Herschell and Sarah Goodspeed, part two

Please click here to see part one of Herschell & Sarah Goodspeed.

In 1870, the family of Herschell and Sarah Goodspeed had grown to include sons Harrie, age 9 and Theron, age 6. Harrie, Theron and John, now age 10, were all in school. Delbert, now 13, was working as a grocer’s clerk. Herschell was 40, still a carpenter, with real estate worth $4000 and personal property worth $600. His wife Sarah was 39, keeping house.[1] Herschell Goodspeed continued to build in Ypsilanti. In 1872 he built a four-room brick schoolhouse, known as the Fourth Ward School. It cost $3,566.60.[2] In 1878, he built the Third Ward School,[3] in 1881 the new building for the State Normal School,[4] and in 1882, the Congregational Church.[5]

Ypsilanti, Washtenaw Co., Michigan, 1868, Library of Congress

The Census of 1880 shows the Goodspeed family living at 18 Pearl Street in Ypsilanti. Herschell was a 50-year-old carpenter, and wife Sarah, also 50, was keeping house. Their son Delbert 23 was clerk in a shoe store, while sons John 21 and ‘Harry’ 19 clerked in a dry-goods store. Son Theron 16 and daughter Clara 9 were attending school. There was also a servant in the house, 22-year-old Lizzie Piper, a German immigrant.[6] In February 1882, 21-year-old Harrie Goodspeed left the frigid Michigan winter to spend some time in Fort Worth, Texas. He travelled with his friend, “Mr. E. M. Comstock,” and planned to stay for “several months.”[7]

Life in the 19th century was hazardous, and sooner or later, every family had to deal with loss. On August 30, 1883, Herschell’s mother, Louisa Albright Goodspeed, died at the age of 73. In 1880, she was staying with her daughter Loretta (Dora) Demaray in Osage, Iowa, but she died at Brockport, New York. She was probably living there with her daughter Theresa Johnson, wife of Henry Norton Johnson. Louisa was buried next to her husband Heman in the Lakeview Cemetery near Olcott and Lockport, New York. Regrettably, no photograph of Louisa has been found, and none was published in the Goodspeed Genealogy.

Harrison L. Goodspeed
private collection

Two years later, on March 14, 1885, Herschell and Sarah Goodspeed’s son Harrie died at the age of 23. This untimely death profoundly affected his family. His brother Delbert closed his store in Ann Arbor for several days:

“Harrie L. Goodspeed, of Ypsilanti, brother of D. C. Goodspeed, of this city, died Friday last, and in consequence the store of the latter in this city has been closed until this morning.”[8] 

His brother John never forgot, and in 1894 named his first child Harrison LeGrand Goodspeed.

Note: Harrison L. Goodspeed’s death record listed him as “Harry Goodspeed,” age 23, single, merchant, son of “Hurschel” and “Sara” Goodspeed. I have not yet gotten his death certificate to learn his cause of death. Since the name on his gravestone, and in his obituary, was written Harrie, I am assuming that was the preferred spelling.

In the 1880s, Herschell Goodspeed seems to have focused his work on private buildings. In 1884 he was hired to build “a mansion on Pearl St. for Mrs. Wilbur,” and also completed a mansion house for Milton and Kittie Geer in the town of Superior. Both were made of brick, in the Italianate style so popular at the time.[9]

Herschell Goodspeed even got the contract to renovate the building used by the local newspaper, the Ypsilanti Commercial. On July 25, 1885, the paper reported:

“Mr. H. Goodspeed has the contract for reconstructing the building lately occupied for the Commercial office. The sub contractor for stone, brickwork, plastering etc. is Mr. Robert Curtis. A Plate glass front will be put in. Mr. Goodspeed and Curtis are progressing as fast as this awful hot weather will permit. The proprietor is completely used up and confined to the house most of the time.”

Goodspeed & Sons

Herschell’s sons got exposed to retail businesses at an early age. None of them ever went into carpentry or construction like their father. In fact, things worked the other way around: Herschell eventually joined his sons in their business endeavors. The City Directories for Ann Arbor show that in 1866 through 1888, Herschell Goodspeed was still living at 18 Pearl St., Ypsilanti, but that by 1883 he and his sons John and Theron were operating a business known as Goodspeed & Sons, selling boots and shoes, in Ypsilanti at 8 West Congress St. and in 1886 in Ann Arbor at 17 South Main Street.

In 1893, the Ann Arbor Argus printed a lengthy story about “The Goodspeed Triple Stores.” It mentioned that Delbert C. Goodspeed had opened a store for gents’ furnishings in Ann Arbor in 1883, and that the name of the store was changed to “Goodspeed and Sons” in 1896. The store was located at 15, 17 and 19 South Main Street and offered the very best in tailoring and clothing, along with “necessary useful and ornamental appendages” like “Knox and Miller hats, gents’ gloves, Pennant shirts, neckties, hosiery, umbrellas, underwear, etc.” There was also a boot and shoe department which was managed by John W. Goodspeed. I gather this was considered the second store.

The third store was in Grand Rapids, also selling boots and shoes, and managed by brother Theron H. Goodspeed. The news story was effusive in its praise of the Goodspeed business methods, saying

“Goodspeeds buy only good goods and in large quantities direct from first hands, and these are speedily disposed of, enabling them to sell at prices that would be ruinous to small dealers. Their house stands high in commercial circles and their trade is the natural outcome of their enterprise and fidelity to correct business methods.”[10]

In 1891-92, the Ypsilanti City Directory showed Goodspeed & Sons managed by Delbert C. Goodspeed, selling boots and shoes, but also hats, caps, and “gents’ furnishing goods and furs” at the Ann Arbor location, and boots and shoes at 106 Congress St. in Ypsilanti. By 1894, Herschell and his sons had given up the store in Ypsilanti, and concentrated their work in Ann Arbor. As can be seen in the advertisement above, the Grand Rapids store was operated by Goodspeed Brothers, rather than Goodspeed & Sons. 

--- to be continued here---

1]  U.S. Federal Census, Ypsilanti, Michigan, p. 495 (pg 10), #69-85, 2nd Ward, enumeration date 15 June 1870.
2]  Ypsilanti Gleanings, Chronological History following the Civil War, up to 1880.
3]  Ypsilanti Commercial, June 29, 1878
4]  Ypsilanti Commercial, Aug. 20, 1881

5]  Ypsilanti Gleanings

6]  U.S. Federal Census, Ypsilanti, Washtenaw Co., Michigan, ED 245, #137-189.
7]  Ypsilanti Commercial, Feb. 18, 1882
8]  The Ann Arbor Courier, Wednesday, March 18, 1885, published in “Old News” by the Ann Arbor District Library, 2013.
9] Ypsilanti Commercial, Aug. 23, 1884. See also the historic study of the Geer House, Final Report, July 19, 2001.

10]  Ann Arbor Argus, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Friday, Dec. 15, 1893.