William Goddard, the son of Charlotte Rhoda Ives and William Giles Goddard, was born in Warwick, RI on December 25, 1825. His mother hailed from the
prominent Ives family of Providence and was part of the second generation of partners at the firm of Brown and Ives. His father was a well-known writer and professor at
Brown University. William attended public school as a child before entering Brown University. After graduating in 1846, William occupied his time by
traveling and involving himself in various businesses, particularly the manufacturing and mercantile trades. He acted as a courier during theRevolutions of 1848 in Europe, “ carrying secret dispatches from Paris to Rome
.” Goddard returned to Providence to study law at Brown University in the early 1850s, though he never practiced law afterwards. Instead, he and his
brother Thomas established Goddard Brothers, working as agents for the textile mills owned by their uncles, the partners of Brown and Ives.
Goddard volunteered in the Civil War as an aide-de-camp to Governor William Sprague, and later to General Ambrose E. Burnside. He held the rank of Colonel
in Battery A of the First Rhode Island Light Artillery. William fought in a number of significant battles during the course of the war, most notably
participating in the Battle of Bull Run, where he was commended for gallantry, and the Battle of Fredericksburg. Two of Goddard’s brothers, Moses Brown
Ives Goddard and Robert Hale Ives Goddard, also fought for the Union during the war, as did his cousin Robert Hale Ives, Jr., who was killed in the Battle of
Antietam (and is also featured on this tour).
On September 19, 1861, Goddard was appointed as one of a handful of members for a new Military Central Committee, which worked to improve the organization
of the troops. Just over a year later, on December 11, 1862, he received his promotion to Major. He left military service shortly thereafter so he did not
fight with his former unit at Gettysburg the following summer.
After leaving the Army, he returned to his life and business in Rhode Island. Though his most notable residence was a farm at Potowomut Neck in Warwick, RI
called “Hopelands,” he also held property of the same name in South Carolina, as well as a home in Providence now used by Brown University to house the
Maddock Alumni Center. William continued to oversee Goddard Brothers, and later took over management of Brown and Ives as well. In 1875, he became the president of the
Providence National Bank. This position was unpaid but prestigious, and he continued to hold it for the remainder of his life. The $100 “Brown Back” notes issued by the bank in 1882 bear his
signature.
In 1888, William Goddard became the tenth Chancellor of Brown University, another
position he would hold until death. He served as president of the music organization known as the Arion Club, as president of the Hope Club, and was a
founding member of the Narragansett Yacht Club. His philanthropy included support
of St. John’s Episcopal Church, where he and other family members donated
a window in memory of his parents, and Butler Hospital
. William Goddard passed away on September 20, 1907. His obituary was posted in the New York Times
that evening, and he was laid to rest in Providence’s North Burial Ground. His headstone was engraved with a verse from Psalms: “The righteous shall be in
everlasting remembrance.”
Katelyn St. George, student, Rhode Island College, and Erik Christiansen, PhD
Further Reading
Spicer, William A. History of the Ninth and Tenth Regiments Rhode Island Volunteers, and the Tenth Rhode Island Battery, in the Union Army in 1862. 1892.