The Goodell/Goodale Family Papers, 1750-1905
Biographical Note
The Goodell/Goodales were an important family in the history of both Amherst and Belchertown. Moses Goodell (1777-1854) and his wife Susanna Pettingill Goodell (1778-1848) had eleven children, several of whom had fascinating careers outside of this area. Ira Chaffee Goodell (1800-1877) moved to New York City where he became a well-known artist in oils. Nathaniel Dudley Goodell (1814-1890) and his brother Noble Thomas (1806-1862) ventured through the Isthmus of Panama to seek their fortunes in the California gold fields. Nathaniel remained in California, settling in Sacramento, and became one of the premier architects of that fledgling city. The remainder of the children lived and worked in Belchertown and Amherst for many years.Note: The variant spelling of the name is not unusual for the period. Both forms are used interchangeably by all members of the family, sometimes in the same document.
Scope and Contents
The Goodell/Goodale Family Papers consist of some 630 items, including account books, deeds, letters and other papers. Of particular interest is the correspondence of Ira Chaffee Goodell with his family, which describes his work as an artist in New York in the nineteenth century. His account book fills in many details of that work. Nathaniel Dudley Goodell's letters to his brothers Ira and Asahel and his father Moses describe his journeys through the jungles of Panama and life in California during and after the gold rush of 1849. The large collection of deeds delineates land transaction patterns of an established family in Belchertown and Amherst. The collection is important not only for the papers of Goodells who left western Massachusetts, but also for the light shed on the area and its life in the nineteenth century.Related Materials
"Sacramento and the Gold Rush", a 1937 essay by Keith P. Pattengill based on the Goodell Family Papers.Maps-World-1822: A large world map created by Ira Goodell in 1822, housed in the Map Case.
Pansy Park folder in the Manuscript Collection.
Bound collection of L. W. Goodell’s seed catalogs from 1876-1904 can be found in Special Collections under MASS.TOWNS/Belchertown.
See the 19th and 20th-century Newspaper Indexes in the Special Collections Reading Room for articles on Pansy Park and members of the Goodell/Goodale Family.
Collection Inventory
| Box | Folder | Title/Description | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Goodell, Angelo – Correspondence – Calendar [Angelo (b. circa 1842) was the son of Ira Chafee Goodell.] | |
| 1 | 2 | Goodell, Angelo – Correspondence | 1849-1863 |
| 1 | 3 | Goodell, Angelo – Correspondence | 1864-1871 |
| 1 | 4 | Goodell, Angelo – Correspondence | Undated |
| 1 | 5 | Goodell, Asahel – Account Books [Asahel (1810-1900) was the fifth son of Moses and Susannah.] | 1837-1843 |
| 1 | 6 | Goodell, Asahel – Account Book | 1842-1854 |
| 1 | 7 | Goodell, Asahel – Deeds | 1836-1870 (not inclusive) |
| 1 | 8 | Goodell, Asahel – Papers Personal papers | 1834-1899 (not inclusive) |
| 1 | 9 | Goodell, Asahel – Receipts | 1837-1888 (not inclusive) |
| 1 | 10 | Goodell, Ella C. – Deed [Ella was the wife of Wesley M. Goodell, son of Asahel.] | 1896 August 21 |
| 1 | 11 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Account Book [Ira Chaffee (1800-1877) was the eldest son of Moses.] | 3 July 1819 – 26 April 1873 |
| 2 | 1 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Art Three photographs of paintings attributed to Ira Chaffee Goodell owned by the Stone House Museum in Belchertown. | |
| 2 | 2 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Biography Two copies of an article by Suzanne and Michael Payne in Antiques & Fine Art Magazine. | 2015 Autumn |
| 2 | 3 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Correspondence – Calendar | |
| 2 | 4 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Correspondence | 1822-1832 |
| 2 | 5 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Correspondence | 1836-1837 |
| 2 | 6 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Correspondence | 1838 |
| 2 | 7 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Correspondence | 1839 |
| 2 | 8 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Correspondence | 1840 |
| 2 | 9 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Correspondence | 1841 |
| 2 | 10 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Correspondence | 1842-1843 |
| 2 | 11 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Correspondence | 1844-1845 |
| 2 | 12 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Correspondence | 1846-1848 |
| 2 | 13 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Correspondence | 1849-1854 |
| 2 | 14 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Correspondence | 1855-1856 |
| 3 | 1 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Correspondence | 1870-1872 |
| 3 | 2 | Goodell, Ira Chaffee – Correspondence | 1874-1875 |
| 3 | 3 | Goodell, L. W. – Flowers Pictures of Pansy Park, news clippings, seed catalog | |
| 3 | 4 | Goodell, Moses – Correspondence – Calendar | |
| 3 | 5 | Goodell, Moses – Correspondence | 1813-1839 |
| 3 | 6 | Goodell, Moses – Correspondence | 1840-1854 |
| 3 | 7 | Goodell, Moses – Deeds | 1799, 1815, 1822, 1829, 1849 |
| 3 | 8 | Goodell, Moses – Deeds | 1822-1852 (not inclusive) |
| 3 | 9 | Goodell, Moses – Will | 1853 |
| 3 | 10 | Goodell, Nathaniel – Deeds [Nathaniel (1740-1814) was the father of Moses.] | 1764-1798 (not inclusive) |
| 3 | 11 | Goodell, Nathaniel Dudley – Biography Various papers and one news article about N. D. Goodell. [Nathaniel Dudley (1814-1890) was the sixth son of Moses.] | 1974, 1984 |
| 3 | 12 | Goodell, Nathaniel Dudley – Buildings, East Coast Information about buildings that Goodell was involved with, primarily the Otis Company mill buildings in Ware, Mass. | |
| 3 | 13 | Goodell, Nathaniel Dudley – Buildings, West Coast Information about various buildings in California that Goodell designed. | |
| Oversize | Goodell, Nathaniel Dudley – Elevation | ||
| 3 | 14 | Goodell, Nathaniel Dudley – Gold Rush Paper written by Michael J. O’Hara | 1979 February 7 |
| 3 | 15 | Goodell, Nathaniel Dudley – Insolvency Appears to be a notice of the third meeting of the creditors of N. D. Goodell. | 1847 July 3 |
| 3 | 16 | Goodell, Nathaniel Dudley – Sgromo Masters’ thesis by Vito Joseph Sgromo about the houses and building designed by Goodell. | 1987 Summer |
| 3 | 17 | Goodell, Newton F. W. – Correspondence [Newton (1822-1840) was the youngest child of Moses.] | 1840 |
| 3 | 18 | Goodell, Newton F. W. – Matrimony Eight sheets, headed “Matrimony versus Celibacy, spoken in the Brick School house, Logtown, Mass.” | 1840 January 28 |
| 3 | 19 | Goodell, Robert – Deed (Copy) [Robert (1601-1682) came to America in 1634, and was the 3rd-great-grandfather of Moses.] | 1666 January 6 |
| 3 | 20 | Goodell Family – Biography Paper titled “Culture and Community: The Worlds of Ira and Asahel Goodell – A Middle-Class Family in Transition, 1820-1860”, written for an AC history class. | 1985 December 18 |
| 3 | 21 | Goodell Family – Clippings | |
| 3 | 22 | Goodell/Goodale Family – Correspondence – Calendar | |
| 3 | 23 | Goodell/Goodale Family – Correspondence | 1836-1854 |
| 3 | 24 | Goodell/Goodale Family – Correspondence | 1865-1905, undated |
| 3 | 25 | Goodell/Goodale Family – Genealogy Pieces of information about various family members | |
| 3 | 26 | Goodell/Goodale Family – Miscellaneous |