The Biography of William C. Goodridge
(Photo courtesy of York County Heritage Trust)
William C. Goodridge was born on December 23rd, 1806 in Baltimore, Maryland. His mother was a slave, whose true name is not known, but may have been Emily or Mary. The name of his father is also not known, but it is suspected that he was white. He lived in Baltimore with his mother and her master until he was five years old. That year, 1811, Goodridge was indentured out to the Reverend Michael Dunn of York, Pennsylvania. Dunn owned a leather tanning business and would train Goodridge in the trade of tanning as well as provide his religious education. According to this arrangement, when William turned 21, he would be provided with a Bible, a suit, and most importantly, his freedom. The fact that William, a slave, was put onto a path that would provide him with a trade and his freedom at such a young age, lends credit to the theory that his father was a white man. Whoever he was, he clearly wanted better things for his child than to live as a slave in Maryland.
Goodridge’s indenture ended prematurely in 1822 due to the failure of Dunn’s tannery. However, he was still given his freedom. He promptly moved to Marietta, Pennsylvania where he became a barber. He eventually returned to York in 1824 and worked for a barber named Israel Williams. In less than a year Goodridge bought Williams out and opened his own shop. Around this time he met Evalina Wallace of Baltimore. They married in 1827. Throughout her life, Evalina would be both William’s wife and his business partner.
Beginning with his barber shop, Goodridge expanded into numerous other business ventures. He and Evalina began selling small items such as jewelry, candies, and cosmetics out of his shop. In 1840 he briefly opened a barber shop on Seventh Street in Philadelphia, though this did not last long. He purchased the house on Philadelphia Street in York in 1827 for $1,000. It is also important to note that in the 1830s Goodridge owned a slave. This may seem strange given his activities with the Underground Railroad, but at this time it was not uncommon for freedmen in the North to purchase relatives and friends from the south to secure their freedom. Some would also buy slaves from the south and free them once they worked off the cost. Nothing is known about Goodridge’s slave so we have no way of knowing what their relationship was.
Despite owning a slave, Goodridge did help numerous others escape. He is said to have used the cars from his rail freight service to transport runaway slaves to Philadelphia, as well as providing them refuge in York. These cars are believed to have been used to transport two runaways to the home of William Parker in Christiana shortly before the Christiana Riot in 1851. He is also believed to have aided in the escape of Osborne Perry Anderson, one of John Brown’s lieutenants, shortly after the disastrous raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859.
Evalina died in 1852, leaving Goodridge to run his businesses on his own. Unfortunately, without his longtime partner, his success could not be maintained. His business holdings collapsed in 1857 and all of his real estate holdings, including the house on Philadelphia Street, were sold to settle his debts. He continued to occupy some of these buildings on a rental basis for several years, and continued to operate his barber shop. He even stayed in business during the Confederate invasion of 1863. He continued to operate his shop until 1864 when he sold it to a German immigrant named John Adam Gardner. By 1864 Goodridge was engaged in an effort to have his son Glenalvin pardoned on a rape conviction. Glenalvin promised that if pardoned he would leave the state. This and the fact that many of Goodridge’s children had already moved to the Midwest finally forced him to pull up stakes. In 1865 he and Glenalvin traveled to East Saginaw, Michigan. Eventually he moved in with his daughter Emily in Minneapolis. He spent the rest of his life there and died at the age of 66 in 1873.