In the late 19th century, his brother and he were highly successful in harvesting timber from formerly isolated areas of Pennsylvania and New York.

Elected to the United States Congress in 1876, Lockwood resigned the office of district attorney in the autumn of 1877, and Governor Lucius Robinson appointed Goodyear as DA to fill the unexpired term until January 1, 1878.

[4] They bought up large tracts of timberland that were considered inaccessible for harvest, because the lands were isolated and away from the streams that were typically used to transport logs.

Between 1901 and 1905, the brothers moved South, purchasing 300,000 acres of virgin yellow pine timberland in southeastern Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi, near the southern end of the Pearl River.

[7] In 1902, the brothers chartered the Great Southern Lumber Company in Pennsylvania,[8] establishing their offices in the Ellicott Square Building in downtown Buffalo.

It was designed and built from the ground up, to include hotels, classes of housing, churches, schools, YMCA and YWCA, and similar services.

[1] Frank Goodyear did not live to see the Bogalusa sawmill completed, dying in 1907 of Bright's disease, shortly before the Panic of 1907.

He appointed William H. Sullivan as the general manager of the Great Southern Lumber Company and town boss of Bogalusa.

At various points in his career, Goodyear was president of: Goodyear Lumber Co., Buffalo & Susquehanna Coal and Coke Co., Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad, Great Southern Lumber Company, and the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad Company; and director of the Marine National Bank, and General Railway Signal.

He was widely considered instrumental in Cleveland receiving the nomination for President of the United States while Governor of New York.