Biographies
from
The History of Otsego County, New York
1740-1878
D. Hamilton Hurd
Published by Everts & Fariss, Philadelphia
GOODYEAR, Jared - Milford
Jared GOODYEAR was a lineal descendant of Stephen Goodyear,
first lieut.-governor of the colony of New Haven, Conn.
Of the early history of the Goodyear family very little is known,
except that the father of the subject of this memoir, Jared Goodyear,
with his family, together with the FILLMORE family, emigrated from
Connecticut, and settled in Cayuga county, N.Y., about the year 1800,
coming the entire distance with ox-teams. Jared Goodyear and Millard
Fillmore were schoolmates together in a log school-house in that county.
After five years the Goodyears removed to Albany county, and there
kept a hotel on the western turnpike. Jared, at the age of fourteen,
leaving the hotel where he had helped his father, opened a little store
at the same place, the goods being furnished him by a merchant of
Albany. In this business his capacity for trade and business so began
to develop itself, that from that time forward, during his minority, he
assumed the duties of one much older in years, and thus laid the
foundation for early business tack and shrewdness. After a few
years the family moved to Cobleskill, where his father bought a farm
and remained until his death, about the year 1850; having been born
near New Haven, Conn., April 26, 1797. Jared was the eldest son,
and we next find him buying and droving cattle, and in this business
he is most successful; but when passing through Colliersville, Otsego
County, becomes acquainted with one who was to become the sharer
of his happiness and fortune, or misfortune, through life.
Among the most enterprising and honored of the pioneer families
which have added materially to the growth and prosperity of the
town of Milford, as well as to the county of Otsego, is that of the
Goodyear family, represented by Jared Goodyear, who was born
in Schoharie county, July 24, 1792, and became a resident of
Otsego County, locating at Colliersville about the year 1822, at the
time of his marriage.
The direct cause assigned for his settling at Colliersville was his
marriage to Miss Eliza Ann, only daughter of Major Peter COLLIER,
who was the son of Isaac Collier, the first settler of that place, and
who had come there during or about the close of the Revolutionary
war. Soon after his marriage Mr. Goodyear formed a partnership
with his father-in-law, and their business was thereafter conducted
under the firm name of Collier & Goodyear, till the partnership was
dissolved by the death of Major Collier, in 1846.
This firm - and after its dissolution, Mr. Goodyear - were not
only frugal and industrious in their manner of life, but they also had
the sagacity to foresee that the rapid development of this, their new
country, would necessarily increase the value of real estate, and they
therefore invested their gradual accumulations in such property; and
the event has justified their anticipations, as the increase in the
value
of their purchases, and their success, was such that Mr. Goodyear,
at the time of his death, Oct. 24, 1874, left behind him in their
combined property the largest estate ever accumulated in the county
of Otsego.
And while Mr. Goodyear was thus active and enterprising for
himself, he was at the same time a useful and valued citizen, and
maintained the respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens.
Those who had a disposition to help themselves, requiring
assistance, could always rely upon him for aid; and many business
men in the vicinity where he lived were often greatly indebted to him
for favors that released them from temporary embarrassment, which
might otherwise have been to them utterly disastrous.
He was one of the most active and efficient supporters of the
great work in connecting the Susquehanna river with the Hudson by
railroad, and during the long, arduous, and doubtful struggle to raise
means to build that, which is now regarded as one of the most
important thoroughfares of the State, Mr. Goodyear gave to the
enterprise such aid, pecuniary and otherwise, that but for him, his
then fellow-directors say, "it would have failed and been abandoned."
In connection with his other business, Mr. Goodyear carried
on banking at Schoharie, in company with his brother Charles, for
several years.
Although his whole mind seemed intent on business, he did not
shrink from bearing public burdens when so required by his fellow-
citizens, yet he was in no way solicitous of office. He was the first
postmaster of Colliersville, and held the office from about 1825 to
1865.
By those who knew Mr. Goodyear he is said to have been a self-reliant,
resolute, and active man, possessed of great powers of endurance of
body, a man of strict integrity, and for several years represented the
town as supervisor. In politics Mr. Goodyear was a Democrat;
although in this respect as unswerving member of his party, yet not
in any sense of the term a professional politician.
Mr. and Mrs. Goodyear lived together for over fifty years, the
latter surviving the former only some four years, and dying March
30, 1878; having been born at Colliersville, May 1, 1803.
Mrs. Goodyear was a woman of great prudence, industry, and
economy, possessed of rare intellectual attainments, and well versed
in the current reading of the day, in the national politics, and
conversant with the best authors. She was sociable and kind to her many
friends, a lady of remarkable decision of character, of courage and
patience, and for the last thirty or more years preceding her death she
was an invalid, but bore her bodily misfortune with singular and
pleasing patience.
To Mr. and Mrs. Goodyear was born one daughter, Alvira Collier,
wife of Sylvester LYMAN, a native of Pittsfield, Mass., but now a
resident of Cooperstown. They have one daughter, Ella, who desires
to place in the history of Otsego County the portraits of her
grandfather and grandmother, and short sketches of their lives, in
honor to them for their many virtues, and as representative men
and women of the pioneers spared to live to old age.--
Excerpt from History of Otsego Co., NY, between pages 196 and 197