Goodman Home, 1857
Tyler, Smith County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Begun by Gallatin Smith, as "Bonnie Castle." Bought, 1866, by Dr. S. A. Goodman. Enlarged by his son, Major W. J. Goodman, surgeon in 13th Texas Infantry, C. S. A. Remodeled in 1920s by Mrs. Sallie Goodman LeGrand, the major's last survivor. Willed to city of Tyler, 1939. Smith County Historical Society Museum housed here since 1960. Restored 1964 by Junior League of Tyler.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Begun in 1857 as a home called "Bonnie Castle," this Tyler landmark was bought after the Civil War by Dr. S. A. Goodman and enlarged by his son, Major W. J. Goodman, a surgeon in the 13th Texas Infantry of the Confederate army. Passed down and remodeled across generations, it was willed to the city in 1939 and has housed the Smith County Historical Society Museum since 1960.
Why it matters
A rare antebellum home surviving into museum life, the Goodman house preserves East Texas domestic history and the memory of a Confederate surgeon's family across nearly a century.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Dr. S. A. Goodman
- · Major W. J. Goodman
- · Sallie Goodman LeGrand
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Colonel Bryan Marsh
Tyler, TX
This school honors Bryan Marsh, an Alabama native who came to Tyler in 1854 and rose to command a company of the 17th Texas Cavalry when war came in 1861. Captured at Arkansas Post in 1863 and later gravely wounded—losing his right arm in the fighting around Atlanta—he returned to the field until Lee's surrender. In the decades after, Marsh commanded a company of Frontier Battalion Texas Rangers, quelled violence in rough frontier towns, and served two decades as Smith County sheriff.
City of Tyler
Tyler, TX
Founded in 1846 in country opened to settlement after the Republic's campaigns against the Cherokee, Tyler was named by the first state legislature for President John Tyler, who had signed the resolution annexing Texas. A modest farm market at first, it became a Confederate nerve center during the Civil War—headquarters for the Trans-Mississippi Department, home to an ordnance factory, and site of Camp Ford, the largest POW camp west of the Mississippi. Railroads, industry, and the 1931 East Texas oil boom later made it a regional hub, known for its junior college and annual Rose Festival.
Smith County, C. S. A.
Tyler, TX
During the Civil War, Smith County became a major hub of Confederate activity in East Texas. Near Tyler stood the largest ordnance plant west of the Mississippi, turning out "Tyler Rifles," while Camp Ford held the biggest prisoner-of-war compound in the western Confederacy and salt works produced thousands of pounds of that vital commodity daily. On the home front, women, children, the elderly, and enslaved people raised the cotton and grain that fed the army and improvised clothing, hats, and coffee substitutes from what little they had.
Oakwood Cemetery
Tyler, TX
Tyler's Oakwood Cemetery began in the 1840s as Lollar's Cemetery on land first used for burials before Texas was a decade into statehood. It holds a raised section of Confederate dead from the Civil War, a separate Jewish Beth-el Cemetery, and the graves of many leading citizens, including a Texas Supreme Court justice and Governor Richard B. Hubbard, who later served as U.S. Ambassador to Japan. WPA crews expanded and improved the grounds in the 1930s.