When Freedom Cried Out
The Freedmen's Bureau in Texas
Provisional governor Andrew J. Hamiltonqv appointed Goddin to the position of justice of the peace in Polk County in October 1865. Goddin won election to the same office on June 25, 1866, and served until December 1867. In the meantime, on April 1, 1867, he accepted appointment as subassistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureauqv in Polk County. His tenure as a bureau agent had few calm moments.