Golden Meadow is believed to have taken its name either from the acres of golden rods blooming in the surrounding marshes or from expectations of golden returns from the land. Early settlers included Benjamin and Louisa Hobbs Barker in 1839, and in 1842 Isaac Lush and his wife Rebecca, natives of Natchez, Mississippi, arrived by boat in Golden Meadow with two friends, Isaac and Vic York, and a nine or ten year old ward named William Riley Williams.