Howard Henry Goodrich was born October 25, 1852, in Naperville, Lisle Township, DuPage County, Illinois, the son of Charles Henry Goodrich and Phoebe Jane Turner. He was raised on the family farm located on Hobson Road, attended the district schools and then spent one year at Beloit College in Wisconsin.
Howard joined the Congregational Church in Naperville in 1869 and in his later years taught a Bible class there.
In the fall of 1870, he attended North-Western College (now North Central College), graduating in the class of 1876 as Valedictorian with an MA degree. Howard taught school for one year in Wheatland Township, Will County, Illinois, and then attended Union College of Law in Chicago.
In the spring of 1877, he began reading law with Judge Hiram H. Cody. Howard passed the bar exam in 1879 and began his practice as an attorney in Naperville where he was in partnership with Samuel W. Smith. His office was located at the Southeast corner of Main Street and Jefferson Avenue.
Howard married Ida Lucetta Murray, the daughter of Erastus H. Murray and Loucetta S. Hamilton, on Nov. 22, 1882, in Naperville, and they had a daughter, Florence Ida.
In 1890 he was one of the legal advisors and principal advocates to reorganize the village form of government to a city. Howard was elected and served as Naperville’s city attorney in 1890, and again in 1895 and 1899.
In 1897 he was appointed as one of the first members of the Board of Directors for the new Nichols Library by Mayor Valentine Dieter and was also a member of the building committee that constructed Nichols Hall, the gymnasium of North-Western College.
Howard was one of the first stockholders of the First National Bank of Naperville and served on the Board of Directors and also as President.
He was elected the DuPage County States Attorney in 1904 and was serving in that capacity at the time of his death. Howard was raised a Master Mason June 7, 1892, and exalted a Royal Arch Mason July 10, 1903. Howard was created a member of Aurora Commandery No. 22, Knights Templar in Aurora, IL, in 1905.
Howard Henry Goodrich died Jan. 7, 1906, in Naperville, DuPage County, Illinois. The funeral was held in his home and was conducted by the Rev. George Peeples of the Congregational Church. The Knights Templar conducted their simple Masonic funeral ceremony at the grave in the Naperville Cemetery.
