William C Goodridge

William C. Goodridge was born enslaved in Baltimore, Maryland. Eventually he became a prominent businessman in York, Pennsylvania and an activist on the Underground Railroad.

William C. Goodridge was born to an enslaved African American mother in Baltimore, Maryland in 1806. It is not known who his father was, but it is generally assumed he was a white man. In 1811 he was indentured to the Reverend Michael Dunn who operated a tannery in York. Goodridge received his freedom in 1822 when Dunn went bankrupt. Goodridge then moved to York, Pennsylvania, where he opened his own barber shop.

In 1827, he married Evalina Wallace who also became his business partner. The two had seven children, five of which survived to adulthood.

Goodridge then opened an employment agency, began to invest in commercial and residential real estate, and in 1842 opened his own freight service, the “Reliance Line of Burthen Cars” on the railroad line between York and Philadelphia. Cementing his position in York, he in 1847 built Centre Hall, a five-story commercial property in the center of town.

The same year they were married, the Goodridges moved into a well-built brick home along Philadelphia Street and William lived there until the mid-1860s. The couple quickly expanded their barber business to include the sale of various items, to include a baldness cure known as Oil of Celsus. Goodridge then opened a freight service, the Reliance Line, in 1842 which operated primarily between York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. In 1847 he built the tallest building in York, Centre Hall, a five-story commercial property located in central York. Goodridge operated an employment agency from Centre Hall and rented out space to various businesses, to include a tavern and York’s first newspaper, The Democrat. One of Goodridge’s sons also operated a photography studio within Centre Hall.

As a mixed race businessman in a town and state where many vehemently opposed the abolition movement, Goodridge kept a low profile, especially after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 made aiding escaped slaves a federal crime, so we will never know the extent of his activities. His name, however, is associated with two major events in the struggle against slavery.

In the aftermath of the Christiana riot in neighboring Lancaster County, some of the black men who had participating in that deadly firefight made the first leg of their trip north to safety in Canada concealed in a special freight car of Goodridge’s Reliance Line. In the aftermath of John Brown’s failed raid on the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry in October 1859, Osborne Perry Anderson, one of Brown’s trusted lieutenants, fled to York, where Goodridge arranged his safe passage by railroad to Philadelphia.

By 1856, Goodridge owned 12 properties in York and was one of the wealthiest African Americans in south central Pennsylvania. However, things began to go awry after his wife died in 1852 and most of his properties were sold at auction after he went bankrupt just prior to the start of the Civil War. Goodridge remained a barber in York until 1864 when he moved to East Saginaw, Michigan to live with family. He then moved on to Minneapolis to live with his daughter, Emily, where he died in 1873 at age 66.

In 1998, the Goodridge home in York became one of the first Underground Railroad sites designated by the National Park Service as a National Historic Landmark. There the Goodridge Freedom House and Underground Railroad Museum is working towards opening a museum in his honor.

Until recently, the only known image of William C. Goodridge, was a grainy one published in a York newspaper in 1907.

In September of 2015, an original ambrotype believed to be of Goodridge was sold on ebay. The photograph, which is not marked, is small but clear.

The buyer, Robert Davis of Sacramento, contacted Carol Kauffman at the Crispus Attucks Association in York to share his discovery. The association had been working on the restoration of the Goodridge Freedom House & Underground Railroad Museum in York for several years.

"It's an amazing picture for the time," Kauffman said.

Davis loaned that photograph as well as three tintypes of Goodridge's descendants to the Crispus Attucks Association for a reception that took place in 2015 in honor of William C. Goodridge. The event was held at the York railroad station. It was also part of a fundraiser for the renovation of his former home in York.

Sources: Enterprising Images: The Goodridge Brothers, African American Photographers, 1847-1922 by John Vincent Jezierski; Michigan Historical Museum; York Daily Record, Teresa Boeckel (staff writer); theclio