William C. Goodridge

William C. Goodridge (1806 – January 1, 1873) was an American businessman in York, Pennsylvania, in the mid-1800s. He was multiracial and a Black abolitionist and a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Born enslaved, Goodridge and his wife, Evalina Wallace Goodridge, started with a barbershop in 1827 and built a significant estate through diverse investments and enterprises, all of which they put at risk as stationmasters in the Underground Railroad.

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. Both the Christiana Resistance and the raid on Harpers Ferry were significant events leading up to the Civil War.

Biography William C. Goodridge was born in 1806 in Baltimore, Maryland. The son of a Black American woman and a white man, Goodridge was a slave at birth. 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. It is not known for certain who his father was, but it is possible that the middle initial C. stands for Carroll or Carrollton. The Goodridge surname, also spelled Goodrich early on, might have been invented to give the impression of wealth.

The Goodridge barbershop, located in York's Centre Square, expanded to carry candy, cosmetics, jewelry, and toys, and became popular with the children of York. They opened a variety store next door, and also experimented with a Bath House. Goodridge manufactured "Oil of Celsus", his own treatment for baldness, which he marketed to barbers in more than a dozen cities, including Philadelphia.

In 1840 Goodridge briefly expanded to an additional barbershop in Philadelphia. That only lasted a year, but may have established important business contacts. In 1838 the railroad had come to York from Baltimore and in 1842 Goodridge opened a freight delivery service, the "Reliance Line of Burthen Cars", which served 22 towns along the railroad line between York and Philadelphia.

Goodridge is most prominently noted for conducting William Parker to safety following the Christiana Resistance in 1851, along with one or more fugitive slaves Parker and his wife were protecting on their farm in Christiana. Goodridge is believed to have helped Parker escape slavery himself in 1840, and they continued to be friends and associates in the intervening decade. The stress of the events of 1851 may have contributed to Goodridge's wife's death, in 1852, of a heart condition.

Goodridge also conducted Osborne Perry Anderson along the Underground Railroad following John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859.

A large mural about Goodridge faces West on a building on W. Market St in York, next to the Penn Market. Painted by Don and Jared Gray, the mural stands 24 feet wide and 23 feet tall, and was completed in June 2000. The mural features one of Goodridge's advertisements for the Goodridge Building and Skylight Studio, which was originally located at the square a few blocks East of the mural. 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.

Goodridge's eldest daughter Emily O. Goodridge Grey and her husband Ralph Toyner Grey relocated to Territorial St. Anthony, Minnesota, in the mid-1850s, where they became prominent members of Black American Society in the area that became Minneapolis. The Emily O. Goodridge Grey Accelerated Charter School, named after her, operated in Minneapolis from 2008 to 2015.

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. 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.

The Goodridge Brothers' photography studio, founded in 1847 by Glenalvin J. Goodridge on Centre Square in York, relocated to East Saginaw, Michigan, in 1863. It was operated by the three brothers until Glenalvin's death in 1867, then by Wallace L. and William O. Goodridge until William's death in 1890. Though Glenalvin's son Glenn Jr. and William's two sons worked in the studio at various times, none took it over; the studio closed in 1922 when Wallace died. During that time the Goodridge Brothers' studio, which always demonstrated excellent technique and kept up with the latest technology, had documented the logging industry and other developments in Saginaw, and come to be internationally recognized, with photos included in the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris and later at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Their photos were also included in several publications and popular postcards, and hundreds of portraits are known to have been taken in the studio. The accomplishments of the Goodridge photographers were documented in an extensive biography and professional review called Enterprising Images: The Goodridge Brothers, African American Photographers, 1847–1922. by J. Jezierski, published in 2000. Emily O. Goodridge's great-granddaughter Catherine Grey Hurley was acknowledged for her assistance with the book. who published two short booklets about the Goodridge family based on that and other research: A Brief History of the Goodridge Family in York, Pennsylvania, (June 1990), and Eyewitness to the Goodridge Story in York (June 2017).

A historical exhibit about the Goodridge Brothers' photography coordinated by Nancy Watts traveled around Michigan and was subsequently donated to the Goodridge Freedom Center in York. 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. The Public Libraries of Saginaw (Michigan) also house some Goodridge Brothers' materials, as does Saginaw's Castle Museum.

Mary Goodridge married John Nichols in 1862 and established the Nichols Wig and Style shop at 121 N. Franklin St. in Saginaw, Michigan, where she mentored many young women and partnered with her sister-in-law Gertrude Watson Goodridge after William's death.