James Putman Goodrich was born in Winchester, Indiana on February 18, 1864.  His middle name was taken from his maternal grandmother, Jane Gray Putman Edger.  He had two older brothers, Ernest (who died shortly after birth), and Percy Edgar (P.E.) born in 1861.  He also had three younger brothers, John Baldwin (1866), Edward Shields (1868) and William Wallace (1871).  His father, John B. Goodrich became will with tuberculosis and died in Atlanta, GA on November 2, 1872 at the age of 41.