Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
great-grandfather of Mr. Goodwin, Capt. Ichabod Goodwin, is said, by the
writer of the genealogy of the Berwick Goodwins, in the _Historical
Magazine_, to have been the most remarkable man who ever lived in that
town. He distinguished himself at the battle of Ticonderoga, and we
learn from the _London Magazine_ that he was especially mentioned in
Maj.-Gen. Abercrombie's report to Secretary Pitt.
On his father's side, his ancestors figured conspicuously in the wars
before the Revolution, and up to the period of the Revolution were of
the families upon whom devolved the magisterial work and honor of the
times. On his mother's side he is likewise descended from families which
for a century, and up to the time of the Revolution, performed a large
share of the duties of public office; and some of the most conspicuous
names in the colonial history of Maine and New Hampshire are to be
counted among his maternal ancestors.
To mention the names of Champernoun, Waldron, and Elliot, none more
familiar to those informed upon colonial history, is but to recall the
persons from whom, on the maternal side, he is lineally descended, or
with whom his maternal ancestors were closely allied by ties of family
connection. The ante-revolutionary importance of the people from whom he
comes is well illustrated by the fact that the name of his maternal
grandfather, Joseph Gerrish, stands first on the triennial catalogue of
Harvard College in the list of graduates of the year 1752, a class which
numbered a Quincy among its graduating members. The significance of this
fact, as bearing upon the status of his mother's family at that time,
is, that the names of the members of the classes of that day are
published in the triennial catalogue of Harvard in the order of the
social importance of the families to which the members respectively
belonged.
At the time of Mr. Goodwin's birth, which was just before the beginning
of the present century, the state of things which the Revolution had
brought about had had ample time to crystallize. Whether it was through
the great changes that under the new order of things had taken place in
the political, social, and commercial affairs of the country, or whether
from those inherent causes under the operation of which families
conspicuous and influential in one period drop out of notice and are
lost to the eye of the historian, the annalist, and perhaps even of the
town chronicler, Mr. Goodwin's family, at the time of his birth, were
simply plain farming people, highly respected within the limits of the
little country town in which they lived, but no longer among the noted,
or influential, or wealthy people of Maine. The country had, by the
close of the last century, taken a considerable stride onward in
prosperity as well as in numerical growth, and the bustle and hum of
industry, pouring itself into new channels of prosperity, had passed by
many of the families which in the earlier era had been the foremost in
developing the resources of the country, in leading the yeomanry in war,
in presiding over the tribunals, and sitting in council as civic
magistrates.
Mr. Goodwin's academic education consisted of several years of study at
the academy at South Berwick, an institution having at that time a good
deal of local importance, and then, as now, the only school in the
vicinity of his birthplace where a fitting for college could be
obtained. Shortly after leaving that academy he entered the
counting-house of Samuel Lord, Esq., then a very prominent merchant and
ship-owner of Portsmouth, N. H., and he became a member of Mr. Lord's
family. He here displayed qualities which had been quite conspicuous in
his earlier boyhood,--those of energy and assiduity and a very marked
capacity for affairs. These qualities, which at the early age of twelve
had made him quite a competent and satisfactory manager of the farm of
his widowed step-grandmother, who was the grandmother of Mr. Lord,
showed later in his conduct as a clerk in the commercial business of the
then very thriving shipping port of Portsmouth. Mr. Lord, finding that
Mr. Goodwin's business abilities were more comprehensive than the mere
duties of a clerk required, placed him as a supercargo in charge of the
business of what was then the largest ship owned in the port, the
"Elizabeth Wilson." In the present days of railroads, sea-going
steamers, oceanic cables, and the commercial complement of these foreign
correspondents or agents, it may seem a trivial sign of a young man's
capacities to name the fact of his being made the business manager of a
ship, especially as ships then went in regard to size; but it is the
introduction of these very modern appliances for conducting business
which has rendered the responsibility of the delegated management of
this species of property comparatively easy. In the days of Mr.
Goodwin's early voyaging, the whole discretion as to the conduct of the
ship's affairs was vested in the supercargo, except in the brief period
of her being in the home port, when the owner resumed his authority and
control. In foreign places, among strangers, beyond the reach of
opportunity for consultation with his owner, the young man must rely
upon himself; must decide upon what voyage his ship shall go, and must
be ready to account to his principal upon his return for the results of
a prosperous enterprise or a disastrous adventure. It was not long
before Mr. Goodwin had learned enough of seamanship to enable him to add
to the duties of the supercargo the further business of navigating his
ship, so that for several years he was both ship-master and business
manager, offices then, as now, rarely combined in one person; for the
ship-master is to-day chiefly the navigator and head seaman of his ship,
while the business, involving the chartering and the rest, is attended
to by a merchant in the port of destination, who is in ready
communication with the owner, both by the fast-going mail of the
steamship and the quicker method of the ocean cable. Mr. Goodwin's sea
life lasted for about twelve years. During that time he had been so far
successful as to become a part owner, and to be enabled to begin
business at home.
In the year 1832 he established himself as a merchant at Portsmouth.
Portsmouth has been his home ever since that time; and there he for many
years conducted an extensive mercantile business, his chief business
interests lying in the direction of the foreign carrying-trade. Upon
leaving the sea he soon became foremost in matters that were of public
concern. He was one of the early projectors of the railroad interests of
New England; and, until within a few years, he has taken a large part in
all the enterprises of public import in the vicinity of his home,
including, besides railroads, the enterprises of manufacturing and
banking; and he has been vested always with a large share of the local
trusts, both public and private, which devolve upon the public-spirited
and trusted citizen. He has of late years been inclined to withdraw from
these responsibilities; but of those which he still retains, the
presidency of the Howard Benevolent Society, a position he has held for
over thirty years, and the presidency of the Portsmouth Bridge Company
may be mentioned. He has, however, within the last two years, assumed
the presidency of the First National Bank of Portsmouth, in which he is
largely interested as a stockholder, and in which institution he had
been a director from its incorporation as a state bank. He was for many
years and at different periods a director in the Eastern Railroad
Company, and was the first president of the Eastern Railroad in New
Hampshire, which position he held for twenty-five years. He was also of
the first board of direction of the Portland, Saco, & Portsmouth
Railroad Company, and was the president of that corporation from the
year 1847 to the year 1871. But it is unnecessary to mention all the
public trusts of a corporate nature which have been confided to his
care. His chief claim to public esteem, and that which will secure to
him its most enduring recognition, is derived from his services as the
first "war governor" of New Hampshire.
Upon Mr. Goodwin's settling as a business man in Portsmouth, he did not
confine his energies to his private business and to corporate
enterprises, but soon acquired a large interest and influence as a
member of the Whig party. He served in the legislature of New Hampshire,
as a member of that party, in the years 1838, 1843, 1844, 1850, 1854,
and 1856. He was also a delegate-at-large from that state to the
conventions at which Clay, Taylor, and Scott were nominated by the Whigs
for the presidency, and was a vice-president at the first two named
conventions; and he has twice served in the constitutional conventions
of New Hampshire. He was the candidate of the Whigs for congress at
several elections before the state was divided into congressional
districts. New Hampshire was in those days one of the most powerful
strongholds of the Democratic party in the country; and a Whig
nomination for any office, determined by the suffrages of the whole
state, was merely a tribute of esteem by that party to one of its most
honored members. Upon the establishment of congressional districts, Mr.
Goodwin received a unanimous nomination of the Whig party for congress
at the first convention held in his district. This nomination bid fair
to be followed by an election, but the circumstances of his private
business prevented his acceptance of the candidateship. In the great
political convulsions which preceded the war of the rebellion, the power
of the Democratic party in New Hampshire began to decline, while the
ties which through years of almost steady defeat in the state at large
had been sufficient to hold together the Whig party, now came to be
loosened, and out of the decadence of the former and the extinction of
the latter party there was built up the Republican party, which gained
the supremacy in the state, and which has ever since, with a brief
exception, maintained that supremacy. Mr. Goodwin, while in full
sympathy with the cause of the Union, which he believed the politicians
of the South were striving to dismember, yet felt that perhaps the
impending crisis could be arrested through the means of the old
political organizations; and he remained steadfast to the organization
of the Whig party until he saw that its usefulness, both as a state and
as a national party, was gone. He was the last candidate of the Whigs
for the office of governor of New Hampshire, and received in the whole
state the meager amount of about two thousand votes. This lesson did not
require to be repeated. He immediately did all in his power to aid in
the establishment of the Republican party in this state; for, although
the old-time issues between the Democrats and Whigs had gone by, and new
questions had arisen involving the very integrity of the nation, he did
not regard the Democratic party as one capable of solving or disposed to
solve those questions in a patriotic and statesmanlike way. He was
chosen the governor of New Hampshire, as the Republican candidate, in
the year 1859, and was re-elected in the following year, his second term
of office having expired on June 5, 1861.
The military spirit of the people of New Hampshire had become dormant,
and the militia system of the state had fallen pretty much to decay long
before the election of Mr. Goodwin to the office of governor. A slight
revival of that spirit, perhaps, is marked by the organization in his
honor, in January, 1860, of the "Governor's Horse-Guards,"--a regiment
of cavalry in brilliant uniform, designed to do escort duty to the
governor,--as well as by a field muster of several voluntary