Bradley Goodyear

Major Bradley Goodyear
Born	(1885-10-18)October 18, 1885 Buffalo, New York
Died	February 6, 1959(1959-02-06) (aged 73) Cooperstown, New York
Education	Nichols School The Hill School
Alma mater	Yale University Harvard Law School
Spouse	Jeanette Bissell ​ ​ (m. 1910)​
Children	4
Parent(s)	Charles W. Goodyear Ella Portia Conger
Relatives	Anson Goodyear (brother)

Major Bradley Goodyear (October 18, 1885 – February 6, 1959) was an American lawyer, soldier, and member of the Goodyear family of New York.

Early life

Bradley and his siblings

Goodyear was born on October 18, 1885, in Buffalo, New York.[1] He was the youngest son of Charles W. Goodyear and Ella Portia (née Conger) Goodyear (1853–1940).[2] His eldest brother Anson Goodyear was a prominent art collector.[3] His sister, Esther Permelia Goodyear, married Arnold Brooks Watson.[4] Another brother was Charles Waterhouse Goodyear II (who married Grace Rumsey, sister of Charles Cary Rumsey, and after their divorce, Marion Spaulding).[5]

The family lived at 888 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo, which was built in 1903 for the Goodyears by architect E.B. Green of Green & Wicks. His father was a close friend of President Grover Cleveland. He attended the Nichols School and graduated from the Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He received a bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1907 and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1910 where he served on the editorial board of the Harvard Law Review.[1]

Career

Goodyear began practicing law with Kenefick, Cook, Mitchell & Bass before becoming a partner in the firm of O'Brien, Hamlin & Goodyear with John Lord O'Brian and Chauncey J. Hamlin. Upon the outbreak of World War I, the firm was dissolved when the partners joined the war effort.[1]

After World War I, he returned to Buffalo where he formed a law practice with Maj. Gen. William J. Donovan and Frank G. Raichie known as Donovan, Goodyear & Raichie.[1] Reportedly, Goodyear retired from his law practice in c. 1923 when his partner Donovan, who was then also the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York, had his agents raid Buffalo's private Saturn Club (of which both men were members and which Goodyear was a Dean of) and confiscated large amounts of illegal liquor.[6]

Military service

During the War, Goodyear went overseas with the 106th Field Artillery, with whom he had earlier served in the Mexican Border campaign. During the War, he fought in France during the Battle of Verdun and by the Wars end, had advanced to the rank of Major and was the commanding officer of his regiment.[1]

Personal life

In 1910, Goodyear was married to Jeanette Bissell (1886–1983), a daughter of Arthur D. Bissell and Frances "Fanny" (née Castle) Bissell.[7] The Goodyears lived on Bryant Street and, later, on Delaware Avenue near Bryant. He was a member of the Buffalo Tennis and Squash Club, the Country Club of Buffalo, and the Cooperstown Country Club.[1] Together, they were the parents of:

• Bradley Goodyear Jr. (1911–1942), who married Suzanne Robinson; he was killed in the U.S. Navy Air Corps during World War II.[8][9]
• John Goodyear (1912–1964),[10] a U.S. career diplomat in Turkey who married Julia Halls Owsley, a daughter of John Ebsworth Owsley, in 1937.[11]
• Frances "Fanny" Goodyear (1914–1975), who married Prince Ludwig "Louis" Della Torre e Tasso, son of Prince Alessandro, 1st Duke of Castel Duino in 1939.[12] They divorced in 1948 and she married Daniel Barton Streeter, son of Daniel Willard Streeter, in 1949.[13]
• Thomas Goodyear (1917–1992), a founder of the Glimmerglass Opera.[14]

Goodyear spent most of his last three decades at his country home in Springfield Center near Cooperstown, New York, known as Cary Mede, which they bought in 1920.[14] Goodyear died at Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown on February 6, 1959.[15] He was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo.[1] His widow died in 1983.[7]

References

1. "Bradley Goodyear, Buffalo Lawyer, Dies in Cooperstown". The Buffalo News. 6 February 1959. p. 5. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
2. LaChiusa, Chuck. "Ella Portia Conger Goodyear and Her Children". buffaloah.com. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
3. "A. Conger Goodyear, 86, Dies; Co-Founder of Modern Museum; Industrialist Was a Collector of Paintings and Served as Major General in War" (PDF). The New York Times. April 24, 1964. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
4. "Thursday's Events". Buffalo Courier. January 17, 1910. p. 5. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
5. "Charles W. Goodyear". The Philadelphia Inquirer. June 24, 1967. p. 18. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
6. Waller 2011, pp. 36–38.
7. "Jeanette Bissell Goodyear". Buffalo Courier. September 24, 1925. p. 12. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
8. "Estate of Ensign Goodyear Is Left to His Widow". The Buffalo News. 26 February 1942. p. 1. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
9. "Ensign Bradley Goodyear, Jr". www.uwgoldstarhonorroll.org. UW Gold Star Honor Roll. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
10. "JOHN GOODYEAR, 51, OF FOREIGN SERVICE". The New York Times. 25 June 1964. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
11. TIMES, Special to THE NEW YORK (14 September 1937). "MISS JULIA OWSLEY WILL BE WED OCT. 2; Daughter of Former Football Coach at Yale to Be Bride of John Goodyear SISTER WILL ATTEND HER Nuptials to Be in Greenwood, Va.-She Is Granddaughter of Late Railroad Executive". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
12. "FANNY GOODYEAR WED TO PRINCE ON JUNE 10". The New York Times. June 23, 1939. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
13. "Princeton Alumni Weekly". Princeton Alumni Weekly. 1 January 1948. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
14. "Thomas Goodyear, benefactor of opera". The Buffalo News. 9 January 1992. p. 13. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
15. "Deaths -- GOODYEAR". The New York Times. 7 February 1959. Retrieved 17 January 2023.