Goodrich graduated from Yale University in 1812, studied theology and was ordained in 1816 and became pastor of the 1st Congregational Church in Worcester, Massachusetts.
In 1820 he moved to Berlin, Connecticut, and in 1848 to Hartford, where he held a pastorate.
Goodrich was associated with his brother Samuel (who published as Peter Parley) in writing books for the young.
He was the author of several books: View of Religions (1829); Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of independence (1829); History of the United States of America (1822); Family Tourist (1848); Family Sabbath-Day Miscellany (1855); Geography of the Chief Places mentioned in the Bible (1855); Greek Grammar (1855); Child's History of the United States (1855); Bible History of Prayer (1855); Great Events of American History; Outlines of Geography; and Universal Traveller.
[citation needed] The phrase was published in an article called "Neatness" which Goodrich published in The Ohio Repository (Canton, Ohio), in December 1827.