Bonnie Pearl Goodsell

Pearl Darnell Goodsell (AKA Norma Shearer) with brother Dennis Darnell and sister Faye
Photo of Grandma Pearl (Norma Shearer) in Mississippi (processed in Mississippi shown on back)

Sorting out just Who was Great Great Grandaddy

That is John Wesley Bayer (Goodsell in USA) circled on left, Frank Hoffmann in red who was treasurer for Pocahontas Tannery WVa and I assume our relative or teacher sitting at the table circled on right. He is teaching John because John has a wire in his hand and there are batteries on the table. The face of the teacher has been retouched to look like Dreser, if you look closely, a later employee, since there is a moldy bun on the table implying he was doing research on penicillin. That bun is much too big to be a poppy so the employee was not Dreser who worked with morphine.

Biographies of Chemists

Prepared by Peter Morris
Web presentation by Gerry Moss
(Johann Friedrich Wilhelm) Adolf [von] Baeyer (1835-1917). Born in Berlin, the son of a Prussian military surveyor who became a lieutenant-general. He studied chemistry at Heidelberg under Bunsen, then followed Kekulé to Ghent. he taught at the Gewerbeschule in Berlin before joining the newly Germanised University of Strassburg. Baeyer then succeeded Liebig at Munich where he remained for the rest of his career. He also acted as a consultant and research leader for Badische Anilin- & Soda-Fabrik. His major work was the structure and synthesis of indigo. He also discovered the phthalein dyes and synthesised oxonium compounds. His centric formula for benzene is well-known. Baeyer ennobled by Ludwig II in 1885, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1905 for his work on dyes and hydroaromatic compounds. His name is associated with the Baeyer-Drewson indigo synthesis from o-nitrobenzaldehyde, the Baeyer-Villiger oxidation of ketones to esters or lactones, the (discredited) Baeyer photosynthesis equation, the Baeyer strain theory of alicyclic compounds and the Baeyer test for olefins (decolourisation of glacial acetic acid and potassium permanganate).
Friedrich Bayer (originally Beyer) (1825-1880). Born in Barmen, the grandson of a weaver from Nördlingen. He served an apprenticeship as a chemical merchant, then set up his own business. Seeing the potential of the new synthetic dyes, he joined forces with a friend Friedrich Westkott and formed Friedrich Bayer & Cie in Barmen. Initially, the new firm had only one worker, but a chemist was soon hired. A new factory was built near Elberfeld in 1867. By the time of Bayer's death, his firm had become a major dye manufacturer.

Karl Josef Bayer (1847-1904). Born in Bielitz, Silesia, he initially trained as an architect (his father was an architect) before switching to the study of chemistry at Wiesbaden. After working in a steelworks, he took his doctorate under Bunsen at Heidelberg. After teaching briefly at the University of Brünn, he worked in various chemical factories in Russia. His name is associated with the Bayer process for the purification of bauxite.

Otto Bayer (1902-1982). Born in Frankfurt-on-the-Main, he studied chemistry at Frankfurt University, and after taking his doctorate, he was an assistant to von Braun. He then joined I.G. Farben's Mainkur factory, and he quickly became the leader of the main research laboratory at Leverkusen. He eventually joined the board of Bayer AG. His major achievement was the development of polyurethanes. Despite working for Bayer, He was not related to Friedrich Bayer (compare the similar situation of Alastair Pilkington and Pilkington Brothers).

My Great Grandfather was John Wesley Goodsell, Sr.

Pearl Darnell (Norma Shearer-photos
see internet) with her actual brother,
Jamie Darnell in Mississippi.

RE: Goodsell Trust located in California. Feb. 1, 2010

John Wesley Goodsell, Sr. came to America from the Bayer Labs in Germany. He had a special formula for shoe sole glue which was the precurser for plastics. He owned a bank and ran a shoe sole tannery called Pocahontas Tanning in West Virginia. They bought up thousands of acres of land including the land where Snowshoe Ski Resort is now. Pocahontas is now Howe's Tanning.

John Wesley Goodsell, Sr. son John Clarence Goodsell married Pearl Darnell Goodsell (Norma Shearer)

Pearl and Clarence had a son, John Wesley Goodsell, Jr. who was my Father.

After Pearl and Clarence divorced Pearl went to Hollywood and married producer Irving Thalberg.

John Wesley Goodsell and Dororthy Goodsell had 3 children:
Bonnie Pearl Goodsell MacRae
John Franklin Goodsell
James Clarence Goodsell

Norma Shearer (AKA Pearl Darnell Goodsell) left us a trust fund around 1950, which we never recieved, but many associates and friends have been made rich.

Bonnie Goodsell MacRae has a son, Ian MacRae of EN Computers, Fishersville, VA, 30 years old.
John Franklin Goodsell has twin boys in Texas around 30 years old.

Pearl Goodsell is Norma Shearer

Finding Granny

John Wesley Goodsell Sr. was listed as the Manager of this Company on the top right of the letterhead. When he died the majority of the stock went to our family, which included all of the land which is now called "Snowshoe Resort" in West Virginia. At the time we inherited the stock it was worthless. We do not contest this here, but this is just for your information.

Great Grandfather, John Wesley Goodsell Sr. was enchanted with Pearl Darnell Goodsell (Norma Shearer). She played the piano and sang so beautifully in church he fell for her. When she and my Grandfather, Clarence Goodsell, get a divorse, John Wesley Goodsell Sr. continued to send her money when she went to New York to work as a concert pianist near where Lucille Ball was being raised at the Chautauqua Retreat, NY. There Pearl is discovered and sent to Hollywood.
Norma Shearer (Pearl) was kept busy in Hollywood. She sent money to family (Darnells) to care for my father, John Wesley Goodsell Jr. She saw little of my father after she married Irving Thalberg, but she did not forget him. The Darnells pushed her to send them more and more money for my father's care, as they heard of her good fortune. Her husband, (Producer) Thalberg left his name off movie credits so the Darnells would not keep begging them for more money.

On the news of Shearer's Academy Award, one of her brothers, Dennis Darnell took my father out hunting and shot him with birdshot. Dad was sent to the hospital, resulting in more money being sent for his care and a nursing home was built in Okolona, Mississippi called Shearer Richardson Nursing Home in her honor. The ownership of this nursing home did not go to my father.
My Great Grandfather, John Wesley Goodsell Sr. owned stock in and managed a sole leather tannery called Pocahontas Tanning. They made investments in the movie industry. It was GGrandfather's money and connections to the Bayer Lab in Germany and to the Rockfellers that enabled Norma Shearer ( Grandmother Pearl Goodsell) to marry a producer in Hollywood. All stock in MGM disappeared when Great Grandfather died, and tannery stock was substituted.

When I was around 5 years old (1950) a photo was made of me and my brother in front of the Presbyterian Church in Okolona, Mississippi with a Sunday School Class. Norma Shearer's children, Irving Jr and Katherine Thalberg are in the photo. I believe Norma told them at that time of our existence and a trust fund was set up in our name or in the name of my father. We have never gotten anything from that fund, but people around us seem to get very rich.

The Rockefellers even carry our name in honor of a Grandmother whose maiden name was Goodsell. See "William Goodsell Rockefeller". There was little money with her branch of the family (See Percy Goodsell's endowment. Percy was connected to Associated Press. His published family tree, "The Goodsells of Connecticut", show no other source of Goodsell money.) There was plenty of money with our branch of the Goodsell family since our Great Grandfather was connected to the Bayer Labs, giving the Rockefeller family their infamous connections to WWII Germany and their original money with patent medicines.

Norma Shearer could have left our family (John Wesley Goodsell, John Franklin Goodsell and Bonnie Goodsell MacRae) a trust fund with a Rockefeller bank (Citi banking system) or the Bank of America (we imported Italians to build railroads in West Virginia). This trust could be located in Los Angeles, Hollywood or upstate where Norma Shearer built a home with Thalberg. A trust could also have been set aside for my father by Samuel Goldwyn because Daddy was seen on sets in some of Norma Shearer's early movies. I called SAG and Norma Shearer did not belong, I guess because she was an owner of MGM.

Thank you for looking into this.
Bonnie MacRae 1343 Jefferson Hwy, Staunton, VA 24401 540 910 7946
My son is Ian MacRae (EN Computers, Fishersville, VA) 540 294 1116 or 540 885 3129