Once in America, the five Goodhind brothers came into the papermaking business within the western Massachusetts counties of Berkshire, Hampshire and Hampden. In the mid-1800s, there was a flourishing trade in paper here, with renowned mills (such as Hurlburt Paper Mill in South Lee and Crane Paper in Dalton) supplying much of the nation's need for fine paper.
Richard Goodhind was a Superintendent at Crane Paper Co. of Dalton for 10 years. Since 1879, Crane Paper has been the sole supplier of the paper used to make US currency.
Counties of Western Massachusetts
On the above map of Massachusetts, blue is the area of Berkshire County; orange colors Hampshire County; green represents Hampden County; and red represents Franklin County.
Within Berkshire County, the Goodhinds lived and worked in the city of Pittsfield and in the towns of Becket, Dalton, Great Barrington (and Housatonic), and Lee. HENRY GOODHIND appears to have been the most sedentary, living most of his life in the village of Housatonic. The hills of Berkshire County are well-known today as a summer vacation spot for the wealthy.
Within Hampshire County, the early Goodhinds worked at papermills and lived in the communities of South Hadley and Huntington. It is in Huntington (today just another small New England town) that James Thomas Goodhind died in an industrial accident in 1880; he and his brother Frederick's family are buried there.
Within Hampden County, they lived and worked in the cities of Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee and in the towns of Chester and Russell. It is interesting to note that while at one time small towns such as Russell and Chester were booming industrial centers, factories have left those areas many years ago, leaving small towns again. As I researched in Russell, for example, I found that these days there are barely 30 births a year there. In the mid- to late 1800s, however, there were page after page of births recorded amongst the mill workers. Many of the workers were English, Irish or German immigrants.
Only one of the Goodhind brothers appears to have ever worked in within Franklin County for a time. JAMES THOMAS GOODHIND did work at one of the papermills in the village of Turners Falls, within the Franklin County town of Montague. He and his wife Mary had their first son born there in 1874. To the east is the large county of Worcester.
You will find town maps in the right sidebar for each of the four counties of western Massachusetts. They may help you to visual the relationships between the various communities mentioned on the website.
