Clark Nahum Goddard

GODDARD, BAILEY, RICHARDSON, MORRILL, BENT, HUTCHINSON, DURKEE

Posted By: S. Ferrall (email)
Date: 11/6/2006 at 04:39:28

Clark Nahum Goddard is the pioneer merchant of Decorah, Iowa, and a citizen of more than ordinary prominence, -- one whose conection with the city and close identification with its business interests have been of material benefit to Decorah, for he is progressive and public-spirited, and takes an active concern in every enterprise calculated to promote the general welfare. He has made an untarnished record as a business man, -- upright, reliable and honorable. In all places and under all circumstances he is loyal to truth, honor and right, justly valuing his own self-respect as infinitely more to be desired than wealth, fame or position. In manner he is unostentatious, yet he has that true nobleness of character which everywhere commands respect.

A native of the Green Mountain State, Mr. Goddard was born in Rutland on the 3d of May, 1835, being a son of Robert and Mary Maria (Bailey) Goddard. The family has long been connected with the history of New England. Only a short time after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock there settled in Massachusetts Edward Goddard, a native of England, who had braved the perils of a sea voyage at that day in order to secure a home in the New World. Nahum Goddard, the grandfather of our subject, was one of the six sons born to Josiah Goddard, and was a native of Worcester, Massachusetts. By occupation he was a farmer throughout his active business life. In 1801 he removed from the Bay State to Vermont, where his remaining days were passed. His wife bore the maiden name of Sallie Richardson, and their children, two in number, were Robert, father of our subject, and Lorinda.

Robert Goddard was born in Vermont June 3, 1803, and in 1839 removed to Rochester, Windsor county, in that State, where he continued his residence until the spring of 1854. In June of that year he located in Clayton county, Iowa. Purchasing a farm of 160 acres, he continued its cultivation until 1860, when he removed to the town of Monona, where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1864. He was married in his native State to Miss Mary M. Bailey, and their children are as follows: James Osmer, who was accidentally drowned at Dubuque, Iowa, while performing his duties of bridge engineer, leaving a wife and three children; John Bailey, a general merchant and farmer, living at Taopi, South Dakota, who married Miss Caroline Morrill, a relative of Senator Morrill, of Vermont, by whom he has three children; Charles Walker, a harness dealer of Bancroft, Iowa, who wedded Miss Mary Bent, of Poultney, Vermont, and has three children; Clark Nahum, the subject of this review; and Carrie Elizabeth, of Chicago, the youngest child, now the widow of Edwin B. Hutchinson.

To the public schools of the Green Mountain State Clark N. Goddard is indebted for his education. He engaged in teaching school for one winter and in 1854 went to Monona, and two years later removed to Decorah, where he secured a clerkship in the general store of Evans & Kimball, with whom he remained for a year. He then worked for D.B. Ellsworth for eighteen months, when his employer retired from business. His next connection was with the store of J.D. Wheeler, where he acted in the capacity of salesman until the business was closed out. In April, 1860, he purchased a line of clothing, boots and shoes, and was in business alone until October, 1862, when the firm of Goddard, Henry & Hutchinson was formed and began operations as general merchants on the corner where the store of Mr. Goddard is yet located. In August, 1865, Mr. Hutchinson retired from the firm and the partnership of the other members was dissolved by the death of Mr. Henry, March 31, 1874. D.B. Ellsworth, the old employer of our subject, then purchased the interest formerly owned by Mr. Henry, and the firm of Ellsworth & Goddard became one of the most prominent in the city, enjoying a very extensive trade. In the spring of 1880 Mr. Ellsworth retired and Mr. Goddard has since been alone in the ownership and control of the large and constantly increasing business which the house enjoys. In February, 1871; the store was destroyed by fire, entailing a heavy loss; but with characteristic energy the firm erected in its place the present fine two-story brick building which Mr. Goddard has since occupied. he carries a laarge stock carefully selected, and his honorable dealings and ernest desire to please his patrons have made him a successful business man.

His efforts have not been confined alone to merchandising. He was one of the original directors in the First National Bank; is a stockholder in and vice president of the Decorah Windmill Company, of which his eldest son is manager, and which is one of the most successful manufacturing industries of the city. He is also president of the Decorah Business Men's Association and a director in the Decorah building & Loan Association. In fact it may be truthfully said of Mr. Goddard that every public enterprise promising to aid his home city in the smallest degree has found in him an earnest supporter. Western communities hopefully believe in a future of brilliant promise. Citizens recognize that the fulfillment of these promises depends upon laying broad foundations and seizing every feasible means looking to such an end. Activity in the present means ample fruition in the future, near or remote. This demands constant vigilance by those who possess a spirit of public enterprise. Such a citizen of Decorah Mr. Goddard has always been. He has been foremost in devising as well as furthering every plan deemed helpful to the city which has been his home since early manhood. Time and money he has spent freely and ungrudgingly in those taxes which enterprise lays upon the citizens who have broader conceptions of life and social relations than mere money-making. the obligations Decorah is under to him are best recognized by those who have known him intimately for a generation. His work along these lines has been unostentatious and never performed with a view to the applause of his fellows.

Although intensely devoted to business Mr. Goddard has always kept posted in the current events of the times. He has therefore always taken unusual interest in politics because he has fully realized that the welfare of his country is involved in the principles and policies which control in national affairs. Always a Republican -- never a politician -- his study of party policies has been so keen that he has always been ready and able to give cogent reasons for the faith he holds, and to stand up and be counted as one having clear, positive and intelligent views upon every public question upon which parties divide. He has never asked office at the hands of his party, and on but one occasion, and that with his reluctant consent, has his name been used. In 1893, in a non-partisan election, he was chosen Mayor of the city, and his administration of affairs during the two years of incumbency was of a high business character, marked by progress in all right directions, and by an economy that left the finances (disordered when he assumed the reins) in the best possible condition for entering upon an era of public improvements that have, at the time this sketch is written, been only partially effected.

Mr. Goddard is not a church member; but the influences of early training in a Christian home have had an abiding influence upon his character and life. The effects are visible in a life of the highest integrity and pure morals. He believes in the church and has been a constant and liberal supporter of the oldest religious organization in Decorah. Hence, whenever social divisions have come -- as come they will to every community -- the influence of Mr. Goddard has always been upon the side of God, home and native land, of decency, morality and social purity.

Mr. Goddard is a self-made man in the fullest sense of the term. His business has been conducted along the lines of legitimate commercial undertakings, and speculation has formed no part of it. It was for this reason that when the financial storms came and the demon, panic, was wrecking business houses throughout the country, Mr. Goddard was enabled to maintain his business credit and come out a victor. He has been prominently and honorably connected with the business interests of Decorah for forty consecutive years and no man has a larger or more devoted circle of friends than he.

The home life of Mr. Goddard has been most felicitous. He is a man of domestic tastes, and finds his greatest happiness when in the midst of his family. He was married December 12, 1861, to Miss Jennie Richardson, who was born in Sherburne, Vermont, January 11, 1842, the daughter of Rufus and Elizabeth (Durkee) Richardson. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Goddard are: Harry Clark, manager of the Decorah Windmill Company, born June 1, 1865; Clara, her father's assistant in the store, born May 5, 1867; Herbert, born August 22, 1877; and Frederick Richardson, the youngest, born August 11, 1879.

- A Memorial and biographical record of Iowa, Chicago. Lewis Pub. Co., 1896; 773-775
-transcribed by S. Ferrall for IAGenWeb

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