As an infant, John W.I. Godman was brought from Virginia to this county by his cousin, Col. Moses Wickliffe, about 1800, after his parents died. A protégé of Wickliffe and a friend of Henry Clay, he was the first judge of Muhlenberg County to be elected. Versatile and largely self-educated, he studied and practiced both law and medicine. His farm was in the northeast part of the county, near Green River.