Background
Benjamin Franklin Goodrich was born on November 4, 1841, in Ripley. He was the ninth child of Anson and Susan (Dinsmore) Goodrich and sixth in descent from the colonist William Goodrich, who died in Wethersfield in 1676.
Benjamin Franklin Goodrich was born on November 4, 1841, in Ripley. He was the ninth child of Anson and Susan (Dinsmore) Goodrich and sixth in descent from the colonist William Goodrich, who died in Wethersfield in 1676.
Goodrich attended the typical academies of the time in the towns of Westfield and Fredonia, near his birthplace, and also in Austinburg, Ohio.
On the completion of this elementary schooling, at the age of seventeen, he began the study of medicine with John Spencer, a practising physician of Westfield. A year later, he entered the Cleveland Medical College, the medical department of Western Reserve College, where he graduated in February 1861.
Three months later, he was awarded a state certificate of assistant-surgeon.
On October 29, 1861, Goodrich enlisted as a private in Company I, 9th New York Cavalry and on November 5, he was promoted to hospital steward. On May 20, 1862, he was discharged to accept an appointment as contract surgeon with the Army of the Potomac.
He was assigned to a battalion of engineers and attached to headquarters, where he served until November 1862, when he entered the University of Pennsylvania to take a course of lectures in surgery.
Goodrich was commissioned assistant surgeon, 9th New York Cavalry, in July 1863, and remained in the army until the fall of 1864, when he resigned. He then established himself as a practising physician in Jamestown, New York, but a little over a year later gave up his profession, never to resume it, and with a lawyer friend as a partner, went into the real-estate business in New York City.
In 1867, through one of their transactions, the partners came into control of the Hudson River Rubber Company at Hastings- on-the-Hudson, which had been engaged in the manufacture of rubber goods under a licensed agreement with Charles Goodyear.
Neither Goodrich nor his partner, J. P. Morris, knew anything about rubber, but in the hope of securing some financial benefit from their acquisition, they bought out the stockholders with $5, 000 of Morris’s money and organized a new company. Goodrich, as president, took complete charge of the business.
During 1867 and part of 1868, he operated the plant and endeavored to sell its product, learning as he went along and becoming a stanch believer in the future of rubber. Competition, however, was extremely keen; handicapped by worn-out mechanical equipment, his factory could not turn out a satisfactory product, and the partners were forced to abandon it.
Goodrich, however, had by no means lost his interest and soon prevailed upon Morris to buy another small rubber factory, offered for sale in 1868 at Melrose, New York. This venture, even with $10, 000 invested in it by Morris, was also unsuccessful.
By 1869 the two partners were losing money. In looking about for a suitable location for a plant, farther away from their New England competitors, Goodrich came upon an advertisement by the Board of Trade of Akron, Ohio, inviting the establishment of manufactories in that town.
A visit to Akron convinced him of the desirability of transferring his rubber business to that place, and after an inspection of his Melrose plant by the president of the Akron Board of Trade, during which Goodrich called into play all of the selling strategy at his command, he was not only permitted to settle in Akron but was advanced money with which to move his equipment from Melrose and erect his factory.
On December 31, 1870, a new firm, Goodrich, Tew & Company was formed, three of the four members being related to Goodrich by marriage. A two-story building was completed by the spring of 1871 and the first manufactured products were sold in May of that year. These consisted largely of fire hose, billiard cushions, and belting. During the next ten years Goodrich found it extremely difficult to keep his company alive.
Lack of working capital and confidence of the local people in his undertaking prevented his acquiring either an adequate supply of raw materials or a proper working force.
The company was reorganized in 1874 as Goodrich & Company and new members added to the firm, but with only temporary success. When collapse seemed inevitable, about 1879, Goodrich, still enthusiastic, again called upon his selling strategy and from George W. Crouse secured, for the first time, adequate financial backing.
The B. F. Goodrich Company was thereupon incorporated, May 10, 1880, with Goodrich as president, and from that time forward success crowned his efforts.
In 1881, he took over the duties of manager in addition to those of president, but the increased work proved too great a strain on his health and he died seven years later at Manitou Springs, Colorado.
Goodrich was married on November 4, 1869, to Mary Marvin of Jamestown, New York, who with two sons and a daughter survived him.
15 April 1792 - 17 June 1847
12 January 1799 - 6 May 1849
Died on 30 May 1901.
November 1823 - 1847
22 March 1837 - 25 February 1921
3 July 1841 - 15 April 1907
9 July 1872 - 25 July 1872
22 June 1876 - 17 May 1950
9 July 1872 - 13 August 1872
3 August 1871 - 10 July 1932
