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- WILLIAM T. GOODHUE. One of the prominent men in Beloit's
- past history was the Hon. William T. GOODHUE, who died on
the 19th day of April, 1879.
- Mr. GOODHUE was born at Sherbrooke, Lower Canada, January
- 18th, 1823. He was christened by the Lord Bishop at Montreal,
in infancy, the Rev. Mr. LE FEVRA, the clergyman of Sherbrooke
standing as his godfather. His father was the Hon. Charles Frederick
Henry GOODHUE, who was for many years a member of the Canada
Parliament. William T. GOODHUE was the youngest of the three
sons and the fourth in age of the family of five. In the summer
of 1835 or 1836 George, the eldest brother, in company with his
uncle Tyler H. MOORE, came west, touching first at Chicago where
they purchased a tract of land where now stands the
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- Tremont House. Thence they went to Belvidere, Ill., where
they tarried but a short time. In 1857, the father came west
to join the party that had preceded him. William T. at the age
of fourteen years, a pale-faced boy, started alone in the year
1837, to make the trip around the lakes, and during the journey
of three weeks he saw no one that he knew till he landed in Milwaukee,
where stood his brother George on the wharf to meet him. Thence
the two proceeded to Chicago, then to Belvidere where the father
and uncle had made some investments; thence in the month of August
to Beloit where they built the first store and where William
T. became clerk, and sold the first yard of calico ever sold
in Beloit. Here they built a sawmill and soon after a flouring-mill
which was the first that was built in the State, then a Territory,
and which stood until 1875, in the rear of what is now the PEET
& KEELER lumber-yard. There being so little prospect of their
property in Chicago increasing in value, being then nothing but
a mud-hole, they permitted it to be sold for taxes. In the fall
of 1838 the remaining part of the family in Canada moved to Beloit.
The mother and his sister Clarissa (Mrs. Dr. EVANS) were the
first communicants of the Episcopal Church in Beloit, the father
belonging to the first vestry. The firm of GOODHUE & Co.
which embraced the father and his three sons, was at one time
one of the strongest firms in the Northwest; they owned extensive
tracts of pine land in Northern Wisconsin, and while Beloit was
their home their business extended all the way from the pinery
to St. Louis. William T. after leaving the clerkship in the store
became the financial manager of the large firm, carried on the
brain work, and was constantly engaged up and down the river
from Northern Wisconsin to St. Louis. In November, 1855, the
father died and the firm passed into the hands of the three brothers.
Their extensive land interests fell beneath the crushing panic
of 1857, and their united and unflinching energy and determination
recovered only a small part from the ruins, though they kept
on in the struggle. In 1856, William T. was elected the first
Mayor of the city of Beloit, and was married to Miss Carrie F.
POND, of Buffalo, N.Y., on March 17, 1859.
- There is no doubt that to him more than to any other one
is due the influence of securing to
- Beloit the early opening of the railways. He sold to both
companies the lands on which the depots were built, and he was
for many years one of the directors of the Western Union. His
active life has contributed much toward the present prosperity
of the city of Beloit. He entered into large plans, made large
investments, and while through financial crises he failed to
realize what he was striving to gain, yet the work he has done
is seen in its good results throughout the city. He was a man
of fine intellectual attainments, gifted by nature with affable
and courteous manners, and a commanding and becoming presence.
Possessing the refined instincts of a modest gentleman, and the
highest appreciation of personal and business honor, he felt,
as only such men can feel, the shameful ingratitude of men he
had helped, and the disrespect which follows worldly misfortune.
His name is spread upon the maps and plats of said city and recorded
in the official record and associated with others of historic
fame, and the future history of Beloit gives promise of revealing
by reality the wisdom of his foresight and judgment.
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- Taken from "The Portrait and Biographical Album of
Rock County, Wis." (c)1889, pp. 817-818; lithograph from
same book.
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- Courtesy of Carol
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