Earl George Goodboe was the son of Cecilia L. Sterns and Eli Pierre Goodbeau.

B: 27 Dec 1898 in Terrebonne, Red Lake Co, MN

D: 22 Oct 1980 in Missoula, Missoula Co, MT

Children of Grace and Earl Goodboe:

1) Cecilia Jean Goodboe 1925-2006.

2) Colleen Goodboe 1933-1996.

Earl called his father, Eli, "An unbeatable guy, loved horses and worked as a teamster. He also worked on threshing machines during steam engine days." Of his mother Cecilia he said she was a pretty, sedate, tiny Irish woman.

In 1922 Earl moved west from MN to Stevensville, Montana where two of his sisters already lived. Why and how they came to be living there is not known at this time. It was there he met Grace Dawson, whose father did not want her dating a lumberjack because he felt they were "too rough". But they married on 1 Dec 1923 in Missoula, MT and raised their daughters in logging camps in MT and Idaho for a number of years. According to Grace the children had active, happy childhoods and the loggers they knew adored having them in camp. She said the longest they stayed in one place was three years during this period of their lives, though they returned to some places.

Home in those days was usually a tent until their first child, Cecelia, was born, after which they lived in a 12 x 16 ft. cabin. Though long on physical labor it was a life filled with hiking, riding, fishing, and other outdoor pursuits. Cecelia was both an outdoor girl and a bookworm, who came home from her first week of first grade and proclaimed that the she wasn't going to go back because the teacher couldn't teach her anything. Her sister Colleen was born in Stevensville and became even more of an outdoor girl than Cecelia. She was outgoing, so much so her mother Grace related that when they moved to Alberton Colleen ventured out and learned the first names of everyone in town in twenty minutes.

Earl Goodboe and men of his generation who worked in the Great North Woods saw the industry change from horse and ox power to steam and diesel. He started out in life working a crosscut saw, becoming ambidexterous because of it, and later switched to the first gas-powered saws, which weighed 107 lbs. Eventually he worked his way through eight Homelites and seven McCulloughs, gifts from his wife Grace on birthdays and Christmas, or so she joked. He worked for Whaley Logging Co. and Harper Logging Co. from 1922 until 1956, then went to work for Helena (Healan?) Logging. After a brief attempt at retirement he went to work for the city parks department doing maintenance. Although Grace preferred that he actually retire, she sometimes joined him in the parks to help carry out chores like moving sprinkler pipe. Earl worked until May of 1980, when he was forced to stop by illness.