Edward Augustus Goodnow, distinguished as a financier of prei~minent ability, and widely known as a philanthropist, born in Princeton, July 16, 181o, was a son of Edward and Rebecca (Beaman) Goodnow. He passed his boyhood life upon the farm, but was fortunate in obtaining more than the ordinary advantages afforded by the district schools in instruction for several terms at Hadley Academy. At the age of twenty he was employed by his elder brother, who kept a country store, and two years later entered into partnership with him. The business was afterwards enlarged to include the manufacture of palm-leaf hats and of shoes, an example of enterprise not common at that
In 1847 Mr. Goodnow seeking broader opportunities engaged in the cutlery business at Shelburne Falls as a member of the firm of Lamson Goodnow & Co In 1852 he became a resident of Worcester, and for four years engaged in the retail shoe trade, and in 1856 opened the first wholesale jobbing house in that city in which enterprise his business reached an amount of nearly one-half million dollars in a year. In 1865 he retired from active mercantile life in the possession of a large fortune. In 1866 he became president of the First National Bank, in which office he greatly promoted the prosperity of the institution so that its stock doubled its par value under his management. For years it was the only bank which allowed interest on denosits sub;ect to check He served in this
office twenty-eight years. He was instrumental in the erection of the First National Bank building.
Mr. Goodnow entered early into the anti-slavery move
ment, and during the War of the Rebellion gave freely of his means to sustain the government. He headed a subscription with $500 to help Governor Andrew enlist and equip the first regiment of colored troops. He subscribed for the first issue of government bonds. He also furnished thirteen clerks from his service for the army. He gave to the Worcester High School the memorial tablets in memory of fifteen students who fell in the war; also a bust of General Grant and a portrait of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Life size portraits of President Garfield and VicePresident Wilson grace Mechanics Hall through his generosity. Several of his benefactions are memorials of his married life. His first wife was Harriet, daughter of Doctor Henry Bagg of Princeton, and subsequent to her death Mr. Goodnow married her sister, Mary Augusta. Of this marriage one son, Henry Bagg Goodnow, was born, Biography 301
but did not survive infancy. The second wife died after five years of wedded life. Mr. Goodnow's third wife was Catherine B., daughter of Honorable Seth Caldwell of Barre, who after twenty-five years also passed away. His fourth wife, who survived him, was Sarah A. West. Mr. Goodnow, in connection with his gift Of $40,000 to his native town to build the library building known as the Goodnow Memorial building, devoted $3000' towards the building of a new town hall, which has been named Bagg Hall in memory of his first two wives and his son. In 1887 he gave $5000 to found the Catherine B. Goodnow fund to the Young Women's Christian Association in Worcester, and later $25,000 more towards completing the building of this association.
He has also been a benefactor of Plymouth Congregational Church in Worcester, of which he was a member, presenting the chime of bells and its fine organ to that Society.
As a friend to higher education Mr. Goodnow has particularly distinguished himself. To Mount Holyoke College he gave $25,000, to Iowa College $15,000 to erect the Goodnow Library and Observatory; and $5ooo each to Wellesley College, the Moody School at Northfield, and Washburn College in Kansas. He also contributed to the funds of Oberlin College, Berea College, Lincoln College, and the Hampton Institute. He gave $25,000 to erect buildings for the Huguenot Seminary in Wellington, South Africa, and was the first American to contribute for the education of woman in South Africa. His total gifts for all purposes exceeded a quarter of a million dollars.
