The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Illustrations
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Part I: Family Life and Early Background
• Chapter 1: An American Family
• Chapter 2: Origins
• Chapter 3: Youth and Experience
• Chapter 4: Initiation Into Politics
• Chapter 5: The Early Years, 1894–1900
• Chapter 6: Entering the Business World
• Chapter 7: The Early Years, 1901–1916
• Part II: James P. Goodrich the Consummate Politician
• Chapter 8: The Political Years
• Chapter 9: The 1916 Campaign
• Chapter 10: Years As Governor, 1917–1921
• Chapter 11: The Middle Years, 1916–1923
• Chapter 12: The Great Russian Famine, 1921–1923
• Chapter 13: Emissary to Russia
• Chapter 14: Return to Russia, 1925
• Part III: Businessmen With the Midas Touch
• Chapter 15: The 1920s
• Chapter 16: The 1930s
• Chapter 17: Companies! Companies! Companies!
• Chapter 18: Ayrshire Collieries Corporation
• Chapter 19: The Ecologist
• Chapter 20: The Later Years, 1940–1960
• Chapter 21: The Later Years, 1960–1973
• Part IV: Pierre F. Goodrich Crusader and Philosopher
• Chapter 22: Associations and Causes
• Chapter 23: Wabash College
• Chapter 24: The Mont Pelerin Society
• Chapter 25: A Scholar’s Life
• Chapter 26: Education In a Free Society
• Chapter 27: Moral, Political, and Metaphysical Beliefs
• Chapter 28: Why Liberty?
• Chapter 29: Liberty Fund, Inc.
• Part V: The Goodriches Assayed
• Chapter 30: Who Was Pierre F. Goodrich?
• Chapter 31: Defining Influences
• Chapter 32: Why Did They Work So Hard? Work, Ideas, Citizenship, and Virtue
• Chapter 33: Epilogue
• Appendixes

Chapter 16

The 1930s

In september 1937, James Goodrich lay in a Baltimore bed at Johns Hopkins Hospital suffering from an irregular heartbeat. The condition was so serious that he would be bedridden for the next several weeks. He had suffered a heart attack in June, causing him to cancel a planned extensive tour of the Soviet Union that summer. He had hoped to study the industrial progress the Great Bear had made under Stalin since his last trip in 1925. After his release, he began giving more time to his philanthropic interests, particularly educational and religious institutions. Two of his larger gifts were to Wabash College: $150,000 for the construction of a much-needed science hall and $113,000 to establish scholarships for advanced studies in honor of a former president of the college. He also contributed more than $90,000 to Hanover College, part of which was to help endow a chair in musical education.1

Goodrich’s illness brought him face-to-face with his own mortality and also resulted in a de facto change in the chain of command. Pierre was now in control of the family’s financial empire. Pierre did, however, receive weekly letters from his father while James was recuperating at Johns Hopkins. The letters offered Pierre advice and encouragement regarding many of the decisions he had to make: when to sell what stocks, what loans should be made and for how much and under what conditions, recommendations on how to cut operating expenses, and so forth.2

At the time, there were many successful family-run businesses in central Indiana: the five Ball brothers (glass) and the Kitselmans (wire and steel) in Muncie; the Irwin and Miller families (diesel engines and banking) of Columbus; and, of course, the Lilly family of Indianapolis (pharmaceuticals). But Pierre Goodrich had no need to look beyond the mentoring of his own father and four uncles to obtain most of the knowledge and cunning that would make him a highly successful businessman. Other family-run companies might have been larger, but few, if any, families in the Midwest had their fingers in so many corporate pies. By the late 1930s, the Goodriches had already established themselves as a financial powerhouse in banking and securities, commodities, newspapers, transportation, and public utilities. They would add others.

Everyone in the family was a partner in the dynasty. William Wallace, the youngest Goodrich brother, graduated from Winchester High School in 1889. He then attended Wabash College briefly before studying electrical engineering at the Armour Institute in Chicago. In the early 1890s, he returned to Indiana and got his start in the hay and grain business in New Castle, where he stayed and operated a gas company. He returned to Winchester and operated the Rock Oil Company and, for a time, the Union Heat, Light and Power Company, the utility that provided Union City and Portland with natural gas. When Union Heat was sold in the 1920s, William became the manager of the Indiana-Ohio Public Service Company, an electric utility, until it was sold in 1927. He then became associated with the Peoples Loan and Trust Company in Winchester, where he remained until he retired. William passed away in November 1948.3

With his second wife, Louise Gordon, William Wallace had two children: Elizabeth and Perce. Elizabeth “Betty” Goodrich Terry was born in 1906. She married Phillip Terry in September 1939. The couple lived in Indianapolis for twenty-five years until Phillip’s death in 1967, at which time Elizabeth returned to her hometown. Elizabeth had no children. She continues to reside in Winchester.

Perce Gordon “Bud” Goodrich grew up in Winchester and graduated from Wabash College in 1930. He was successful in the business world in his own right, serving as president and director of the Indiana Telephone Corporation; the Public Telephone Corporation in Greensburg, Indiana; and the Peoples Loan and Trust Company. Perce would serve as an officer and director of several of the Goodrich company boards over the years, including that of Engineers Incorporated. Perce was also president of his own companies in Portland, Indiana—the Portland Service Company, Inc., and the Portland Insurance Company—as well as a co-owner of several other businesses.

From his first marriage to Gaynel Graber, Perce had a daughter, Elizabeth Putnam Orrill, who lives in Madison, Indiana. From his second marriage to Frances Ann Hawkins in December 1939, Perce had two other children: Janice Gordon Goodrich Gerson, who resides in Zionsville, Indiana, and John Baldwin Goodrich, who owns and manages a plating company in Portland, Indiana. John Baldwin also serves as a director of the Peoples Loan and Trust Bank and is on the Portland school board. Perce Goodrich passed away in September 1996.4

John “Jay” Goodrich, the middle brother, oversaw the operation of seven large farms in Randolph and Jay counties. He had started out in 1884 buying and shipping hay, but in 1888 he went into partnership with Percy in the hardware and furniture business. In 1891, he sold his interest in the business to his brother Ed and again became involved in the hay business. He became president of the Goodrich Brothers Hay and Grain Company in January 1898, when the company was formed. By the time of Jay’s death, Goodrich Brothers owned approximately twenty-four grain elevators throughout central and northern Indiana. At times, there were as many as 150 railroad cars waiting to be loaded at the Goodrich Brothers’ huge grain elevator on the north edge of Winchester. Although he was a very successful farmer, a costly hobby nearly caused Jay to be alienated from the family. Shortly after the turn of the century, Jay became active breeding, training, and racing trotting and pacing horses. He eventually became destitute from the wealthy-man’s sport, since his horses were perennial bridesmaids. Finally, the other four Goodrich brothers paid off Jay’s debts on the condition that he forgo any further association with the sport.5

Jay’s marriage to Charlotte Martin resulted in the birth of two sons: John Baldwin, who was born in the same year as Pierre, 1894; and James, who was born in 1897 but died four years later. After attending Wabash College for one year (1912), John Baldwin worked for Peoples Loan and Trust Company. He then served in the United States military, fighting in France during World War I. On his return, he became secretary and later manager of the insurance department of the Peoples Investment and Guaranty Company. He later obtained the sole interest in the Peoples Investment and Guaranty Company and changed its name to Standard Securities. John’s only marriage was to Helen C. Cummins in 1964, when he was nearly seventy years old. The couple had no children together. John B. Goodrich is perhaps best remembered as a generous benefactor to Wabash College, the First Presbyterian Church of Winchester, Goodrich Park, and the American Legion Post in Winchester.6

Edward Goodrich, the second-youngest of the original five Goodrich brothers, was born the day that Ulysses Grant was elected president for the second time in 1871. In January 1911, he became a director of the Randolph County Bank, the local competitor of his brother James’s Peoples Loan and Trust Company. Two years later, he was named vice-president, and in 1918 he ascended to the presidency of the financial institution. Ed would remain president of the Randolph County Bank until his death in 1953. Beginning in 1912, he also managed the local electrical and water company, Citizens Heat, Light and Power. Ed Goodrich held this position until 1926, when Citizens was sold. In 1922, Ed became chairman of the board of the Railway Service and Supply Company in Indianapolis. Ed was perhaps the most competitive of all the Goodrich brothers. Moreover, he was the one most likely to disagree with James on business decisions.

If James was impulsive and quick to react, Ed was just the opposite—cautious, guarded, refusing to make a decision until he absolutely had to. Handsome and big, Ed was known as “King Ed” because of his imposing presence. He was so conservative that legend has it that he would refuse to tell someone the time when asked for fear of getting it wrong.7 Ed’s marriage to Elizabeth Neff resulted in one child, Florence, who was born on May 12, 1897. She married Francis Dunn, originally from Marion, Indiana, in November 1921. Florence and Francis Dunn had two sons: Wesley, a retired psychologist, lives in Florida; Edward, once a jewelry manufacturer in Elwood, Indiana, is now retired and resides in Indianapolis. Before her death in 1994, Florence contributed approximately $1 million to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and another $1 million to Butler University in Indianapolis.8

Percy, the oldest brother, was born in 1861. He operated the coal business in Winchester and worked as secretary and manager of the Goodrich Brothers Hay and Grain Company. The power for the electric company was generated locally by burning coal and fuel oil. Percy had been president of the National Hay and Grain Association in the 1920s and 1930s; vice-president and director of the family investment company, Engineers Incorporated; and a founding investor of the Eastern Indiana Telephone Company, the Rock Oil Company, and several other early family businesses. Percy was also a director of the Grain Dealers National Mutual Fire Insurance Company in Indianapolis for thirty-three years, serving as vice-president of the company from 1929 to 1935 and chairman of the board from 1947 to 1951. During the early years of the twentieth century, operators of country grain elevators had difficulty obtaining insurance coverage, because of the high incidence of explosions caused by grain dust. The only insurance they were able to obtain was from East Coast insurers at extremely high premiums. Therefore, a group of Hoosier grain owners formed the Grain Dealers National Mutual Fire Insurance Company. The company eventually wrote policies in states throughout the country.9 Despite two marriages, Percy had no children.

Thus, by the 1930s the family held a substantial interest in many of the core businesses in east-central Indiana:

James Goodrich’s business interests extended into coal, railroads, and oil refining. The family also owned a water company and an ice-delivery business, and sold farm machinery.10 Thus, it is evident that the Goodrich financial dynasty was truly a family empire, built by the hard work of all five original brothers.

Besides their varied business interests, the Goodriches were active in other endeavors throughout the community. They seemed to be omnipresent in their hometown. Ed served as president of the Winchester school board, and James had been a board member in the 1890s and early 1900s. Ed was also a leader and benefactor of the local Masonic lodge. John and William Wallace took on leadership positions in the Presbyterian Church, and William was a charter and lifelong member of the Elks Lodge of New Castle, Indiana. Cora and the brothers’ mother, Elizabeth, were active in the local library association and stalwart members of the Presbyterian Church. Percy and James were charter members of the Winchester Rotary Club in 1919, and James was a founding library board member. It seemed to some people that there was not much that went on in the local community that the Goodriches were not involved with in some way.

Their influence also extended beyond their local community. Percy Goodrich, for instance, was a family historian and a generous philanthropist. Percy’s foremost interest, like James’s, was education. What James Goodrich was to Wabash College as a valued trustee and benefactor, Percy was to Hanover College of Indiana. Although he never attended college, Percy was a member of the Hanover College Board of Trustees from 1921 until his death in 1951. During that time, he served for eighteen years as president of the board (1930 to 1948). When he passed away, his widow, Ethyl, served on the board of trustees until her retirement in 1967. The beautiful southern Indiana campus, nestled on a mountainside overlooking the Ohio River, held a certain charm for Percy. Percy’s first wife, Susan, died in 1932. In February 1940, when he married Ethyl Jones Kuhner, he insisted that the small, simple ceremony be held in the Hanover chapel, officiated by Hanover’s president. Percy devoted much of his free time and most of his resources to Hanover: He endowed chairs in speech and business administration (the Elizabeth Edger Goodrich Chair of Public Speaking and the Goodrich Professorship of Business Administration) and four student scholarships. The Goodrich Science Building on campus is named for Percy. He contributed nearly $500,000 to Hanover during his lifetime, and on the death of Ethyl in 1970, the remainder of his estate, in excess of $1,500,000, devolved to Hanover.11

From 1947 to 1950, Percy wrote a weekly newsletter entitled Down in Indiana. Mailed to a select group of thirty members of the National Grain Dealers Association, the newsletter contained ramblings and reminiscences about family, friends, and events that Percy had experienced during his nearly ninety years of life.12 A year before Percy’s death, Percy and Calvin Goodrich, a first cousin to the five Goodrich brothers, wrote a history of the Goodrich family’s early years.13 James had traveled with Percy to Virginia in the late 1930s to complete some of the research for the family history. Percy, like his brother James, was an ardent Republican. He greatly admired Abraham Lincoln, co-founding and serving as president of the Randolph County Lincoln Club in 1932. For the next twenty-five years, the Lincoln Club held annual meetings in Winchester, where speakers included United States senators and representatives, governors, and other political and military leaders. Percy also gathered an impressive collection of books and articles about Lincoln during his lifetime, which was donated to the Winchester Public Library at his death.14

In temperament and personality, Pierre was probably more like his uncles Percy and Ed than like his own father. Percy and Ed were also shrewd businessmen, not least because they had ability to keep their employees’ noses to the grindstone. Gene Comer, a Winchester resident, worked for Percy Goodrich as a young man fresh out of high school. His employer’s attitude prompted Comer to write the following poem when he was just eighteen years old and give it to his boss:

• ELEVATOR
• • I remember the times that we have sat
  • And listened to the boss.
  • About the ways of management,
  • About profit and loss.
  • “And if you want your bonus,”
  • He would always say,
  • “See that the lights above your desk
  • Are off throughout the day.”
• • We come to work at half-past seven,
  • So early in the morn.
  • We work and slave throughout the day
  • Hauling in the corn.
  • He says, “Do this,” he says, “Do that,”
  • At least nine hours a day.
  • And we pray for five o’clock,
  • For then he goes away.
• • They tell us life is pleasant.
  • They tell us life is great.
  • Some day perhaps we’ll find this out,
  • But how long do we have to wait?
  • Down with the tyrant, down with the boss,
  • Down with the Goodrich Feed,
  • And to hell with his “Profit and Loss.”
  • I hope it goes to seed.15

“A lot of people were down on the Goodriches as businessmen,” said Ivan Barr, who worked for the Goodrich Brothers Company and its successor from 1946 to 1968. “I think a lot of it was because of their success. They were considered crooked. That’s very unfair and very unjust, because they were honest,” Barr stated. “If you were found as an employee cheating on the scales [weighing grain or coal] in the Goodriches’ favor, you were fired immediately,” Barr stated. “They wouldn’t tolerate that. So I found they were criticized very unjustly because of the fact, I think, that they were so successful.”16

Not every local resident that remembers the Goodrich family in the 1930s and 1940s is as charitable as Barr. In east-central Indiana, the Goodrich brothers were often viewed as predators, ravenous in seizing every opportunity to gobble up utilities, banks, grain elevators, and farms whenever such businesses became available at low prices. Moreover, many disgruntled workers complained about the low wages the Goodriches paid.17 It was well and good, many complained, that the Goodriches gave away tremendous sums to educational institutions such as Wabash and Hanover. If you were the breadwinner responsible for raising a family, however, that knowledge little compensated for low pay.

Another reason for grumblings about the Goodrich brothers’ business prowess was the timing of their success. Their prosperity as a family became particularly conspicuous during the late 1920s and 1930s, when other families were struggling for their very survival. The Great Depression was especially tough on the farm community. Many farm families were losing their properties and their way of living. From 1921 to 1928, the United States agricultural population decreased by three million farmers. Nearly every family had to contend with unemployment and meager times. In 1927, the annual income of all 6.3 million farmers in the country averaged only $548. It only became worse when the Great Depression hit two years later. By 1932, twelve million Americans were unemployed and five thousand banks had failed.18

Moreover, the perception (and to a large degree the reality) was that the Goodrich family had a monopoly in many area businesses. Winchester resident Ralph Owens rented a farm from John “Jay” Goodrich in the 1920s. He believes that the Goodrich brothers could drive a hard bargain with the local farmers because they owned all the grain elevators within the geographical area. They were by far the largest grain dealers in Indiana. “You were forced to buy and sell from the Goodrich brothers,” said Owens. “There were no other elevators [under different ownership] doing business.”19

But some stories about the Goodrich brothers’ supposed exploitations bordered on the ridiculous. For instance, one longtime Winchester attorney remembers a childhood rumor about James Goodrich’s alleged exploitation of the Russian famine relief effort for his own private gain. The story held that the former governor successfully raised $10 million from private sources, contributed only $2 million to the starving Russian children, and pocketed the rest.20 Another rumor was that the Goodrich brothers had intentionally decreased the gas pressure on a wellhead. They then allegedly bought the gas well for a pittance when the owner believed it was going dry.21 It is true that the Goodrich brothers bought almost all their businesses at extremely depressed prices, but there is no evidence that they did anything illegal. The Depression had brought about many bankruptcies and receiverships. Invariably, almost every corporation the Goodriches took over in the 1930s, as will be seen, was bought for well below previous market prices.22

During the 1930s, James Goodrich strongly opposed President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s economic remedies for the sorry state of the country. He believed that Roosevelt’s New Deal programs of intervention in business would make matters only worse. In 1936, Goodrich wrote to Frank Litschert, his longtime secretary: “This whole New Deal is about to go to smash. . . . Roosevelt and the whole outfit are mad, charging everyone who fails to agree with them, with bad faith.”23

Goodrich especially ridiculed the high salaries that he saw postal workers receive and the subsidies extended to the farm community. He believed that cutting federal spending, not increasing it, was the only way to restore the nation to prosperity. He had written in 1933 to Herbert Hoover, who had been out of the White House for nine months: “Had we been permitted to go on without Government interference, while we might have had the wage increase that follows every recovery, yet with increasing employment and accelerated demand for goods and a gradual improvement in farm prices already under way, our situation would have been vastly better, in my opinion, than it is at this time.”24

Interestingly, less than two months after he had written to Hoover condemning Roosevelt’s domestic policies, Goodrich wrote to Roosevelt, praising him for his foreign policy in granting recognition to the Soviet Union:

Roosevelt acknowledged Goodrich’s letter, thanking him for his support and advice. It would seem that that was the only issue on which Goodrich ever agreed with the longtime president.25

In June 1936, Goodrich attended the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, serving as a member of the platform committee. At the time, he still had hopes of drafting Hoover for the party nomination. When Hoover refused to seek the position, Goodrich willingly endorsed Governor Alf Landon of Kansas for the nomination. Goodrich was not surprised, however, by Roosevelt’s landslide victory over Landon in November.26 The times were desperate, and the American people had little interest in changing the path toward recovery that the charismatic incumbent promised.

In the spring of 1940, James Goodrich contracted pneumonia and was briefly hospitalized in March and April. He had remained intermittently ill since his hospitalization in Baltimore in the fall of 1937 and had been hospitalized several times since, including a stint at a well-known Battle Creek, Michigan, sanitarium in the spring of 1938.27 Since then, he and Cora had spent the winters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Finally, in May 1940, Goodrich recovered sufficiently to attend the Republican State Convention, where presidential hopeful Wendell Willkie spoke. In June, James Goodrich felt well enough to attend the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. He went to the convention as a delegate from Indiana’s Tenth Congressional District. Goodrich had hoped to see the New York district attorney Thomas E. Dewey (who was just thirty-eight years old) or Ohio Senator Robert Taft receive the Republican presidential nomination. Instead, Willkie won the race.

Goodrich, James Watson, and other Hoosiers were Willkie’s breakfast guests on the day that Willkie garnered the nomination. Watson was also an Indiana delegate to the convention, as he had been to every Republican National Convention since 1912. Willkie and Watson had made up after Watson had criticized Willkie for his previous Democratic Party membership. As Watson had told Willkie when he first learned that Willkie was seeking the Republican presidential nomination, he was glad to have a reformed prostitute (Willkie) in his church (the Republican Party), but he didn’t want him leading the choir the next Sunday.28

The meeting of Watson and Goodrich in Philadelphia marked the last time the two longtime chums and politicians would be together. Although marked by jealousy and often strained, the friendship of these two men had endured a lifetime, no doubt largely because of their mutual passion for Republican politics, conservative values, and public service. Together, Goodrich and Watson had dominated Indiana Republican politics during the first thirty years of the century. “Sunny Jim” Watson, the humorous, backslapping, and scandal-ridden politician, had lost his United States Senate seat in the 1932 Democratic landslide after being considered one of the most powerful and colorful figures on the national political scene. He remained in Washington, D.C., and practiced law until his death in 1948.29

When James Goodrich returned to his hometown after the 1940 Republican National Convention, he experienced a recurrence of “nervous heart.” In late July, he suffered a stroke and became bedridden again. His last political act was to write Willkie on August 10 to offer him encouragement in his national race against Roosevelt. “I do not believe any President has ever, on his inauguration, faced as serious a situation as you will confront next January.”30 On the following day, Goodrich suffered another stroke. Four days later, James Goodrich died, at the age of seventy-six, at the Randolph County Hospital in Winchester, of a cerebral hemorrhage. Cora and Pierre, as well as other family members, were at the former governor’s bedside at the time of his death.

On August 18, James Goodrich’s funeral was held in Winchester. The service was marred by a torrential rainstorm that had traffic in a logjam throughout the streets of the small community. Several hundred people came to pay their final respects: politicians, businessmen, religious leaders, and townspeople who had been the governor’s longtime friends. Some of the most noteworthy were James Watson; Will Hays; the Reverend John F. O’Hara from New York; Will Irwin from Columbus, Indiana; Glen R. Hillis, the 1940 Republican nominee for governor; Archibald Bobbitt, Republican state chairman; and the presidents of Wabash and Hanover colleges. Herbert Hoover and Thomas Dewey sent telegrams conveying their condolences. The Reverend Gustav Papperman, the former minister of the Winchester Presbyterian Church who then served as pastor of the Irving Park Presbyterian Church in Chicago, performed the services. The statehouse flags were lowered to half-staff in remembrance of the state’s twenty-eighth governor.31

With the death of James Goodrich, Pierre lost the most significant person in his life, a father and mentor of exceptional influence. James Goodrich was one of the most accomplished men in modern Indiana history. In public life, his contributions and range of interests are both numerous and laudable: He was Indiana’s highly successful World War I governor (1917–21); Indiana state Republican chairman for nearly a decade (1901–10); Republican national committeeman (1912–16); chairman and member, respectively, of the Indiana and International St. Lawrence Waterways commissions, appointed by President Coolidge (1923–27); lead American Relief Administration investigator of the Soviet Union Famine Relief Commission and special United States envoy to Russia (1921–23), appointed by President Harding; member of the National Public Lands Committee, appointed by President Hoover (1929–30); and trustee of the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Committee.

His civic, educational, and religious contributions were nearly as impressive: trustee of Wabash College (1904–40) and board chairman for sixteen years (1924–40); leadership positions in the Knights of Pythias (a fraternal and charitable society), Knights of Labor, and the National Grange; founding member of the Winchester Volunteer Fire Department (1897) and Winchester Rotary Club (1919);32 trustee of the McCormick Theological Seminary and the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Chicago; Winchester School Board member for fourteen years and founding member of the Winchester Library Board; elder and Sunday school teacher of the Winchester Presbyterian Church for twenty-five years; a thirty-second-degree Mason; and member of numerous other organizations.

As a philanthropist, he had contributed approximately $1 million to charitable causes, particularly favoring private higher education: nearly $400,000 to Wabash College, where he received an honorary master’s degree in 1915 and an honorary doctorate in 1917; large sums to Oakland City College, the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Chicago, Hanover College, where he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1938, and the University of Notre Dame, where he received an honorary LL.D. in 1917 (he had been a very close friend of Notre Dame’s eighth president, Father John W. Cavanaugh). In June 1937, James Goodrich gave twenty-eight acres of parkland to the town of Winchester. This acreage was added to eighty acres that the Goodrich family had previously donated to their hometown. Also in June 1937, James gave $50,000 to beautify the park.33

It was in the business arena that James Goodrich left his greatest legacy to his family. Jim Goodrich’s life was one which Horatio Alger himself would have admired. James and his four brothers had started as youths with little, working as farmhands for pennies an hour. By the end of his life, James had amassed millions and had laid the groundwork for his son to achieve far greater wealth. Pierre would be the biggest beneficiary of his father’s amazing entrepreneurship. He would step into the leadership position of several companies left to him at his father’s death.

The deaths of the original five Goodrich brothers happened over a period of sixteen years: John on November 7, 1937; James on August 15, 1940; William Wallace on November 22, 1948; Percy on August 11, 1951; and Ed on November 21, 1953. The remaining family members—the wives and children of the original five Goodrich brothers—subsequently pooled their individual shares of the various family businesses into a voting trust. They allowed Pierre to exercise virtual control over the trust, delegating to him the authority to make the day-to-day corporate decisions.34 The family members were content to allow Pierre to have such discretionary control because he and his father had a tremendous record of making the right corporate decisions. Moreover, Pierre’s two male cousins—John and Perce—were engaged in successful businesses of their own. They had little time to contribute to the daily decisions of the Indianapolis-based corporations, although they served as board members of many of the companies.

How Pierre operated as a businessman is illuminated by an account given by E. F. Gallahue in his autobiography, Edward’s Odyssey.35 Gallahue became a highly successful entrepreneur in his own right as president of American States Insurance, based in Indianapolis. He shared with Pierre not only the ability to build a business, but also a great yearning to understand human nature. A reader of Sigmund Freud and the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, Gallahue had a lifelong interest in literature, religion, and, especially, matters involving mental health. No doubt this background prevented Gallahue from becoming discouraged when negotiations between Goodrich and him for the sale of the Union Insurance Company continued without result for several months in 1941. Even after several meetings between the two men, a deal had not been struck. Gallahue’s attorneys told their boss that it was foolish for him to pursue the matter with Goodrich any further. But Gallahue did not give up.36 Gallahue recalled how his patience paid off:

Pierre’s methodical, painstaking style of negotiation was totally unlike his father’s. Despite its nontraditional nature, it was a style that almost always proved financially fruitful. The sale of the Union Insurance Company was the first of many successful business deals that Pierre would execute on his own.

[1. ]See “Former Governor Goodrich Gives $150,000 Donation to Wabash College for Building,” Winchester (Ind.) Journal-Herald, November 8, 1937, p. 1, col. 7; O. P. Welborn, secretary-treasurer, the Board of Trustees, “A Statement of the Gifts of James P. Goodrich to Wabash College,” Wabash Bulletin 39 (October 1940), supplement; “Goodrich Grants Hanover $50,000,” Indianapolis Star, December 9, 1937, p. 1, col. 4. In April 1938, the former governor returned to Johns Hopkins Hospital. See “Out of Politics, Goodrich Avers,” Indianapolis Star, April 11, 1938, p. 2, col. 3.

[2. ]Letters between James P. Goodrich and Pierre F. Goodrich, James P. Goodrich Papers, Pierre F. Goodrich folder.

[3. ]“W. W. Goodrich Funeral Services Wednesday at 2,” Winchester (Ind.) News, November 23, 1948, p. 1, col. 7; Richard Wise, “Goodrich Father Was a Public Spirited Citizen,” Winchester (Ind.) News-Gazette, February 19, 1984, p. 1, col. 2.

[4. ]See “Goodrich Dies at 88,” Winchester (Ind.) News, September 4, 1996, p. 1, col. 1; and “‘Bud’ Goodrich, 88, Jay Businessman” (obituary), Muncie (Ind.) Star Press, September 4, 1996, p. 5A, col. 3. Elizabeth Goodrich Terry was born on January 1, 1906. Perce Goodrich was born on August 21, 1908. Perce Goodrich’s holdings and achievements, while not as great as those of his first cousin Pierre, were certainly noteworthy: He was co-owner of the Ramsey Men’s Shop, Portland Office Supply, Quaker Trace Inn, Wayside Furniture Company, and Gulley Ford; director of PLatCo Realty Corporation; and a cofounder of Steed Field Airport in Portland, Indiana.

[5. ]“John B. Goodrich” (obituary), Winchester (Ind.) Journal-Herald, November 8, 1937, p. 1, col. 3; Perce G. Goodrich, interview, November 9, 1992.

[6. ]“John Goodrich Dead at 76,” Winchester (Ind.) News-Gazette, January 7, 1971, p. 2, col. 1.

[7. ]As his brother Percy remembered, Ed would take out his pocket watch, “turn the face toward you so he [wouldn’t] have to make a declaration of time, [and] you [could] look for yourself.” Percy Goodrich, “Ed Goodrich,” Down in Indiana 84 (November 5, 1949), Archives, Indiana Historical Society Library, Indianapolis; Wise, “Goodrich Father Was a Public Spirited Citizen.”

[8. ]Edward Dunn, telephone interview, December 29, 1996.

[9. ]William J. Wood (attorney for the Grain Dealers National Mutual Insurance Company), interview, November 4, 1996.

[10. ]Ivan Barr, telephone interview, March 27, 1993.

[11. ]See “P. E. Goodrich—A Good Trustee,” Bulletin of Hanover College 43 (September 1951), p. 6; Mrs. Albert G. Parker, Jr., “Percy Goodrich Was Our Friend,” Hanover Alumni News 5 (October 1951), p. 3; Katharine McAfee Parker, “In Gratitude for P. E. and Ethyl L. Goodrich,” The Hanoverian 2 (August 1970), pp. 3–7; and “Percy E. Goodrich Leaves Large Trust Fund to Hanover College,” Indianapolis Star, August 24, 1951, p. 14, col. 2. The four student scholarships were the Belle Edger Fund, the Elizabeth Edger Scholarship Fund, the Percy E. Goodrich Fund, and the Susie Engle Goodrich Fund. The science hall at Hanover is named for Percy Goodrich.

[12. ]These “letters” included stories of Percy’s past experiences and short biographies of people Percy knew during his long life. He sent the newsletters to a group of thirty dealers in the National Grain Dealers Association called “The Circle” and to other friends and family members. One collection of the letters is located at the Hanover College Archives, Hanover, Indiana, and another can be found in the library of the Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis.

[13. ]A Great-Grandmother and Her People (Winchester, Ind.: privately printed, 1950).

[14. ]See “Twenty-second Annual Banquet of the Randolph County Lincoln Club” (program in author’s possession), Thursday, February 11, 1954. The function was held at Beeson Clubhouse in Winchester, Indiana. Some of the better-known speakers to address the Lincoln Club were the United States senators William E. Jenner and Homer Capehart of Indiana, Indiana governors Ralph Gates and George N. Craig, and United States congressmen Charles Halleck of Indiana and William Henry Harrison of Wyoming.

[15. ]“Elevator,” Poems and Short Stories of Gene Comer (privately printed, 1992), p. 9.

[16. ]Ivan Barr, telephone interview, March 27, 1993.

[17. ]Ibid.

[18. ]Williams, Current, and Freidel, A History of the United States: Since 1865, pp. 443–45.

[19. ]Ralph Owens, interview, July 7, 1992.

[20. ]John T. Cook, interview, November 9, 1995.

[21. ]George Daly, interview, October 25, 1995.

[22. ]In 1933, for instance, James Goodrich was able to secure a 51 percent interest in City Securities when Dwight Peterson came to him in hopes of avoiding bankruptcy; similarly, the Indiana Telephone Corporation was in bankruptcy when the Goodrich brothers bought it for pennies per share in 1934. Pierre gained a controlling interest in the Ayrshire Collieries when Margaret Mellon had to sell shares in order to pay death taxes as a result of her husband’s death in World War II. The Goodrich family received a 20 percent interest in Central Newspapers when Eugene Pulliam needed capital to buy an Indianapolis radio station. In each situation, James and Pierre Goodrich bought at low prices the interests the Goodrich family gained in each of these companies, but there is no evidence that they obtained the interests through illegal measures. See also chapter 17.

[23. ]Letter from Goodrich to Litschert, January 17, 1936, James P. Goodrich Papers, box 13.

[24. ]Letter from Goodrich to Hoover, September 9, 1933, James P. Goodrich Papers, box 23. See also Rhodes, James P. Goodrich, Indiana’s “Governor Strangelove,” p. 162.

[25. ]Letter from Goodrich to Roosevelt, November 6, 1933, James P. Goodrich Papers, box 23; Rhodes, James P. Goodrich, Indiana’s “Governor Strangelove,” p. 162.

[26. ]Rhodes, James P. Goodrich, Indiana’s “Governor Strangelove,” pp. 163–64.

[27. ]See “Out of Politics, Goodrich Avers,” Indianapolis Star, April 11, 1938, p. 2, col. 3 (reports about Goodrich’s hospital stay at the Battle Creek, Michigan, sanitarium).

[28. ]Willkie’s national campaign headquarters was located in Watson’s adopted hometown of Rushville, Indiana. See “Goodbye to Old Jim” (obituary of James E. Watson), Passing Parade, August 4, 1948, pp. 47–49.

[29. ]Watson’s career in politics rivaled that of Goodrich in every way. Until Lee Hamilton, former United States congressman from Indiana’s Ninth Congressional District, surpassed Watson’s record, Watson had served longer in Congress (thirty years and under eight presidents) than any other representative from Indiana. In addition, he was chairman of the Republican State Convention in 1904, 1912, 1918, 1922, and 1924, and had attended every national Republican convention from 1876, when he was twelve years old, to 1948. In 1943, Watson was honored on his eightieth birthday in Rushville, Indiana, for his years of public service (see “Tribute to the Honorable James E. Watson,” brochure in the author’s possession). A feature article in Atlantic Monthly delivers an excellent portrayal of Watson. See “Senator James E. Watson: The Professional Public Servant,” Atlantic Monthly, February 1932, pp. 183–90. Watson died at the age of eighty-three in Washington, D.C., on July 29, 1948. He was buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery in the nation’s capital.

[30. ]Letter from Goodrich to Willkie, August 10, 1940, James P. Goodrich Papers, box 28; see also Rhodes, James P. Goodrich, Indiana’s “Governor Strangelove,” pp. 166–67.

[31. ]“State, National Dignitaries Hear Goodrich Eulogized at Final Rites,” Indianapolis Star, August 19, 1940, p. 3, col. 6; “Tribute Is Paid to J. P. Goodrich,” Indianapolis Star, August 16, 1940, p. 5, col. 3; “J. P. Goodrich, Former Governor of Indiana, Dead at 76 Years,” Indianapolis News, August 18, 1940, p. 1, col. 6.

[32. ]For a reference to Goodrich as a founding member of the Winchester Volunteer Fire Department, see Winchester City Council Records, bk. 1, ordinance 217. Each volunteer of the department was paid one dollar for each run he made. For a reference to James Goodrich as a founding member of the Winchester Rotary Club, see “Winchester Rotary Club Celebrates 75th Anniversary” (special edition), Winchester (Ind.) News-Gazette, December 2, 1994, p. 6.

[33. ]The sum of $1 million that Goodrich gave away is mentioned in Charles F. Remy’s “Governor Goodrich and Indiana Tax Legislation,” Indiana Magazine of History 43 (March 1947): 41–56, at p. 44.

[34. ]The lives of the Goodrich brothers deserve much more elaboration than space will allow here. For the curious reader, a longer account of each brother can be found in the front-page obituaries of the Winchester newspapers (Journal-Herald and News): Jay, November 6, 1937; James, August 16, 1940; William Wallace, November 23, 1948; Percy, August 12, 1951; and Edward, November 22, 1953. The remaining family members included the surviving wives of the original five Goodrich brothers and their children: James’s wife, Cora (Frist), died on October 30, 1941; Jay’s wife, Charlotte (Martin), died on August 12, 1941; Edward’s wife, Elizabeth (Neff), died on November 3, 1958; William Wallace’s first wife, Charlotte (Moore), died in approximately 1899 in childbirth, and his second wife, Louise, passed away on December 21, 1964; Percy’s first wife, Susie (Engle), died in 1934, and his second wife, Ethyl (Jones Kuhner), passed away on November 12, 1973.

The five original Goodrich brothers and their wives had five surviving children (the five cousins): Jay and Charlotte’s first son, John, was born on March 10, 1894, and passed away on January 6, 1971. He married Helen C. Cummins in 1964, and they had no children, although Helen had a daughter, Suzan Shilling, from an earlier marriage. Jay and Charlotte’s second son, James, was born on September 6, 1897, and passed away on September 10, 1901. James and Cora’s son Pierre was born on September 10, 1894, and passed away on October 25, 1973. Pierre and his first wife, Dorothy Dugan, had one child, Frances, born on October 10, 1921; she resides in Indianapolis. Pierre had no children from his second marriage with Enid Smith (born May 17, 1903; died November 26, 1996). Edward and Elizabeth Neff Goodrich had a daughter, Florence, who was born on May 12, 1897, and passed away on July 15, 1994. Florence married Francis Dunn (born on January 23, 1896; died on February 13, 1976) in 1921, and they had two sons: Wesley, born on December 20, 1922; and Edward, born on October 31, 1925. William Wallace and his second wife, Louise, had two children. Elizabeth (“Betty”), who was born on January 1, 1906, still lives in Winchester. Elizabeth married Phillip Terry (born on January 18, 1896; died in 1967) on September 2, 1939, and they had no children. William Wallace and Louise’s second child, Perce “Bud” Gordon, was born on August 21, 1908, and died on September 3, 1996.

[35. ]Edward’s Odyssey: An Autobiography of Edward Gallahue (New York: Doubleday, 1970), p. 88.

[36. ]Ibid. According to Gallahue, his patience in dealing with Goodrich was partly a result of his realization that it was a good deal for both himself and Pierre, partly a result of his understanding how Goodrich operated, and partly purely sentimental. Gallahue’s first job in the insurance business was with the Union Insurance Company, which paid him fifty dollars a month. It would bring Gallahue great satisfaction if he could now own the company that had given him his first job.

[37. ]Ibid.