sold out, and since that time he has been working where he pleased. He is a Republican, and has held a number of town offices. His wife, Harriet, who died in 1884, at the age of forty-eight, was a native of Jewett, and the daughter of Jacob Egbertson, an early settler and a farmer of that place. Mr. Egbertson and his wife both died at the age of eighty-two. They had nine children; namely, John, Justus, Eliza, Sally, Tully, Caroline, Harriet, Jane, and Maria. Amos and Harriet Goodsell reared a. family of three children; namely, Ella, George, and Elmer E. The daughter, Ella, is the wife of D. Clarence Gibbony, attorney-at-law, of Philadelphia; and her brother George is employed by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad at St. Louis. The parents were active members in the Methodist Episcopal Church of Jewett.
Elmer E. Goodsell received a common-school education. He then served some time as a teacher, and he subsequently attended Greenville Academy and Eastman's Business College. He was graduated at the last-named institution in June, 1888, and shortly after came to the Hunter station as assistant to Mr. Burhans, who was the agent until 1894. When Mr. Burhans left the place, Mr. Goodsell was appointed to succeed him, and in the few years he has held the position he has made himself exceedingly popular with both officials and patrons of the road. He is furnished one assistant the year through, and sometimes in the summer three. Most of the telegraphing he does himself. The Hunter station is the largest on the line, being moreover the terminal station; and Mr. Goodsell is the oldest station agent on the line as to time of service for this company.
In 1891 Mr. Goodsell was united in marriage with Anna Bell Anderson, daughter of George W. Anderson, coal and lumber dealer, whose biographical sketch appears on another page of this work. Mrs. Goodsell, who has one sister, Mabel Anderson, is the mother of two children — Marguerite and Anderson.
Mr. Goodsell is an ardent Republican, but he has refused all public offices. He is a member of Mount Tabor Lodge, No. 804, F. & A. M., of Hunter, and both he and Mrs. Goodsell are members of the Methodist church and workers in the Sunday-school. Mr. Goodsell was formerly secretary and librarian of the Sunday-school.