Charles W. Goodyear

Charles W. Goodyear
Born	Charles Waterhouse Goodyear October 15, 1846 Cortland, New York
Died	April 16, 1911(1911-04-16) (aged 64) Buffalo, New York
Resting place	Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo
Occupation	President of the Great Southern Lumber Company and Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad
Religion	Presbyterianism
Spouse(s)	Ella Portia Conger Goodyear
Children	Anson Goodyear Esther Permelia Goodyear Charles Waterhouse Goodyear II Bradley Goodyear
Parent(s)	Dr. Bradley Goodyear (1816-1889) Esther P. Kinne Goodyear (1822-1907)

Charles W. Goodyear was an American lawyer and businessman, who along with his brother, Frank H. Goodyear, was the founder and head of several companies including the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad, Great Southern Lumber Company, Goodyear Lumber Co., Buffalo & Susquehanna Coal and Coke Co., and the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad Company. He was as a director of Marine National Bank, and of General Railway Signal.

Early life

Charles Waterhouse Goodyear was born in Cortland, New York on October 15, 1846, to Dr. Bradley Goodyear (1816-1889), who graduated from Geneva Medical College in 1845, and Esther P. Kinne Goodyear (1822-1907), whose ancestors came to the United States via Leyden, Holland, in 1635. Goodyear's birth was followed by his brother's Frank Henry Goodyear in 1849.^[1] He was educated at Cortland Academy, Wyoming Academy, and in East Aurora, New York when his father was practicing medicine there.^[2] As a boy, both Charles and Frank worked at Root & Keating's tannery.^[1]

Career

Legal career

Goodyear moved to Buffalo in 1868 to study law in the offices of Laning & Miller, and later with John C. Strong. Goodyear was admitted to the New York State Bar Association in 1871 and began his own practice in Buffalo. His practice continued until 1875 until he formed a partnership with Major John Tyler, which continued for two years. From 1877 until 1882, Goodyear practiced alone until forming a partnership with Henry F. Allen (1837-1910)^[3] under the name Goodyear & Allen.^[2] When Grover Cleveland became Governor of New York State in 1883, he retired from the law firm of Cleveland, Bissell, and Sicard, at which point Goodyear joined, and the name of the practice became Bissell, Sicard & Goodyear. Goodyear continued to practice with Bissell, Sicard & Goodyear for the next four years.

Political career

From January 1, 1875, until October 1, 1877, Goodyear served as Assistant District Attorney under District Attorney of Erie County Daniel N. Lockwood, who was elected to the United States Congress in 1876 and who resigned the office of District Attorney in the autumn of 1877, whereupon Mr. Goodyear was appointed by Governor Lucius Robinson to fill Lockwood's unexpired term.^[2]

Business career

Pulp and paper mill in foreground. Sawmill in background.

Goodyear gave up the practice of law in 1887 to form a lumber company with his brother, Frank H. Goodyear, under the firm name F. H. & C. W. Goodyear. They invested in timberlands, lumber mills, coal, and railroads in Pennsylvania and New York.^[4] They bought up large tracts of timberland that were considered inaccessible for harvest, because the lands were isolated and away from streams that were typically used to transport logs. They were able to access the timber by building railroad spurs as well as local sawmills to process the trees into lumber, which led to great financial success.^[5]

They were the world's largest manufacturers of hemlock with an annual output of approximately 200,000,000 feet of hemlock, and nearly as much in hardwood. In the late 1890s as the lumber business expanded, Goodyear joined his brother's railroad, the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad which Frank had created in 1893 by the merger and consolidation of several smaller logging railroads.^[6] When Goodyear joined, Frank stepped down as president of the railroad and assumed the positions of First Vice President and Chairman of the Board. Goodyear became Second Vice President and General Manager of the railroad, while Marlin Olmsted became President.

The Goodyear sawmill in Austin, Pennsylvania

Between 1901 and 1905, the brothers purchased 300,000 acres of virgin yellow pine timberland in Louisiana and Mississippi near the southern end of the Pearl River.^[7] In 1902, the brothers chartered the Great Southern Lumber Company in Pennsylvania^[8] with their offices in the Ellicott Square Building in downtown Buffalo. The brothers began construction of the Great Southern Lumber Company sawmill, the largest sawmill in the world, in southeast Louisiana, and created the company town of Bogalusa, Louisiana where workers would live. To bring harvested trees to the sawmill and transport processed lumber to markets, the Goodyears established the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad,^[9] which connected Bogalusa to the national railroad network.

In 1906, the brothers extended the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad from Wellsville to Buffalo, nearly 90 miles.^[1] Unfortunately, Frank Goodyear did not live to see the sawmill completed as he died in 1907 of Bright's disease, shortly before the Panic of 1907.^[7] the Great Southern Lumber Company sawmill began operation in 1908. Goodyear took over for Frank at the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad, among other companies they can, and William H. Sullivan was the General Manager of the Great Southern Lumber Company.

At various points in his career, Goodyear was President of the following associations: Goodyear Lumber Co., Buffalo & Susquehanna Coal and Coke Co., Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad, Great Southern Lumber Company, and the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad Company, Director of the Marine National Bank, and General Railway Signal.^[10]

Personal life

Ella in one of the dresses that she wore when she and Charles were guests of President and Mrs. Grover Cleveland in the White House.

Goodyear married Ella Portia Conger (1863-1940), of Collins Center, New York on March 23, 1876.^[10] They had four children, three sons (A. Conger Goodyear, Charles Waterhouse Goodyear II, and Bradley Goodyear) and one daughter (Esther Permelia Goodyear), all born in Buffalo, New York. The family lived at the Charles W. Goodyear House, built in 1903 by architect E.B. Green of Green & Wicks, at 888 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo.

Goodyear, a member of the Presbyterian Church,^[11] held office of trustee of the Buffalo Normal School, was organizing director of the Pan American Exposition, president of the Buffalo Club (in 1899),^[12] trustee to the Buffalo Historical Society, on the board of The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy^[13] and a delegate to Syracuse Convention.^[10] Among his close friends were President Grover Cleveland, as well as Cleveland's Secretary of State Daniel S. Lamont. He was widely considered instrumental in Cleveland receiving the nomination for President of the United States while Governor of New York. Goodyear and his wife were the first guests of President Cleveland at the White House.^[4]

Goodyear died in Buffalo, New York in April 16, 1911^[11] and is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo^[14] along with his father, mother, brother, wife, and son Conger.

Charles W. Goodyear Family

Charles W. Goodyear & Ellen's four children.

Together, Charles W. Goodyear and Ellen Portia Conger Goodyear had four children:

• Anson Conger Goodyear (1877-1964), who married Mary Forman (daughter of George V. Forman). "Conger" became active in the New York National Guard, serving as a Colonel in World War I and the personal representative of the United States Secretary of War.^[15] He later rose to the rank of Major General in the New York Guard.^[16] Conger succeeded Goodyear as director of the Buffalo Academy of Fine Arts,^[17] and became a well-known philanthropist, an organizer of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City serving as its first President and a member of the Board of Trustees.^[18] Conger was an honorary governor of New York Hospital,^[19] a donor to Dartmouth College,^[20] and a donor to Norwich University where Goodyear Hall is named for him.^[21] Conger resided at the A. Conger Goodyear House in Old Westbury, New York and died in Old Westbury on April 24, 1964.^[22] He is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo.^[23]
  • George Forman Goodyear (1906-2002), who married Sarah Norton in 1932^[24]
  • Mary Goodyear (1907-1977), who married Theodore Kenefick
  • Anson Conger Goodyear, Jr. (1911-1982)
  • Dr. Stephen Goodyear (1915-1998),^[25] who married Mary Robins
• Esther Permelia Goodyear, (1881- ), who married Arnold Brooks Watson (1877- ).
  • Ella Portia Watson (1910-1985),^[26] who married Stephen V. R. Spaulding, Jr. (1909-1977)^[26]
    • Esther Spaulding^[27]
    • Stephen. V. R. Spaulding, III^[27]
  • Esther Watson (born 1915), who married David Brooks Crane (1909-1954).^[28]
    • Nancy Crane (1940-)^[27]
    • Michael Crane^[28]
    • Lisa Crane^[28]
  • Ann Watson (1916-1954), who married Edward B. Bickford (1909-1995). Edward was son of Harold Childe Bickford & Mary Davidson Bickford.^[29]
    • Mary Ann Bickford (born 1939), who married Richard Bolling Patton (born 1930)^[29]
    • Patricia Bickford (born 1941), who married Allen Lytel Greenough (born 1941). They divorced in 1976. Patricia married Thomas Peter Donnelly (born 1942) in 1976.^[29]
    • Susan Bickford (1944-1972), who married William Neil Thomas, III (born 1944)^[29]
    • Edward Watson Bickford (born 1948), who married Katherine May Thomson (born 1948)^[29]
• Charles Waterhouse Goodyear II, (1883-1967), who married Grace Rumsey (1883-1963) in 1908. They later divorced and Charles married Marion Spaulding (mother to S.V.R. Spaulding Jr.) in 1935.^[30]
  • Charles W. Goodyear III (1909-1968), who married Mary E. Thompson (1911-2000).
    • Charles W. Goodyear IV (known as "Charles W. Goodyear III"), (born 1933)
      • James Lyles Goodyear, who married Mary Ann Keller in 1983.^[31]
      • Charles W. Goodyear V (known as "Charles W. Goodyear IV"), (born 1958), who married Elizabeth Dabezies in 1992.^[32]
    • David L. Goodyear.
    • Andrew T. Goodyear, born October 3, 1939 and died April 13, 2001.
    • Mary Easton Goodyear.
  • Jane Goodyear, who married Hardin H. Littell.
  • Laurence Rumsey Goodyear, born July 18, 1912 and died January 5, 1995, who married Ruth A. Millett.
  • Austin Goodyear, who married Louisa Robins.
• Bradley Goodyear, born October 18, 1885, who married Jeanette Bissell.
  • Bradley Goodyear, Jr., born October 22, 1911 and died sometime between 1941 - 1945, who married Suzanne Robinson.
  • John Goodyear, who married Julia Halls Owsley.
  • Frances "Fanny" Goodyear, who married Prince Ludwig "Louis" Della Torre e Tasso, son of Prince Alessandro della Torre e Tasso, 1st Duke of Castel Duino in 1939^[33]
  • Thomas Goodyear.^[34]

Frank H. Goodyear family

Charles W. Goodyear's brother, Frank Henry Goodyear, married Josephine Looney in 1871. Frank had been working at Looneyville as a bookkeeper for Josephine's father, Robert Looney, a native of the Isle of Man. Looney ran a farm, sawmill, general store, and feed and grain business and owned vast timberlands in Pennsylvania. When her father died the next year, Josephine and Frank inherited the timberlands from her father's estate. Frank, who had already moved to Buffalo before Looney's death, used the inheritance to start the lumber business and enterprises that he, and eventually Goodyear, would run.^[1] Josephine died in October 1915 of a heart attack at the Exchange Street Station. She was remembered as the benefactress of the convalescent home for children named after her in Williamsville, New York.

Together, Frank and Josephine had four children:

• Grace Goodyear, born in 1872, who married Ganson Depew in 1894. Depew, born in 1862, was the nephew of Chauncey Depew, President of New York Central and United States Senator from New York from 1900-1911. Ganson was admitted to the bar in 1887, but stopped practicing law to work for his father-in-law and became Manager of Goodyear Lumber Co., Vice-President of Buffalo and Susquehanna Coal, and assistant to the President of the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad.^[1]
• Josephine Goodyear, born in 1874, who married George Montgomery Sicard in 1900. Sicard, born in 1872, came from Utica, New York. His uncle, George J. Sicard, was a partner of Cleveland, Bissell & Sicard, and later of Goodyear's firm of Bissell, Sicard & Goodyear. George Sicard attended Utica Academy, graduated from Yale University in 1894 and received his law degree from New York University in 1895. Thereafter, he came to Buffalo where he began practice with Moot, Sprague & Brownell. After his marriage to Josephine, he went to work for the Goodyear companies. Josephine died in 1904 and soon afterwards Sicard, who purportedly did not get along with his Frank well, resigned from the Goodyear companies and moved to Pelham Manor where he lived the last thirty years of his life.^[1]
• Florence Goodyear, who married George Olds Wagner in 1902 in Buffalo. Florence attended Saint Margaret's School, now defunct, in Buffalo and finishing school in New York City. George Olds Wagner was a graduate of Cornell University.^[1]
• Frank Henry Goodyear, Jr., born in 1891, who married Dorothy Knox. Dorothy was the daughter of Seymour and Grace Knox. Knox was known for forming the F. W. Woolworth Company with his cousin Frank Winfield Woolworth and held prominent positions in the Marine Trust Co. The Knox's lived in Buffalo and East Aurora and had a winter cottage on Jekyll Island, Georgia. Frank Jr. died in 1930 and Dorothy Knox later married Mr. Edmund Pendleton Rogers (1882-1966) in 1931.
  • Frank Henry Goodyear, III, born March 31, 1918 and known as "Frank Henry Goodyear, Sr." He graduated from the Groton School, graduated from Yale University in 1941 and served at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II. He founded the Environmental Research Institute, an environmental organization involved in research on the grizzly bear population in Yellowstone Park. Frank Henry Goodyear, Sr. died aged 94 on February 19, 2013.^[35]
  • Dorothy Knox Goodyear Wyckoff, born 1917 in Buffalo, New York and died in 1999.^[36] She attended the Foxcroft School, made her debut on Long Island and at Buffalo in 1935, and married Clinton Randolph Wyckoff Jr., of Buffalo, in 1937.^[37]
  • Marjorie Wilson, born 1920 in Buffalo, New York and died sometime before September 2015.^[36]
  • Robert Millard Goodyear, born in April 5, 1925 in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from the Groton School, and thereafter served as a navigator with the Eighth Air Force in the World War II. After the war he attended Yale University and graduated in 1949. He was a pitcher and right fielder on the Yale baseball team and played for Yale in the College World Series in 1947 and 1948 with his good friend, George H.W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States of America. Robert moved to Aiken, South Carolina in 1951 where he purchased Longleaf Plantation with his brother, Frank, and developed a successful Aberdeen Angus cattle breeding operation. He lived in Aiken until his death on July 24, 2011.^[38]

Gallery

• 

  The family tree continued to spread its branches.

• 

  Old French map: Directly below the left-hand coat of arms is the site near Pearl River of what was to become Bogalusa.

• 

  Charles W. Goodyear and Frank H Goodyear

See also

• Great Southern Lumber Company
• Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad
• Anson Goodyear
• Charles W. Goodyear House
• Chip Goodyear
• Bogalusa, Louisiana

References