Goddard Machine Co. was founded in 1888 by Dwight Goddard, a machine designer and graduate of the mechanical engineering program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. At the company's founding, Goddard was treasurer and paper-company executive Moses Newton was president. Newton was soon succeeded by local businessmen Henry Emery and Joel S. Webber as president and vice president, respectively. The company acquired one of the two Holyoke factories that had belonged to prominent local foundryman and machinist John C. Smith, and also acquired Smith's library of casting patterns which included those for making pulleys, shafting and hangers.

The firm did a repair business for the local paper and woollen mills and made and machined castings. They designed and built some machines for paper making. In about 1896 they introduced a 14-inch engine lathe, and in 1902 they advertised improvements to it. By 1903 they were also making surface grinders and universal grinding machines.

Goddard Machine Co.'s 14-inch engine lathe. From 1897 "Transcript: Industrial Edition"

Goddard left the business in 1891 to enter a seminary and became a minister. He traveled to China as a missionary, and after returning he worked as a pastor in Chicago. He had learned of Buddhism while in China and eventually spent a year in a Zen Buddhist monastery in Japan before again returning to the USA and attempting, without much success, to promote Buddhism. He published a book, A Buddhist Bible, which did become successful after Goddard's death in 1939.

When Goddard left the Goddard Machine Company in 1891 he sold the business to Harold O. Sorkness and Radford Stockbridge, the latter of whom would found the Stockbridge Machine Co. of Worcester, Mass., in 1899. Day-to-day management of the business fell to new treasurer James H. Wylie, Jr., while Emery and Webber maintained their previous positions. At some point Emery left and Webber became president. The company seems to have suffered from inattention and possibly a lack of capital. By the beginning of 1906, with Webber in failing health, a slow process of winding down the Goddard company had begun. Webber died on March 1 of that year, and his executors quickly completed the process of shutting down the business.

Information Sources

• 1885 Holyoke, Massachusetts City Directory lists "Smith John C., machinist, blacksmith and general jobber, Bigelow bet Appleton and Cabot, and Race cor Cross, house 243 Main." He is listed under the categories of Blacksmith; Machinist and Machinery Manufacturer; Pattern and Model Maker; Shafting, Hangers, and Pullies. full-page text ad reads, "John C. Smith, Machinist and General Jobber, Paper Mill Work and Repairing a Specialty. Manufacturer of shafting, gearing, pulleys, hangers, and power boiler pumps. Jordan engines refilled. Also Manufacturer of Stock Cars, Paper Trucks, Felt and Sponge Washers, Resin Grinders, Felt and Jacket Stretchers, Couch Rolls, Press and Size Rolls, White Wood and Iron Pipe Rolls, Dolly Rolls, &c. Mortise Gears Cogged. Bolt Making of all descriptions promptly attended to. Patterns Made and Castings Furnished in Iron, Brass or Composition. Estimates always cheerfully given upon application. Shops, Bigelow Street, and Race Street corner of Cross, Holyoke, Mass." Elsewhere it is mentioned that Smith employed 60 men.
• The 1885 Holyoke Directory also listed Dwight Goddard as supt Mass. Screw Co. That firm employed "60 males and six females." A full-page text ad says that they manufactured "Gimlet Pointed Flat Head Iron Wood Screws", and were located at the corner of Cabot and Bigelow.
• 1889-07-25 Boston Globe, in the "New Corporations" section. "Goddard Machine Company, Holyoke., capital $10,000. Moses Newton, president; Dwight Goddard, treasurer."
• The Massachusetts corporate registry database lists this company's first registration as 1889-07-24.
• 1891—Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor's Annual Statistics of Manufactures gives a business timeline in each of various municipalities, including Holyoke: "...April. Goddard Machine Co. sold to H. O. Sorkness and Radford Stockbridge of Worcester, for the manufacture of machinery and machine tools.... Goddard Machine Co. put in new milling machine, new lathes, and other machinery."
• 1894 Municipal Register of the City of Holyoke mentions Harold O. Sorkness, 269 Walnut street for having paid for some curbing.
• 1903 The Iron Age Directory lists Goddard Machine Co., Holyoke, Mass., under "Grinders, Surface" and "Grinders, Universal". The same listings appear in the 1904 edition.
• 1906-03-08 American Wood and Cotton Reporter, in the Obituaries column.

  JOEL S. WEBBER. Joel S. Webber, president of the Beebe-Webber Company, woolen manufacturers, Holyoke, Mass., died at his home in Holyoke, March 1. He was born in Cazenovia, N. Y., October 10, 1832. When about 20 years of age he entered the employ of Jared Beebe, of Monson, Mass., who had a woolen mill there. Some time after he married Mr. Beebe's daughter, and became a member of the fim, the firm name being J. Beebe & Co. About 1860 this company bought a one-set woolen mill In Willimansett, the site of which is yet to be seen, where they continued successfully for a few years, later building the present mill In Holyoke, which has grown and prospered.

  Mr. Webber, besides being president of the Beebe-Webber Company, was also vice-president and member of the finance committee of the Mechanics' Savings Bank; director of the City National Bank, the Farr Alpaca Company and the Hadley mills of South Hadley Falls; president of the Barlow Manufacturing Company and of the Goddard Machine Company, besides having interests in other Holyoke corporations. He was also a member of the Bay State Club, one of the incorporators of the Holyoke public library and the Holyoke city hospital; had been interested in and was for some time president of the Holyoke Boys' Club, resigning two months ago. For the last year or two he had been gradually divesting himself of business burdens.

  A wife and daughter and one son survive him, the latter being associated with the Beebe-Webber Company.

• 1906-03-29 The Iron Age. "The Goddard Machine Company, Holyoke, Mass., is to go out of business. The company manufactures a line of grinders and other machine tools and is very well known in the trade. The business was established in 1889, with the late Joel S. Webber as president. The process of winding up the business has been going on gradually for some time, but it was decided to take quicker steps, and a few days ago an assignment was made for the purpose to Fred S. Webber, Edward N. White and N. P. Avery. The company has asked Boston machinery dealers to submit bids for the shop equipment."
• 1907 book, Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County Massachusetts.

  Dwight Goddard, eldest son of D. S. Goddard (6), was born December 27, 1861. He graduated from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, class of 1881, as mechanical engineer, and from that year up to 1884 was superintendent of the Massachusetts Screw Company, at Holyoke. From 1884 to 1887 he was assistant mechanic of the Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company, and from 1888 to 1891 was treasurer of the Goddard Machine Company, at Holyoke. He then entered the Hartford Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1894. For five years, from 189S to 1900, he served as missionary of the American Board at Foochow, China, and during the years 1900 and 1901 served as minister at Lancaster, Massachusetts, and associate pastor of the Tabernacle Church, Chicago, Illinois. In the latter named year he returned to his former vocation, mechanical engineer, becoming connected with the firm of Wyman & Gordon, manufacturers of drop forgings. and at the present time (1905) is the manager of their Cleveland office. Mr. Goddard is a member of the Worcester Central Conference of Congregational Ministers, and of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He is the author of a series of biographies of Engineers and Inventors. Mr. Goddard married, October 22, 1889, Harriet M. Webber, of Holyoke, Massachusetts, who died May 17, 1890. Mr. Goddard married (second), November 27, 1895, Frances E. Nieberg, M. D., of St. Marys, Ohio. Their children are: Dorrance, born October 4, 1897; Theodore N., May 18, 1902. Mr. Goddard is at present a resident of Cleveland, Ohio.

• 1913-08-16 The Boston Globe has an obituary for J. H. Wylie, who fell off a roof while measuring for repairs. At one time he was the treasurer of the Goddard Machine Co.
• American Lathe Builders: 1810-1910 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2001 page 68
• More information on Joel S. Webber and his house can be found in a page on a Holyoke history site.