[2] Goldsmith subsequently came west, working for a time in California as a stevedore before starting his own jewelry store.

[2] These commercial ventures proved successful until by the time he was elected mayor in 1869, Goldsmith was the 8th richest resident of Portland and was regarded as the "most prosperous Jew in Oregon.

"[4] He was a Democrat before the Civil War, then shifted to the Republican party in opposition to slavery and in support of Abraham Lincoln, following the national pattern.

Goldsmith was the driving force behind the building of locks to navigate around the Willamette River falls across from Oregon City, which allowed boats to travel from the Pacific Ocean to Eugene, Oregon, cutting the cost of shipping Willamette Valley goods to Portland by half.

Goldsmith's term of office has been memorialized as "one of the more successful in Portland history" by Oregon historian E. Kimbark MacColl.