Discover the stories of our most well-known permanent residents.
Frank Henry Goodyear died on May 13, 1907. Mr. Goodyear was the son of a country doctor, Bradley Goodyear, and grew up in Holland, NY. He came to Buffalo in 1872 at the age of 23. In 1887, Goodyear and his brother, Charles Waterhouse, started a lumber company, F. H. & C. W. Goodyear The business grew rapidly, as it pioneered the construction of standard built and equipped railroads for logging operations, penetrating the timber tracts of Pennsylvania, which had, up until that time, been inaccessible to railroads. From this beginning grew the Buffalo & Susquehanna Railroad, a line that has opened up and give complete access to an area that previously had none. Now the line became a permanent freight and passenger line, with 350 (eventually 450) miles of track. During his highly successful career, Mr. Goodyear was president of the Buffalo & Susquehanna Railroad, the steamship company and iron company of the same name, and the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad. He was also a partner in the Goodyear Lumber Company, and a director of the U.S. Leather Co. and the Marine National Bank. He made significant donations to parks of Buffalo. A project dear to his heart was a zoo for this city, which he offered to finance, but his offer was declined by our city fathers of the 1890s. Mr. Goodyear was married to the former Josephine Looney, and the couple had three daughters and a son. Frank H. Goodyear is entombed in the Goodyear family mausoleum, which is located in section 23 in Forest Lawn.