Genealogical and Family History
of the
STATE OF MAINE

Compiled under the editorial supervision of George Thomas Little, A. M., Litt. D.

LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
New York
1909.

[Please see Index page for full citation.]

[Transcribed by Coralynn Brown]

[Many families included in these genealogical records had their beginnings in Massachusetts.]

GOUDY The family of Goudy has existed in Maine for nearly two centuries, as records show, but there is no evidence that it was represented in America in very early colonial times. Men of this name did good service in the revolutionary war, and later generations have maintained a high reputation for industry and probity. The name is variously spelled in old records Gody, Goody, Gowdey. (I) Amos Goudy, the first of the name of whom there is a record, lived in Old York, Maine, and moved from there and settled on the eastern bank of the Damariscotta river opposite Pleasant Cove. He was the first of this name in Lincoln county. He was extensively engaged in farming and lumbering and built and operated a sawmill long known as Goudy's Mill. He was drowned near his home and buried on the hillside on his farm. The name of his wife is thought to have been Mercy Clark. They had two sons, Amos and John, who survived the father. In the Lincoln probate records is the following: "Amos Goudy or Goudey, late of Harrington, now Bristol, Mercy Goudy of Harrington, widow, administratrix, 21 May 1765." "Mercy, guardian to Bette, minor daughter, 18 Sept. 1765." Inventory 16 July, 1765, 420 pounds. Account filed 28 Sept. 1765. (II) Amos (2), son of Amos (1) and Mercy (Clark) Goudy, born in Bristol, Oct., 1744, died June 22, 1824, aged eighty. "He was a man of much intelligence and firmness," was sheriff of Lincoln county in 1788, and probably before, and in the performance of his official duty hanged John O'Neil, who was convicted of murder, about 1788. This was the first execution in Lincoln county. Amos Goudy, of Bristol, was a member of the committee of correspondence, inspection and safety in 1776-79-81. "The Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War" contains this record: "Amos Gowdey, second lieutenant, Matross company, Col. James's (Third Lincoln county) regiment of Massachsetts Militia; list of officers; commissioned May 23, 1780." Amos Goudy married Sarah Clark, b. in 1745, died in 1834, aged eighty-nine. (III) Amos (3), son of Amos (2) and Sarah (Clark) Goudy, resided and died in Bristol, where he was engaged in farming. He married Rebecca Church. Children: sons: Albert, Alden and Edwin, and daughters: Nancy Jane, Harriet, Diana and Almira. (IV) Alden, second son of Amos (3) and Rebecca (Church) Goudy, born in Bristol, March 22, 1821, died in Westbrook, 1897, aged seventy-six years. He acquired his educaiton in the public schools and Lincoln Academy, and in early manhood taught school. Subsequently he became a merchant and for a long time dealt in dry goods in Boothbay. He afterward became a commercial traveler for a Portland firm. Still later he lived in Thomaston and conducted a boot and shoe and gentlemen's furnishing store for eleven years. He then removed to Westbrook, where he carried on the same kind of business until the end of his life. He was from the early days of the party a Republican, and while a resident of Boothbay was a member of the board of selectmen and also member of the legislature. He was a man of very upright character and a strong temperance man, having been a member of one of the first temperance organizations ever formed in Maine. He married, in Woolwich, Maine, Feb. 4, 1848, Augusta P. Soule, daughter of David F. and Elizabeth Soule. Children: 1. Lewis A., see forward. 2. and [trans note, and what?!] 3. Hattie and Lizzie, died young. 4. Frank, born in Boothbay, resides in New York, where he is engaged in business; he married Nellie Pike, of Portland, by whom he has two children: John P. and Genevieve. 5. Harriet B., living in Portland, Maine. 6. Edward L., died at twelve years of age. (V) Lewis Alden, child of Alden and Augusta P. (Soule) Goudy, was born in Woolwich, Sagadahoc county, Maine, June 10, 1849. He attended the public schools of Boothbay and Bath, where he obtained a practical education. At the age of seventeen years he became an employee of the Maine Central railroad at Bath. At nineteen years of age he went to Portland and became an accountant for the wholesale house of Waldron & True, and from 1869 to 1881 was confidential clerk for the same firm. In 1881 he became a partner with W. C. Cobb in the biscuit and general bakery business, and subsequently added the manufacuturing of confectionery, and conducted a business employing one hundred and fifty hands. In 1886 he took Edward W. Kent as a partner, and the business was carried on under the firm name of Goudy & Kent. In Sept., 1892, the factory was burned, and the next year it was rebuilt. Mr. Kent retired from the firm in 1891, and in 1893 the business was incorporated as Goudy & Kent, and so continued until the retirement of Mr. Goudy in 1898 and later it was sold to the National Biscuit Company. Mr. Goudy was later the president and general manager of the Northeastern (Automatic) Telephone Company. The extension of its lines and efficiency of its service attest the quality of Mr. Goudy's management of the business of the company. He is a man of much candor and energy, and a fellow townsman of his recently remarked, "It is a pity there are not more like him." He has been connected with various enterprises for the promotion of the business interests of the city, and was for some time vice-president of the Board of Trade, and has always been a member of its important committees and always interested in its welfare. He was the original inspirer of the State Board of Trade. He has always been a Republican from the time of attaining his majority, but casts his vote independent of party affiliation. He has served as a member of the city government of Portland 1899 to 1901, and took an active part in securing electric lighting for the city, and the installation of the Automatic Secret Service System of Telephone which has been installed in some of the other cities in Maine. He was largely instrumental in securing the public ownership of the water supply of Portland after one of the most sharply contested campaigns in the history of the city. He is president of the Northeasten Concrete Paving and Construction Company of Portland. He was for a time an overseer of the poor, and before the war with Spain was active in sending supplies to the suffering reconcentrados in Cuba. He is a member of Ancient Landmark Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Mount Vernon Royal Arch Chapter, Portland Council, Royal and Select Masters, and Portland Commandery, Knights Templar. Also a member of Beacon Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, an unaffiliated member of Ivanhoe Lodge, Knights of Pythias, formerly a member of the Portland Club, the Young Men's Republican Club, and is a life member of the Maine Charitable Mechanics' Association. His country home is on a valuable farm of three hundred acres or more, eight miles from Portland, known as (Black strap) Mt. Independence, one of the msot delightful locations in the state of Maine. Mr. Goudy married in Portland, Feb. 5, 1873, Annie J. Ayers, born in Portland Sept. 23, 1852, daughter of Joseph and Harriet (Beal) Ayers, of Portland. Mrs. Goudy, her mother, and her daughers have all won reputations as cultured vocalists and musicians. Children: Annie Louise, married George Megrew, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and has daughter, Jane Shelley, and son, Alden Frick. Isabel Augusta, married George W. Merrow, of Bethel, Maine. Ellen Chase. Alice Dinsdale.