Matthew Goode and Co
Matthew Goode and Co. was a softgoods wholesaler of Adelaide, South Australia with branches in Perth, Western Australia and Broken Hill, New South Wales
History
Matthew Goode
Matthew Goode was born at either Hampton Charles, Worcester, or Leominster, Herefordshire England. He was apprenticed to a draper in Hereford, where he worked for some time, then he and his brother, Charles Henry Goode, moved to London. Charles decided to try his luck in South Australia and journeyed to Adelaide, where he opened a successful drapery business in Kermode street, North Adelaide, and four or five years later Matthew Goode, who had been working with Goode Gainford and Co., of The Borough, London and J and C Boyd and Co. of Friday Street, London, together with brother Samuel and their parents, arrived in Adelaide on the Princess Helena in September 1850. Shortly afterwards they removed to Rundle Street, in a building which was later occupied by Charles Birks & Co.
Charles and Matthew then opened a wholesale warehouse in Stephens Place, under the name of Goode Bros. The retail business was later sold to L. Roach. Subsequently, Goode Brothers removed to Grenfell Street, and in 1870 after the brothers had been together in business for over 30 years they dissolved their partnership. Matthew Goode and his sons continued in possession of the warehouse in Grenfell Street, while C. H. Goode became a proprietor of the wholesalers Goode, Durrant, & Co., also in Grenfell Street.
Matthew Goode was for a few years a member of Adelaide City Council. He then strongly advocated the construction of the deep drainage system, which, was adopted, despite many members who wanted the refuse drained to the sea.
He was one of the founders of the Stow Memorial Church, and for a several years he was the treasurer of the church.
He was on the committee of the local chapter of the London Missionary Society, and was connected with the Adelaide City Mission from the time of its inception, and with the Lay Preachers' Association. He worked with Sir George Williams in connection with the London YMCA, and with Dean Russell in the Funeral Reform Association.
The next generation
In 1902 the Grenfell Street premises were disposed of, and the business relocated to the old Goode Brothers site on Stephens Place, and the company was floated as a limited liability company with Edward Francis Goode, Albert Goode and R. J. Leavis as directors. Five years later Samuel Henry Goode replaced Leavis. In 1923 the directors were Edward Francis, Matthew Albert, and Arthur Hedley Goode, and the London office was managed by H. P. Goode. The company had 16 commercial travellers covering the whole State, with interstate branches in Argent Street, Broken Hill and Hay Street, Perth. Paul Goode was a director in 1928.Family
Matthew Goode was a brother of Sir Charles Henry Goode MP., founder of Goode, Durrant and Co., Samuel Goode jun, and Elizabeth Ann Goode who also emigrated to South Australia; she married John Ham Marshall in 1853. Their parents Samuel and Ann had leasehold properties at Walkerville and Islington. Ann was a sister of Sarah Tolley, mother of George Tolley of Rundle Street.In 1850, before leaving England, Matthew Goode was married in Hereford to Anne Jones of Fencott in Worcestershire. Anne died aged 26 in Adelaide; the following year Matthew Goode married her sister Elisabeth Jones.
The children of Anne Jones & Matthew Goode included:
- Edward Samuel Jones Goode
- Samuel Henry "Harry" Goode married Alice Mary Smith on 28 November 1878. A director of Matthew Goode and Co.
- Jones Goode
- Annie J. Goode married Canadian Joseph V. Bedford at Burnside, Manitoba on 7 July 1906
- Clara Elizabeth Goode married Samuel Marcus Russell on 28 January 1899. Clara travelled as a missionary to Peking, China. There she resigned to marry Professor Russell of Imperial College, a mathematics, astronomy and Chinese scholar remembered for his adaptation of W. H. Murray's system of teaching Mandarin Chinese to the blind, and a study of a lunar eclipse of the Zhou dynasty. Both were reported killed in the Boxer Rebellion, Beijing in July 1900. He wrote The Story of the Siege in Peking They later lived at Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada,
- Edith Marion Goode married Rev. John Maconnach Allardyce on 10 November 1892. They were both missionaries to China and were married in Peking. He was likewise feared killed in the Boxer Rebellion, in July 1900 and retired to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and were buried at Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. Their son, Matthew Lancelot Allardyce, served with the Calgary Highlanders, RCIC, in World War II and was killed in action.
- Edward Francis "Frank" Goode married Emily Annie Burden on 6 June 1888, died in Perth
- Florence Grace married Samuel Alfred Davenport on 25 June 1891. Davenport, son of a Macclesfield sheepfarmer, was a businessman with interests in the Bridgewater flour mill, then stockbroker with Stow Smith in the firm of Davenport, Smith and Roberts. Florence was, with Madame Krakowsky, active in Travellers' Aid Society.
- Lily Hope Goode
- Mabel Faith Goode married Canadian Gilbert Bedford. She died at Portage la Prairie
- youngest son Albert Goode married second cousin Ethel Goode on 25 October 1894. Ethel was a daughter of Henry Abel Goode, cofounder of H. A. and W. Goode. Albert was a director of Matthew Goode and Co., later with competitors G & R Wills.
- Christina Love Goode MB. BS. DPH. married Alexander Krakowsky M.D. on 19 October 1914. She was a student at Miss Aldersey's School, studied medicine at Adelaide University for four years and completed her degree, with honors, at Melbourne in 1898. In 1906 she was appointed senior medical officer at the West Ham Infirmary, where she had been working for four years. This was the first occasion on which a woman has been made a senior officer at any infirmary in England. They returned to Adelaide in 1916 and took up positions at the Renmark hospital. She was prominent in the Girl Guide movement and a founding member of the Adelaide Lyceum Club.
- Kathleen Mercy Goode married Norman Shaw in Japan, on 16 November 1907. Norman was a son of Rev Alexander Croft Shaw, Archdeacon of Tokyo, and had been working at Antung, China,. Shaw wrote articles for Imperial Maritime Customs on "The Soya Bean of Manchuria", "Silk" and "Chinese Forest Trees and Timber Supply".