He was a Revolutionary War hero who fought in the southern campaign with General Francis "The Swamp Fox" Marion and General William Washington. He served in Congress from 1795 to 1797 and owned extensive properties from the Carolinas to his Louisiana plantation "Houmas”.
Goodale plantation was owned by Wade Hampton, Jr., but he let his father, Wade Hampton, Sr. live there. Wade Hampton, Sr., was a Colonel in the American Revolution, a General in the War of 1812 and was the man who first brought the news to Washington, DC, that the United States had won the Battle of New Orleans in 1814. Numerous articles of correspondence from the elder Hampton bear the inscription "Goodale."