GOODPASTURE, LEVI D., a successful and enterprising business man of Springfield, has lived in that city most of the time since 1871, and is identified with its progress and growth. He is well established in the line of cement work contracting, and his enterprise is constantly enlarging. He was born in Menard County, Ill., January 28, 1855, son of William Bryan and Martha (Harville) Goodpasture, natives of Tennessee, the father born September 25, 1810, and the mother in February, 1815. The father was a farmer and came to Morgan County, Ill., in 1830, lived there five years, moved to Wayne County and lived there for a time, then moved to Menard County and lived there thirty years. His wife died in February, 1855. In 1871 he moved to Sangamon County and there spent the remainder of his days, passing away April 4, 1893. He is buried at Auburn, Ill. When he was a boy living near Salem, Ill., the old home of Abraham Lincoln, he split rails in company with the latter.

The school-house where Levi D. Goodpasture first went to school, near Middletown, Ill., is still standing. Upon leaving school he worked at farming and continued this occupation fifteen years, then moved to Chicago and was employed two years in a baby-carriage factory. Returning to Sangamon County, he carried on farming three years at Auburn. He learned the trade of brick and stone mason and worked at it fourteen years. He realized the possibilities of cement work, and for the past eight years has been contracting in that line. The family reside at 931 West Governor Street, and Mr. Goodpasture owns eighty acres of excellent improved farm land in Dewitt county. He is well known and respected in business circles as a man of strict honesty and integrity. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and in politics is a Republican.

Mr. Goodpasture was married in Auburn, Ill., December 3, 1874, to Miss Martha Fletcher, who was born February 11, 1855, daughter of Nathan and Margaret Fletcher, the former born in Kentucky, in 1816, and the latter in Menard County, Ill., September 7, 1828. Mr. Fletcher came to Illinois in 1820 and died March 29, 1906. Mrs. Fletcher died in 1888, and both are buried in the old Fletcher Cemetery at Auburn. They were well known in Sangamon County, where they had lived many years and made many friends. Mr. Goodpasture and his wife became parents of children as follows: Della M., wife of Geer H. Truman, a machinist in the mines of Virden, Ill., was born May 8, 1878; Clyde, born May 15, 1888, shoe merchant at 620 East Adams Street, Springfield; Beulah Merle, born November 23, 1896, living at home. Geer H. and Della (Goodpasture) Truman have one child, Marian Ruth, born June 24, 1901.