 George Goddard LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, Andrew Jenson, Vol. 1, p.706-707
Goddard, George, first assistant general superintendent of Latter-day Saints' Sunday schools, from 1872 to 1899, was born Dec. 5, 1815, in Leicester, England. He was baptized into the Church Jan. 21, 1851, his wife also joining at the same time. Six days later [p.707] he was confirmed by Elders Jacob Gates and Claudius V. Spencer, and on the 3rd of the following month Jacob Gates ordained him an Elder. He left England with his wife and eight children on the ship "Essex," Oct. 11th of the same year, and on New Year's day, 1852, arrived at St. Louis, Mo., having lost two children on the way. Another child died in St. Louis, and two more of cholera on the plains, which he crossed in the summer of 1852, reaching Salt Lake City Sept. 15, 1852. Before joining the Church he had been in comfortable circumstances, doing a good business, but by becoming a "Mormon" and preaching the gospel in the market place every Wednesday night, he alienated his customers, and within eight months after his baptism his business passed into the hands of his creditors and he was left in poverty, with a large family on his hands. It was through the unsolicited assistance of one of his brothers, who felt disgrace at his becoming a "Mormon" and was anxious to get rid of him, that he and his family crossed the Atlantic as related. He saw hardships and poverty prior to and after reaching the haven of his hopes—Salt Lake City, Utah, where he first engaged in peddling on a small scale, gradually gathering around him the comforts of life. He was much interested in home industries, and manufactured hats, ink and other articles. In a sketch of his life written by himself he mentions the following items of his experience: "Fourteen months' mission to Canada, by hand-cart to the Missouri river, 1857 and 1858. Three years gathering rags as a mission, in 1861, 1862 and 1863. Nine years superintendent of the Thirteenth Ward Sunday school, from 1867 to 1876. Twenty-seven years clerk to Presiding Bishop Edward Hunter, from 1856 to 1883. Twenty-six years First Assistant General Superintendent of Sunday Schools, from 1872. Ten years clerk of general conference, from 1874 to 1884. Four years clerk of the School of the Prophets. Three years clerk and treasurer to the Salt Lake Stake Assembly Hall, from 1877 to 1880. Twenty years a member of the Tabernacle choir. Twenty-five years a member of the Thirteenth Ward choir. Twenty-three years a member of the Old Folk's Committee, from 1875." The sketch in question was written in October, 1898, and in it he says: "I am now eighty-three years old, lacking only a few weeks, and during the past five years I have traveled between twenty and thirty thousand miles by railway and several thousand miles by team, over all kinds of roads, in heat and cold, by night and by day, in the interest and for the benefit of the youth of Zion, who are connected with our Sunday schools. I have visited thirty-eight Stakes of Zion. I use neither tea, coffee, wine, liquor nor beer, and I am blessed of the Lord with good health, which causes my heart to rejoice exceedingly." It was Brother Goddard who instituted the printing of the Articles of Faith in card form, having several thousand of these published for use in Sunday schools on Feb. 18, 1878. He held the office of a Seventy from Dec. 27, 1854, and for many years was one of the presidents of the 27th quorum and afterwards of the 8th quorum. He was ordained a High Priest Feb. 24, 1894, and a Patriarch Oct. 28, 1897. Elder Goddard died at his home in Salt Lake City Jan. 12, 1899, as a victim to la grippe, following a severe cold contracted some time before. |
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