William C. Goodridge
[2] Among those whose freedom Goodridge helped secure and retain, were the farmers and one fugitive slave involved in the Christiana Resistance of 1851, where black and white abolitionists killed a Southern slaveholder who was pursuing his property in Christiana, Pennsylvania according to rights granted to him by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
Goodridge also conducted Osborne Perry Anderson, first lieutenant of John Brown, in his escape to Canada following the failed 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry.
His grandmother was owned by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a delegate to the Continental Congress in York, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
The Carroll family sold Goodridge's mother to a physician in Baltimore the year before William was born.
Goodridge manufactured "Oil of Celsus", his own treatment for baldness, which he marketed to barbers in more than a dozen cities, including Philadelphia.
Promotion of it also led to the production of the first glass bottle to have "York, PA" imprinted on it, along with the name Goodridge.
Centre Hall was a five-story commercial property that rented space to a tavern, a band, and York's first newspaper, The Democrat.
Their barbershop and store also moved to Centre Hall, they briefly ran an employment office there, and they rented out rooms on the third floor.
Glenalvin initially studied under a traveling photographer who rented space in their old business center, then established his own practice.
Goodridge is believed to have hidden freedom seekers there, and also in a hideaway under the stairs in Centre Hall, before transporting them East across the Susquehanna River to Columbia or on to Philadelphia.
Goodridge is believed to have helped Parker escape slavery himself in 1840, and they continued to be friends and associates in the intervening decade.
[citation needed] Goodridge also conducted Osborne Perry Anderson along the Underground Railroad following John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859.
[3] Because of the secretive nature of the Underground Railroad, it may never be known how many enslaved people Goodridge conducted along the network to freedom.
He was able to find a new space on Centre Square to rent after that, and even established a second photography studio in Columbia, Pennsylvania, before tragedy struck in 1862.
Though the case was very weak and Glenalvin had an alibi, the father of four was found guilty and sent to prison for 18 months, where he caught tuberculosis.
[2] In January 1868, a fire burned down the house in Saginaw that contained Glenalvin's extensive library and collection of negatives and photographs.
Though the remaining Goodridge brothers were able to rescue some equipment from that fire, which started accidentally at a restaurant down the block, at least 1000 negatives were destroyed.
They built a new studio in 1873, but much of Glenalvin's photographic work, including most any pictures he might have taken of his wife, children, siblings and parents, was lost.
It is possible that the young white woman, gotten pregnant by Wallace, decided to accuse his richer older brother in the hopes of getting some money out of the family.
The Goodridge Freedom Center and Underground Railroad Museum is located there, owned and operated by the Association.
It also shows a barber pole, a rail car, and representations of Goodridge as a baby, a young boy starting his indenture, and a successful free businessman.
[2] Emily wrote a record of her trip to the frontier and settlement there, "The Black Community in Territorial St. Anthony: a Memoir", which was printed in the Minnesota Historical Society Journal in 1984, with a foreword by editor Patricia Harpole.
[11] The story of Emily O. Goodridge Grey's involvement in the freeing of Eliza Winston in Minneapolis in 1860 is featured in several works by William D. Green, vice president of the Minnesota Historical Society governing board.
[12][13] She and her husband are honored as prominent abolitionists by Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, where they and other members of their family were laid to rest.
[16] The research materials used by Jezierski are housed at Saginaw Valley State University's Zahnow Library (Michigan), some of which was included in the award-winning 2014 documentary film Through a Lens Darkly.
