Compiled by Russell Bastedo
State Curator
1998

David H. Goodell (1889-1891). Born Hillsborough; Antrim manufacturer. In state politics from 1863.

David Goodell (1834-1915) was the only child of a farming couple who moved to Antrim (NH) when the boy was age seven (1841). Mr. Goodell attended academies in Hancock, New Hampton, and Francestown (NH), graduating at age eighteen (1852). He then attended Brown University, but withdrew because of illness in his sophomore year.

Returning to Antrim, Goodell became an agent of the Antrim Shovel Company, then invented and manufactured the "lightning apple parer". This device became the nucleus of the Goodell Company which manufactured table cutlery, seed-sowers, and fruit and vegetable parers. Goodell lived on the family farm where he experimented with scientific advances in farming. Later in life he became president of the Oak Park Association and trustee of the New England Agricultural Society. A Prohibitionist, he served as president of the New Hampshire State Temperance Union and as president of the New Hampshire Anti-Saloon League.

Goodell began life as a Democrat, but in 1863 he joined the Republicans. He was a state representative (1876/9), member of the State Board of Agriculture (1876/83), and member of the Governor's Council (1883/5). In 1888 he received the Republican Party nomination for governor with the support of the Prohibition Party. The popular vote was extremely close, however, with Democrat Charles Amsden losing by fewer than six hundred votes. The legislature then chose Goodell to be governor.

Governor Goodell tried to enforce the law prohibiting open sale of liquor; and he recommended that state manufacture, as well as sale, of intoxicants be prohibited. There were also serious problems with the railroads. The Concord RR and the Boston & Maine RR divided up the state into mutually exclusive territories, and the reduction of rail service was a clear possibility. In response to the crisis, a new board of banking commissioners was made permanent by the legislature, and a special legislative session was called (December 2, 1889) to determine how small towns would be represented on this board. The board of banking commissioners now was seen as a brake on the railroads' wishes to cut service because of the close financial ties of railroads and banks.

Location: State House, Second Floor
Portrait by U.D. Tenney, 1890; Presented by Governor Goodell