Born: September 13, 1780
Died: April 9, 1870
Married:Lucinda Bement Goodspeed
Children: Elias Goodspeed, Nathaniel Goodspeed, Lucinda Goodspeed Brooks, Harriot Goodspeed Willson,
Elias Goodspeed was an early settler of the Town of St. Armand. He served as Clerk of Assessors for the Town of St. Armand in 1847. An item in the Elizabethtown Post and Gazette from December 13, 1883, shows that he was paid $4 as "auditor and pathmaster." He is buried in the Goodspeed Cemetery.
History of the Goodspeed Family, p. 211
Elias (232) was fairly well educated and well posted. In his early manhood he taught school and learned surveying, pursuing the latter occupation to no little extent after going to New York. His principal business was manufacturing iron. In August, 1816, Elias (232) "of Hawley, blacksmith," for the sum of $100, sold to Thomas Shepard a small tract in Hawley [Massachusetts]. He sold other tracts there in 1817, 1821 and 1824. In 1825 he sold to William Sanford a tract in Hawley adjoining land formerly owned by Nathaniel his father. Selina (532) witnessed this instrument. In 1826 he and his wife sold a tract adjoining land formerly owned by Nathaniel. He moved to St. Armand, Essex County, N. Y. in 1829, going into almost an unbroken wilderness. He followed farming as well as blacksmithing, served as justice of the peace, and seems to have mastered enough law to practice informally before justices of the peace. He was the first supervisor of the town, He possessed more than ordinary ability and led an exemplary life. He served in the War of 1812. He enlisted under the Act of War July 5, 1813, and was commissioned second lieutenant Sept. 1, 1813, in the Fortieth U. S. Infty. under Col. Joseph Loring, Jr.
In June, 1832, Nathaniel Jr. (534) and Polly A. his wife, for $500, sold to Ephraim Baker a tract in Hawley; this was probably the homestead which he had purchased from his grandfather in 1829. In 1833 he moved to St. Armand, N. Y., spent his life at hard work in the deep woods, reared a large family to lives of usefulness and honor, possessed the respect of all who knew him and finally died of paralysis in 1888, after fifty-four years spent in that locality.
Plattsburgh Sentinel, January 8, 1892
The Goodspeed Burying Ground.
FRANKLIN FALLS, N. Y., Jan. 4,1892. W. LANSING & SON:—In your last issue of the Plattsburgh SENTINEL, the article about the “Goodspeed Burying Ground,” should have said there was six grandsons of Elias Goodspeed served in the late war. Augustus and Wallace Goodspeed in the 17th Vt. Vols. John M. Willson and Erastus Goodspeed in the 118th N. Y. Vols., besides the two spoken of before. --A SUBSCRIBER.
