SKETCH OF HENRY A. GOODYEAR

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to locate on the point known as the Old Hastings Landing, and was a member of the first company who purchased the present property owned by the Gun Lake association, and for many years was one of the board of directors. During the latter years of his life it was one of the spots he enjoyed most of all. It has been the writer's pleasure to sit for hours and converse with Mr. Goodyear regarding his early history and experience in the village of Hastings. I can recall the vivid description he gave me of his trips to Detroit and Toledo for goods; the hardships that he endured and obstacles surmounted in getting his merchandise through a trackless forest. It required strong men, men of determination, to battle with the conditions as they then existed. Mr. Goodyear laid the foundation for his successful life amid trying scenes. His loyalty however was of that type that makes men great in whatever sphere of life they move and whatever their environment. He was always loyal to his ideals of manhood; loyal to his country; proud of his flag, and his country's advancement, loyal to the truth, to honor, to justice and to God. Those who knew Henry A. Goodyear appreciate these words. He was noted as a good citizen. His character was above reproach. He walked for forty-seven years among his business companions daily and they were pleased with him; their trust and confidence never faltered.

He was born in York, York County, Pennsylvania, June 30, 1818. At the age of sixteen he left the old home and entered the employ of a druggist in Philadelphia by the name of William Youngs, where he remained two years. In October 1838 he came to Detroit where he followed his profession as a druggist. In March 1840 he removed to Battle Creek. The following November he came to Hastings, bringing a stock of drugs and general merchandise of which I have spoken. In 1843 Mr. Goodyear was married to Miss Mary, daughter of Nathan Barlow, one of the pioneers of the county. In 1848 Mrs. Goodyear1o died leaving three children, William H., George E., and Nathan B. Two years later he was again married to Miss Ermina, sister of his first wife. By this union there were born four children, Mary Rosella, Anna M., now Mrs. Haff, David S., and John F. Goodyear.

In 1845, two years before the seat of government was transferred to Lansing, he was elected to the legislature. Lansing was then a wilderness. In 1854 he was elected to the state senate. In 1874 he was again elected to the house and served on the Ways and Means Committee. In 1852 he was elected a delegate to the National Democratic Convention at Baltimore which nominated Franklin Pierce for President. He was elected to many local offices. He was the first mayor of the city and for many years a member of the board of education. He took an 10 Mrs. Goodyear. See Mich. Pion. and Hist. Colls.. Vol. XXXVI, pp. 657-8.

active part in the erection of the high school building. In religious affiliations he was an Episcopalian and for many years was senior warden. He advanced the money to start the first newspaper published in Hastings "The Pioneer," and was a contributor to its columns during its entire existence. He was not a speculator. He was content to make money slowly and by wise investments accumulated a comfortable property. He was conservative in all things. He believed in doing well what was done and paying "as you go." He was at one time treasurer of the Grand River Valley Railroad Company, now the Michigan Central, and was active in the construction of the road. The old stagecoach was too slow for business.11 He saw a beautiful city, spring from a wild

"Rev. W. B. Williams of Charlotte, gives the following account of JIM KENNEY'S STAGECOACH:

Jim Kenney was an odd genius who used to drive the stagecoach between Watervliet, Covert and South Haven in the State of Michigan. He had his own notions about a stagecoach for comfort, and built one to suit himself unlike anything ever seen on earth before. The wheels were almost as tall as a man, so that they would roll easily over lumps and stones, and they had a very broad rim so that they would not sink in the sand and mud.

The body was wide and long, and rested on very easy-going springs and looked much like an omnibus, only the driver's seat was on the inside, and it had doors upon the sides as well as on the ends. The framework was very light, the sides were of sheet iron and the roof of canvas. The front end was closed with doors that had windows in them and small holes through which the driver passed his lines. In this may he could see his team and drive it while inside the coach. Over the front doors on the outside were the words "TURN OUT FOR U. S. MAIL." On a rod that ran across the back end of the coach were hung three large dinner bells that would chord though pitched on different keys. While he was jogging about the town picking up his passengers, he would let them dangle and jingle with the motion of the coach. When he wanted to call a passenger he rang them violently, but after he was loaded and on the road, he would turn the rod so that the tongues of the bells would rest on one side and then they made no noise. The windows were of thin plates of mica or isinglass, that would open by turning up to the roof inside. Outside the windows were canvas curtains that in winter could be drawn down close to keep out the cold, and in summer were set out so as to make an awning to keep out the sun.

There were side seats as in an omnibus, but where the side doors came the seats turned up against the door when not in use, and swung back and forth with it. When he had a large number of passengers all the side seats were used and he had camp chairs in the middle, so he could carry twenty people. Usually the side seats were not needed, and he had four seats that ran across the coach between the side seats; they had spring backs and would accommodate two persons each. Then the side seats were turned into nice little cribs where the poor tired mothers could lay babies or put their parcels.

The floor was grated, and under it was a charcoal furnace with a small stovepipe going out beneath the coach on the side. This kept the feet nice and warm. In the front part of the coach there were wire cloth pockets on the sides, in which he carried illustrated papers, clothes brush, comb, pencil and almanac. He also carried a thermometer, a clock, and a large music box. I think he had a mirror so you could see to fix your hair or cravat. I was told that in summer he carried ice water, but you had to furnish your own toothbrush, washbowl and towel or do without them.

In one place was a notice "Errands five cents," and he had a great many to do. He drove a fine span of large white horses, because they could bear the hot sun better than black ones. He was very careful of them and had a little room in the barn for each, and a little yard so that they could run out and in whenever they pleased. He always spoke very politely to them. When he had picked up his load he would get inside, pull off his boots and put on his slippers, and taking

erness. His pathway to success in business affairs was not strewn with flowery beds of ease and constant success by any means. He had his trials and failures. His unquestioned integrity, his close attention and devotion to duties, his practical common sense, judgment, his honorable business methods, his straightfarward, manly unassuming ways; his genial, cordial, friendly disposition, inspired universal respect and confidence and enabled him in the end to triumph over all failures and reverses not only for himself but for others with whom he became associated in business enterprises.

Mr. Goodyear was intensely patriotic. He loved his country and gloried in the progress and prosperity of the state and nation. On the fourth day of July, 1876 he delivered an oration in this city which contained much of the early history of Barry County. It is filled with patriotic devotion to country, and evidences his love and respect for the government and pride in its advancement. Let me quote: “A government like this, wisely and prudently conducted, must always commend itself to the favorable support and sympathy of an intelligent people, and such a government we have today to commend to your care and guardianship. Will you, my fellow citizens, prove equal to the task? Well may you all rejoice that your own beautiful Peninsular State is a star in the bright and glorious constellation of this Union. The great work of preparing our state for its present prominent and responsible position in the Union required on the part of the early pioneer a will that knew no bending, bravery and firmness that nobody endured the test of want and loneliness, sacrifice that searched every recess of the heart, but withal did not depress the spirit, for above and over them there ever shone a hope that buoyed them in the daily toil of their forest bound homes." Who could describe their conditions better than he? "Then all, far and near, were neighbors, and all stood on a level socially. No caste, no codfish aristocracy, no dividing into classes and into upper and lower crusts. All alike were poor, and as a rule young, with the race of life before them, full of hope and ambition. They all commenced at the same starting point; how they severally have reached the goal is now known of all men. It is enough for me

his lines would say, "Now, girls, we are ready; go along." Indeed I was told that his horses knew what he said as well as his wife and children did, and minded him a great deal better. If every man should always speak to his wife as pleasantly as Jim Kenney did to his horses, there would not be so many divorces wanted.

When the coach was fairly started he would hand you an illustrated paper to read and set his music box going, and what more could any stage driver do for the comfort of his passengers than Jim Kenney did for his?

The Hastings Banner, July 27, 1911, records the death of the last surviving stage driver of that county, William Burroughs, of Johnstown, aged eighty-one years. His and Hiram Merrill's route ran from Hastings to Battle Creek in the early fifties.

to know that the great majority of them have nobly and valiantly stood their ground, and by their industry and Herculean labor hewn their way through the forests to now happy and contented homes."

In speaking of the roads and homes as they then existed he said: "Each settlement, and sometimes several of them, would combine to make trails, for such they were. These trails were made to avoid hills and swamps as much as possible, hence were crooked, running at all points of the compass. The consequence was we had to travel much farther than now to reach a given point. The pioneer's home (if it may be called a home) was generally but a rude structure, and in many instances made without nails, using wooden pegs where nails are now used. The floor of the cabin was made of rived shakes, and adzed as smooth as could be done with that tool. The roof was made of long shakes and sometimes of hollow logs split in two parts, inserted and held down by large logs running the whole length of the roof. But rude and uncouth as those dwellings appeared they generally sheltered kind and hospitable people. The latch string always hung out."

Continuing he says: "In 1840 this country contained one thousand two hundred inhabitants, and, strange to say Yankee Springs, with her extensive hills and plains of sand, then contained more inhabitants than Hastings, Rutland, Irving, Hope and Baltimore combined."12

It would seem fitting before bringing this paper to a close that some mention should be made of the last survivor of those who were here in the city when Mr. Goodyear commenced his life work in Hastings.

Mrs. Willard Hayes13 came here in 1837 with her father, Daniel Mc-. Clellan and still is with us a girl of seventeen summers then. Her paper written in 1894 giving reminiscences of Pioneer days in Hastings ought to be read by every one who has a desire to know of the early history of this city. It can be found in volume twenty-six of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections. Her description of the trip from New York to Hastings is filled with interesting incidents. Leav ing Yankee Springs1 for the county seat she says: "We expected to find quite a town, something like those through which we had passed, so when we met a man, uncle asked him how far it was to the center and he said, 'you are right in the city.' We asked for the building and he said, 'can't you see that shanty through the woods there? This was the home of Slocum Bunker."

In politics Mr. Goodyear was an ardent, pronounced and consistent Democrat. He never changed his faith although he did not always agree

12In 1839 there were sixty-one voters in Hastings.

13Mrs. Willard Hayes died March 7, 1911. See Vol. XXVI, p. 235, this series. "Calvin Lewis was the first settler at Yankee Springs. His father, William Lewis-called "Yankee Bill Lewis"-soon followed, arriving August 26, 1836. See Mich. Pion, and Hist. Colls., Vol. XXX, p. 289.

He believed

with a portion of his party on the money question. the principles of democracy were best calculated to promote the country's good. He was never offensive in the advocacy of his politics, but considerate and respectful always. There is a personal incident connected with his early life I must not omit. Growing out of the fact that he was a druggist and had been schooled to an extent in the use of medicines and kept a stock on hand in his general stock of merchandise he was called "Doctor" by many pioneers. It was the wish of his family that he write a history of his early life and pioneer days in Hastings and especially the part acted by himself in those stirring days. He started such a history and I have here the first page written by him. The history was never finished but it will be of interest to know how he commenced it. The doctor he refers to was Henry A. Goodyear.

"In the very early forties there was a certain young man with us, who to a limited extent became one of the little society here. He was dubbed doctor for some reason, still all the while disavowed being a doctor, notwithstanding his repeated disavowals the name clung to him. This young man was of a retiring disposition, modest to the verge of timidity. This feature in his character was taken advantage of by his companions hence become the butt of their witticism. This kind of treatment however did not deter him in pursuing the even tenor of his ways. Posing as a sort of Artemus Ward he permitted himself to be regarded as a 'tender foot.'" The paper ends here. It is to be regretted he never finished it. Those of us who knew the diginified Henry A. Goodyear can hardly conceive of conditions when he should he regarded as a "tender foot."

On Sunday morning, May 5, 1901, he died. The legislature was in session at the time, and the Journals of the House and Senate of May 7, 1901, show concurrent resolutions of the regard tendered the last surviving member of the Representatives of 1845 and of the State Senate of 1852.