BIOGRAPHY OF JAMES GOOLD

Hub December 1879 pages 388-389

The death of a carriage-builder so eminent as James Goold demands more than passing notice.  He was the veteran of the carriage trade in this country, a successful manufacturer and business man, beloved by the community in which he lived, and trusted and honored by all who knew him.  The young men of the trade may with profit study the following brief sketch of his long and active life.  It will be seen that he was notably a self-made man, who earned his honorable position by personal endeavor, unaided by special advantages, devoting the years of his early manhood to  the study and practice of a craft, self chosen; and his later years to the gradual building up of a large and well-organized business, profitable to himself, giving steady employment to a large number of mechanics, useful to the community, and honorable to, the trade he represented.

James Goold was born in Granby, Hartford county, Connecticut, on July 28, 1790. Our readers may, perhaps, better appreciate the great age he attained, when reminded that at the time of his birth, George  Washington had but fifteen months been President of the newly-formed Union, George the third was reigning in England, Goethe had not yet written his "Meister," Sir Walter Scott was a youth of nineteen, and Napoleon, then twenty-one years old, was an obscure lieutenant of artillery.

When James was four years old, his parents removed to Stephentown, Rensselaer Co., New York, where his childhood and youth were spent. His father, David Goold, was a farmer, in comfortable circumstances, who had also learned the trade of blacksmithing, at which he worked occasionally.  During his boyhood James attended the district school, and received instruction in the common branches.  The home of which be formed a part was a happy one, and to its influences and teachings may be traced the formation of his character.  The moral and religious influences of this Christian home may best be illustrated by the follow­ing extract from a letter from his father, found among Mr. Goold's papers, received by him in 1810, just after he had completed his apprenticeship:     “As to your being among strangers, I have always thought it safe not to be too intimate with any, not to interest myself with others' disputes; and when any man told me all he knew, I took care not to tell him anything.  Be faithful to your employer, honest to all you deal with, pleasant in the house, civil to all about you; not quick to resent an affront, not soon angry.  Keep a bright look­ out for such as are bad company or bad advisers. Remember the Sabbath, and attend meeting rev­erently.  Take conscience for your guide, and do nothing that will cause repentance.

Your father and friend, DAVID GOOLD."

In the winter of 1804 he went to Troy to serve an apprentice­ship at the bookbind­ing trade, with the firm of Obadiah Penniman & Co.; but this proved distasteful to him, and after a month's trial he returned to his home in Stephentown, remain­ing there until Decem­ber, 1805, when he made a new start.  At this time he went to serve an apprenticeship with William Clark, carriage-maker at Pitts­field, Massachusetts, where he learned the first rudi­ments of the carriage business.  At the close of eighteen months' service, Clark failed, the business was bro­ken up, and young Goold engaged himself to Jason Clapp, with whom he remained during the summer of 1809, at which time he com­pleted his apprentice­ship and became a journeyman body-maker, in which capacity he worked for John R. Vandenburgh through the fall of that year. Business becom­ing dull, he went to New Lebanon, New York, during the winter of 1809, and received four months' schooling at the Academy kept by Simon Lusk, applying himself with great earnestness to the study of branches in which he felt himself most deficient.  On the arrival of spring he again looked about for work, in the search for which he visited New-York City, Newark and New-Haven; and he worked at the bench in the last named town until New-Years, 1811, when he returned to Stephentown and made a brief visit to his parents.  His twenty-first birthday was now approaching, and he began to feel a desire for permanent work and a home; but one disappointment followed another.  He went to Albany, and made arrangements to open a carriage-shop in his own name, but he did not secure the needed capital.  He then went to Troy, and worked six months with L. Thrall.  Various changes followed, all more or less discouraging, and in November, 1812, he returned to Stephentown, and passed the winter quietly at home, doing what he could for his parents, and devoting the remainder of his time to reading and study.  With the coming of spring, hope revived, and on the 15th of April, 1813, he again went to Albany, and succeeded in carrying out his project of starting in business on his own account, by opening a small shop at the corner of Maiden-lane and Dean-street, located on the ground now occupied by Stanwix Hall.

Soon after taking this important step in life, he took another, even more important, being married in 1814, when he was twenty-four years of age, to Elizabeth Vail, who survives him.  By her he became the father of thirteen children, four of whom are still living.

Two years afterward, the business proving successful, Mr. Goold leased premises on Division-street, below Broadway, then known as South Market-street ; and in 1823, having erected new buildings on Union-street, the site still occupied by his manufactory, he removed part of the business thither.  In 1836, large additions having been made to the Union-street building, and new machinery obtained, the entire work was removed thither; and soon after the change, the old building, then used for the storage of lumber, was destroyed by fire.

It is impossible to fix the date when Mr. Goold had so developed and improved the old-fashioned box sleigh, that it became the typical "Albany Pattern," so identified with his name; but it was probably at this period, when his business was wonderfully successful, and when sleighs must have occupied much of his attention.  A workman now in the employ of the house, being asked as to his recollections, replies : "I have now been here for forty-one years, and they were famous before I first came to work with Mr. Goold."

In 1838 came a calamity not uncommon in the experience of carriage-­builders.  On May 25th of that year, his great factory on Union-street took fire, and was entirely destroyed, together with all the machinery, finished and unfinished work, and a large stock of material.  Such was the general sympathy which prevailed in the community over this mis­fortune, that a meeting of citizens was called, the day after the fire, and a committee appointed, who tendered to Mr. Goold a sufficient loan, without interest, to enable him to rebuild and resume operations.  The business was thus again established, and has continued uninterruptedly down to the present time.

Mr. Goold commonly employed about one hundred hands, although this number was increased from time to time as occasion required.  His business was most successful during the two years preceding the fire in 1838, when, considering the times, he was in better circumstances than when, in after years, the amount of manufactured work handled had largely augmented.  At that time his skill as a builder, and the absence of any worthy competitor, gave him the monopoly of the business in his vicinity.  He was also very successful during the last war.  At no time, during the sixty-six years that he was actively engaged as a manufacturer, did he ever fail, or compromise, or allow his note to go to protest.  How many members of the carriage trade, even the most eminent, can show such a record ?

Those admitted to partnership, during his later years, were all mem­bers of his family--his children and grand-children, and at one period the firm represented three generations.  The business is now conducted by his two grandsons, Mr. John C. Goold and Mr. Wm.  D. Goold, and it was one of the last wishes expressed by him, that the business should go on as usual, after his death; and as far as it was possible he arranged matters with this end in view.

For several weeks previous to his death, he was well aware of his approaching end, but it did not affect his cheerfulness.  He several times visited the cemetery, and considered the arrangement of the resting-place he was soon to occupy.  On one of these occasions, he stopped his carriage while passing a field of ripe wheat, cut a few well ­filled stalks, and directed that they be preserved with care, to be laid upon his bier, in place of any ostentatious parade of flowers.  In ripe old age, filled with honor, he died at his home in Albany, on October 1st, in his ninetieth year.

The following resolutions, unanimously adopted at the recent Con­vention in New-York, show the esteem in which he was held by the Carriage-Builders' National Association, of which he was the First Vice-President ;

"Whereas, This Association has learned, with feelings of deep sorrow, of the recent death of our illustrious associate, James Goold, of Albany, New York, who was the first to inscribe his name upon our membership roll, was long our honored Vice-President, and at the time of his decease was the oldest active carriage builder in the United States; and who, after a life of remarkable activity and usefulness, protracted with almost undiminished strength of mind and body to his ninetieth year, has passed from among us, and we shall no more see his venerable form, dignified mien and thoughtful and kindly face; be it

Resolved, That we cherish in grateful remembrance the inestimable value of his services, and the record of his useful and honorable life; and that we feel deeply the loss of a co-laborer, whose place must long remain unfilled;  forever faithful, honest, energetic and kindly, he has gone to his long rest respected and lamented by all who knew him, and by the entire trade to which he belonged.

Resolved, That this tribute to his worth and memory by entered upon the records of this Association; and that a copy, attested by the President, Secretary and members of the Executive Committee, be transmitted to his family."

WILLIAM D. GOOLD.

Carriage Monthly June 1895