Charles Goodrich was born on 7 August 1720.
2 He resided at
Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
2 He was the son of
Col. David Goodrich and
Prudence Churchill.
1 He married first
Lucy Ward, daughter of
Samuel Ward, on 25 December 1747.
2 He married second
Hannah Ward, daughter of
Samuel Ward, on 5 June 1772.
2 He died on 16 November 1816 at age 96.
2 Transcribed from Case: "He purchased a large tract of land in Pontoosuc - now Pittsfield - Mass., there being but a single house in the town when he built his where the village of Pittsfield now stands. The country was a dense wilderness, without a single road. Solomon Deming had preceded him, and opened a trail to his rude home. He introduced the first cart and plow into the town, and held the plow that turned the first furrow; and sowed the first seed with his own hand. He was a member of the provincial congress in 1774; was engaged in the battle of Bennington, Vt; always prominent in public life: the magistrate of his town, county judge, a member for years of the early State legislature; a firm believer in the ordinances of revealed religion as he saw it, and did not hesitate to openly declare it. At the age of seventy-five years he made his famous ride on a Narragansett pony from his own home in Pittsfield, Mass., to Pittsfield, Vt., over one hundred miles in one day, to the home of his son James; and the knowledge of his arrival at night was made known by his shouting "Fire" - having seen on his approach a building in flames. His son heard the shout from his own house, fully three-quarters of a mile distant, and recognized his father's voice. At the semi-centennial celebration of the incorporation of the town, and the first agricultural fair, he was drawn through the streets by fifty yoke of oxen, standing on a stone drag holding a plow; then at the age of ninety-six years. He died the following year."
3