My Genealogy Hound

JACOB M. GOODYEAR was born Nov. 21, 1845, in the eastern part of South Middleton township, on the farm which his great-grandfather, Ludwick Goodyear, bought in 1803. He grew to manhood on his father’s farm and was educated in the country district school. In September, 1864, before he had reached the age of nineteen, he enlisted in Company A, 209th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. The regiment was immediately sent to the front and two weeks after he enrolled as a soldier he was under fire. On the night of the 17th of November, while on duty on the picket line in front of Bermuda Hundred, he was captured and sent to Libby prison, where be celebrated the nineteenth anniversary of his birth. From Libby prison he was transferred to Castle Thunder and thence sent to Salisbury, N. C. where he was kept in prison until the latter part of the following February, when he was sent back to Richmond, where he was again confined in Libby for a short period. In March, 1865, he was exchanged and furloughed home to recruit his health, which had been badly impaired by his prison treatment. He soon afterward returned to the front, but by the time he reached his regiment it was discharged, the war being over. The regiment was mustered out of service at Alexandria, Va., but he received his discharge in Harrisburg.

On returning from the army Mr. Goodyear located in Carlisle, where for two years he engaged in the manufacture of pumps. He then removed to what is now South Dickinson township, where for a period of five years he followed farming, after which he returned to Carlisle and embarked in the lime business, to which he later added a coal-yard. He continued in the lime and coal business until 1894, when he was elected sheriff of Cumberland county as a Democrat, to which party he always belonged, as did his fathers before him. As an official he was uniformly courteous and efficient and discharged the important duties of his high office with general satisfaction. In municipal matters, as well as in the larger field of county affairs, he has been an active factor, and was a member of the Carlisle town council for seven years continuously. Fraternally, he is a member of Carlisle Council, No. 574, Junior Order of United American Mechanics; of True Friends Lodge, No. 56, Knights of Pythias; also a member and past officer of Capt. Colwell Post, No. 201, Grand Army of the Republic.

On Sept. 26, 1867, Jacob M. Goodyear married Ellen C. Miller, a daughter of Squire Levi Miller, of Mt. Holly Springs, and to them the following children have been born: Fisk, Samuel M., William H., Annie, J. Frank, Carrie C., John J., Charles Albert, Norman S. and Norton Miller. Of these Norman is dead.

Of this large family are Fisk Goodyear and Samuel M. Goodyear, the two brothers who comprise the firm whose name heads this historical sketch. Both were born while their parents lived in South Dickinson township, Fisk on June 26, 1868, and Samuel M. on Sept. 13, 1870. After the family removed to Carlisle, and the boys had reached the proper age, they entered the Carlisle public schools, and in them received the principal part of their education, Fisk graduating from the high school in 1886. After leaving the high school he spent one year with a mercantile house in Philadelphia as clerk and bookkeeper. After that for five years he was an employe in various capacities at the Carlisle Indian Training School, resigning to go into business with his brother.

Fisk Goodyear mingles much with the business and social life at Carlisle and is one of the town’s substantial and most esteemed young citizens. He is a past captain of Capt. Beatty Camp, Sons of Veterans, of Carlisle; a past chancellor of True Friends Lodge, No. 56, Knights of Pythias; a member of Lodge No. 91, I. O. O. F.; past master of Cumberland Star Lodge, No. 197, F. & A. M.; a member of St. John’s Chapter, No. 171, R. A. M.; past commander of St. John’s Commandery, No. 8, Knights Templar; a member of the Order of Elks, and of the Rajah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Reading.

On leaving the schools of Carlisle, Samuel M. Goodyear, the other brother, took a course in the Harrisburg Business College. He then secured a position with the Gettysburg & Harrisburg Railroad Company, in its office at Carlisle, which he held for four years, after which he secured a position as stenographer and clerk in the general office of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company, at Harrisburg, where he spent another four years. By this time his father had been elected sheriff and an opportunity arose for him to enter business on his own account. Like his older brother he is an active business and social factor in the community in which he has lived since early childhood. He is a director in the Farmers Trust Company, the heaviest financial institution in the Cumberland Valley; a director in the Hamilton Library Association and Cumberland County Historical Society, and has been a school director of Carlisle for seven consecutive years, six of which he has been secretary of the board. He is prominent in fraternal circles, being a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Masons. In the Masonic fraternity, he has for years represented the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania as deputy for District No. 3, comprised of the counties of Cumberland, Franklin and Fulton. Because of his rank and general good standing he is present at many of the social functions of the fraternity, and consequently has pleasant associations throughout the entire State of Pennsylvania.

On Oct. 10, 1894, Samuel M. Goodyear was married to Edna Grace Weibley, of Carlisle, by Rev. W. Maslin Frysinger, D. D., pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Carlisle. Edna Grace Weibley is a daughter of Edward and Fanny (Haverstick) Weibley, and a granddaughter of Joseph and Margaret (Shrom) Weibley. Fanny Haverstick was a daughter of Benjamin and Lydia (Mylin) Haverstick, who came from Lancaster county, but were long prominent citizens of Silver Spring township, Cumberland county. Both lived to a great age, Mr. Haverstick dying in 1881 at the age of eighty-nine years, and his wife in 1903, at the age of ninety-six. Samuel M. and E. Grace (Weibley) Goodyear have two sons: Jacob Morrett, Jr., born March 16, 1896; and Donald Haverstick, born March 26, 1902. Mrs. Goodyear’s parents and grandparents were Methodists, but both she and her husband belong to the First Lutheran Church of Carlisle, in which Mr. Goodyear holds the position of vestryman.

When Jacob M. Goodyear in 1894 was elected sheriff he transferred his lime, sand and coal business to these two sons, who, doing business under the firm name of Goodyear Brothers, have proved most worthy successors. They are careful, systematic, well-trained business men and have bright prospects of success, for they practice the principles which bring success.