In a conversation with Mr. James Arthur Parish in San Antonio on September 1, 1978, Mr. Parish told Clayton Heathcock Jr. that Mary Heathcock's mother (this would be Malinda Brewer Goodbread) told him that she was "full-blooded Dutch" and came over from Holland. Their house in Sutherland Springs burned down and they lost all of their records, pictures, and other belongings. This may be confused, since there is evidence that Malinda's father had been in the United States since at least 1800. Furthermore, Malinda died in 1877, many years before J. W. Parish was born (1896). So he was probably referring to a conversation with Mary Goodbread Heathcock herself, who was of German extraction. Indeed, "Dutch" may well have been used as synonymous with "German" and the voyage that brought the Gutbrodts to Philadelphia in 1731 could well have sailed from Holland.

However, it is true that Thomas and Malinda were living with John and Mary Heathcock in 1870 and this story about a house burning down might explain that.

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Malinda Brewer is mentioned several times in the sale list of personal property of Matthew Brewer, deceased.252 She received one feather bed valued at $24 and one saddle valued at $14.50.

Thomas Goodbread and Malinda Brewer married in Marengo County Alabama on 27 May 1833.248 They moved to Sumter County Alabama and were enumerated there in the 1850 census. They had three daughters in Alabama and moved to Texas sometime in the 1850s and settled in Nockenut. In 1860, Thomas was listed as a laborer249 and in 1870 Thomas and Malinda lived with John and Mary Hathcock.250 Thomas died in 1872 and Malinda died in 1877, both in Guadalupe County Texas.251 The probate of his estate gives the date of Thomas Goodbread's death as December, 1872, and states that his wife Malinda died in 1877. It indicates that Elizabeth Degan and Mary Heathcock were the only surviving children of Malinda and Thomas Goodbread and mentions Lammy Carr and the minors Douglas van Dorn and Percy van Dorn, the children of Mrs. Martha Bird, deceased, who was a daughter of the Goodbreads.

THOMAS GOODBREAD,55 - son of Phillip Goodbread was born in Burke Co., NC, but just when is a little hard to determine. On census records in 1840 Thomas is (20-30), making him born between 1810-20. In 1850 he is 35, making him born 1815, in 1860, just ten years later, he says he is 55, thus born 1805. In 1870 he is age 60, making him born 1810. I suspect that more than likely the ages given when he was a younger man are correct and that he was indeed born about 1815. Since Phillip Goodbread married his 2nd wife, Nancy Webb in 1812, it is not known whether Thomas is a son by the first wife, or by Nancy. He died in 1871 in Guadalupe Co. TX. He married in Marengo County, AL 27 May 1833 Malinda Brewer, daughter of Mathew Brewer. She died in 1817, either in Guadalupe or Wilson County, TX.

Thomas and Malinda Goodbread did not come to Texas until after 1850. They are on the 1840 census of Greene Co. AL with four female children and on the 1850 census of Sumter Co., AL, at which time only Elizabeth 17 and Mary 12 are with the family. Daughter Martha we know married a Van Dorn, but whether that was in Alabama or after the family moved to Texas we do not know. According to settlement of Thomas Goodbread's estate Martha had married second a Bird and she was deceased by 1877. I am inclined to believe the fourth female in the household in 1840 was Malinda Brewer's sister or niece Malvina Brewer who married Arthur W. Fort in 1849 and the Forts and Goodbreads are living next door to each other in Sumter County, AL on the 1850 census. Both families came to Texas before 1854.

Thomas and Malinda Goodbread moved to Texas between 1850 and 1854 when his daughter Elizabeth married in Bastrop County. Thomas received as his share of his father's estate and that of his brother Phillip R., lot No.2 of the partition. This inc1uded 1044 acres in Grimes County and l/5th of the 1/3 League of Land in Wilson, Gonzales and Karnes Counties. On 12 May 1871 Thomas sold his 1/5th interest in the League of Land to N. B. Ware, husband of his niece, Cebell Gillespie, daughter of Thomas' sister Mary Louisa (Karnes Co. Deed Bk 46, p 280). On 22 June 1872 after selling his land in Grimes County to William and James Turner, he executed a $5000.00 bond to guarantee a good title to the land. (Grimes County Deed Bk ; - p 540). For this land Thomas received $250.00 cash and two notes; bearing 10% interest; one for $1000.00 due 1 Mar. 1873 and the other for $1250.00, due 1 Mar. 1874. The Court awarded the proceeds -o·f the notes, in the amount of $2250.00 to the widow. Daughter Mary and her husband, John Heathcock protested, saying the total estate amounted to no more than $2500.00 and that $500.00 support for the widow was ample, as deceased's income had never exceeded $500.00 annually. However, the Court awarded the full amount to Malinda. The two notes, totally $2250.00 were included in the inventory of Malinda Goodbread's estate, final account 9 Feb. 1878, Guadalupe Co. Also included in the inventory were 3 acres near Stockdale, Wilson County and 1/2 interest in 461 acres in the Lasoya Survey, 10 horses, 2 hogs and 311 bushels of corn.