- WILLIAM GOODELL, one of the pioneers of the anti-slavery,
temperance and kindred reforms,
- and, for half a century, a zealous and laborious promoter
of them as a public speaker, writer and executive office-bearer
of voluntary associations, was a son of Frederick and Rhoda GOODELL,
and was born in Coventry, Chenango Co., N.Y., October 25, 1792
- probably the first white child born in that vicinity. He was
descended on his father's side from Robert GOODELL, who came
from England in 1634, and settled in Salem, Mass. Of the same
ancestry are A. C. GOODELL, Clerk of the Court of Salem, Mass.,
a man of rare antiquarian learning; the late William GOODELL,
D.D., missionary of the American Board, and one of the translators
of the Scriptures at Constantinople; and Capt. Silas GOODELL,
of the Revolutionary war. His mother was Rhoda GUERNSEY, a daughter
of John GUERNSEY of Amenia, Dutchess Co., N.Y. She was one of
fifteen children, who all lived to have families, so that the
grandchildren of John and Azubah GUERNSEY numbered ninety-one.
Of the brothers of Rhoda, was Peter B. GUERNSEY, one of the pioneer
settlers of Norwich, Chenango Co., N.Y.
- When the subject of this sketch was five years old, his parents
removed to Windsor, Broome Co.
- (then Chenango, Tioga Co.), N.Y. In his early childhood,
William suffered a severe sickness, which left him for some time
lame, so that he was confined first to his bed, and afterwards
to his chair, and it was some years before he recovered the use
of his limbs. This long confinement fostered habits of thought
and study which doubtless contributed largely to mould his character
and shape his future. Debarred from childish sports, his mind
was occupied with the study of such themes as the limited library
to which he had access suggested to him. His mother, a woman
of rare qualities of mind and heart, was his almost constant
companion, and made an impress on his character that future years
could not efface. Religious thought and feeling were stimulated,
and aspirations and hopes inspired, which found expression only
in the life of earnest activity which followed. His principal
reading at this time consisted of the Bible, "Watts' Psalms
and Hymns," "Hart's Hymns," "Methodist Pocket
Hymn-book," "Pilgrim's Progress," "Writings
of Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe," "Wesley's Sermons," "Fletcher's
Appeal," and some odd volumes of the Spectator and
Guardian. Religious services in those primitive days were
a rare luxury, and families frequently trudged through the woods
on foot, or rode with ox teams for miles to hear a Methodist
circuit preacher in a log schoolhouse.
- Rhoda GOODELL died in 1803, at the early age of thirty-seven,
leaving five sons, of whom
- William was the second. With the breaking-up of the little
family of motherless boys, William was transferred to the old
GUERNSEY homestead in Amenia, where he attended the common school,
and assisted in light labor on the farm. A year later, he was
sent to the GOODELL homestead in Pomfret, Conn., where his widowed
grandmother and her sons and daughters were living. His father
died in 1806. At Pomfret he remained five years, attending the
common schools, and working on the farm in vacation. Two good
public libraries afforded him reading through the long winter
evenings, but perhaps his highest educational advantage was the
society of his grandmother, Hannah GOODELL, a woman of unusual
mental ability and rare culture. She had been educated at Boston,
was a convert of Whitefield, and a hearer of Revs. Nehemiah Walter,
of Roxbury, and Thomas Prince, of the "old South;"
of Byles, Davenport and Edwards. In matters of history and general
literature, she was a living and speaking library, with an exhaustless
fund of original anecdotes, particularly of the Revolutionary
times in which she lived, and with some of the prominent actors
of which she had been personally acquainted. She had decided
opinions on all theological, ethical and political topics, and,
indeed, was one of the strong-minded women of her times.
- Being unable to obtain a collegiate education, William, in
1812, went to Providence, R.I., where
- he entered mercantile life as a clerk, and, rising rapidly
in his new employment, he received and accepted, a few years
later, an officer from a prominent firm to sail as assistant
supercargo in one of their ships bound for India, China and European
markets. He set sail January 1, 1817, and in the two years and
a half of voyages and of business transactions in foreign countries,
learned much of mercantile life in foreign lands. On returning,
in 1819, he engaged in mercantile enterprises at Wilmington,
N.C., at Providence, R.I., and at Alexandria, Va.; sometimes
by himself, and sometimes on a larger scale in partnership with
a capitalist of abundant means. At the South, he had ample opportunity
to study the workings of the slavery system.
- He was married, in 1823, to Clarissa C. CADY, daughter of
Deacon Josiah CADY, of
- Providence, R.I.
- He first commenced writing for the press in 1820, in the
Providence Gazette, in a series of articles
- against the then pending Missouri Compromise, which attracted
general attention. From that time onward, he wrote for various
periodicals, as he felt constrained to do, on the living issues
of the day - religious, moral and political. A residence in New
York City two years, from 1825 to 1827, compelled him to witness
the controlling prevalence of vice, lawlessness, crime, and commercial
and banking frauds, sustained by bribery and corrupt political
"rings," as in latter times, until, under judicial
authority, it was decided that "a conspiracy to defraud
is no indictable offense." Lottery gambling (under legislative
charters, to build bridges, erect meeting-houses, endow colleges,
establish schools, etc.) was everywhere popular and unquestioned.
Then it was that he discovered his heaven-appointed life-work
to be an uncompromising warfare with such gigantic public evils.
- He commenced to edit the weekly Investigator, at Providence,
in 1827. Two years later, he
- removed to Boston, connecting his Investigator with
the National Philanthropist. In June, 1830, he removed
to New York, where he continued his paper under the name of the
Genius of Temperance. He, also, he afterward edited the
Emancipator. At Utica and Whitesboro', N.Y., he edited
the Friend of Man, from 1836 to 1842. Here, also, he issued
his monthly, Antislavery Lectures, for one year, and commenced
his Christian Investigator. Continuing the latter publication,
he removed, in 1843, to Honeoye, Ontario Co., N.Y., where he
acted as Pastor of an Independent Reform Church for several years.
In connection with these different periodicals, he spent much
of his time traveling, lecturing and holding conventions - sometimes
on his own responsibility, at other times in the employ of some
organization.
- Returning to New York in 1853, he successively edited the
American Jubilee, Radical
- Abolitionist and the Principia, the latter
of which was continued, in connection with Rev. George B. Cheever,
D.D., during the war of the rebellion and until after the death
of Lincoln. After the abolition of slavery, he resumed his temperance
labors, writing for different journals, to the time of his death.
After residing in Lebanon, Conn., five years, he removed to Janesville,
Wis., in June 1870.
- Besides writing pamphlets, essays and tracts, in large numbers,
he wrote several volumes, as the
- "Democracy of Christianity," in two volumes; "Slavery
and Anti-Slavery," a history of the struggle; "American
Slave Code" and "Our National Charters," showing
the illegality and unconstitutionality of slavery, and the power
of the National Government over it; besides several volumes on
religious and ethical subjects, still in manuscript. He assisted
in organizing the American Antislavery Society, at Philadelphia,
in December, 1833; the Liberty Party, at Albany, N.Y., in 1840;
the American Missionary Association, at Albany, in 1846; the
National Prohibition Party, at Chicago, in 1869; and participated
in the re-union of Abolitionists at Chicago, in June, 1874; also,
assisted in preparations for organizing a Wisconsin State Prohibition
Party, at Ripon, in October, 1874. His mental faculties remained
unimpaired until his death, which occurred February 15, 1878.
His wife died in the following April.
- Their children are Maria G., wife of Rev. L. P. FROST, and
Lavinia GOODELL, attorney at law,
- of Janesville. One daughter died in infancy. They have four
grandsons, of whom the eldest is Professor of Greek in Oberlin
College, Ohio.
- What Mr. GOODELL's views were on reformatory subjects are,
perhaps, significantly indicated
- in this sketch. It may be well, however, to add that he was,
like most of the surviving Abolitionists, in hearty sympathy
with the "Woman Suffrage" movement. His religious view
were those commonly known as Evangelical, and he was a member
of the Congregational Church in Janesville.
-
- Taken from "The History of Rock County, Wis."
(c)1879; pp. 424-426.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|