This company was in business from 1849 when it was known as Robinson & Goodspeed, the owners being George N. Goodspeed and Baxter Robinson. In 1851 Robinson was replaced by Harvey Wyman and the name became Goodspeed & Wyman. There was also a Goodspeed & Wyman Sewing Machine Co., which seems to have been a separate, if related, company. In 1878 the partnership ceased and the firm operated as G. N. Goodspeed; Wyman died in 1880.

From April 1873 Manufacturer & Builder

Among this company's woodworking machinery products was Lombard's ring saw, a sort of scroll saw, but using a "circular sawblade with the middle part open and axis removed, leaving only the circular narrow edge with the teeth." Apparently it worked quite well. George W. Lombard of Westminster, MA, received 1870 and 1871 patents on an annular saw.

Advertisement from the 1878 Worcester County Directory

Another unusual machine made by this firm was "Stimpson's improved dowel-joint machine", or, as styled in later ads from G. N. Goodspeed, "Stimpson's dovetail machine". This machine produced a half-lap joint pinned with dowels, a predecessor to the Knapp pin-and-scallop joint that became all the rage during the 1870s through '80s. (In 1873 Stimpson filed an interference claim against Knapp's patent; this was at the same time that Stimpson was filing for an extension of his 1859 patent. Stimpson's interference claim was denied but he was granted the extension so his patent remained in force until 1880.)

Information Sources

• An 1867 Scientific American mentions the "Goodspeed & Wyman Sewing Machine Co."
• Goodspeed & Wyman were mentioned in October 1873, December 1874, and August 1877 Manufacturer & Builder, and there is an ad in the December 1877 issue of Manufacturer & Builder.
• Goodspeed & Wyman is listed in the 1874 book Wiley's American iron trade manual of the leading iron industries of the United States as a maker of "machinery and saws".
• September 1883 Carpentry & Building.

  Tab, Pall and Chair Machinery.
  Messrs. Goodspeed & Wyman, of Winchendon, Mass., send us their catalogue for 1883 of tub, pail, chair and other wood-working machinery. Among the machines represented is a new and improved Woodworth planer, Stimpson's improved dowel-joint machine, cylinder stave saws, tub and pail stave saws, pail lathe, improved rotary matcher, head lathe and stave planer. Among the miscellaneous wood-working machines shown are saw and boring machines, small saw bench, back-kuifo gauge la'he, improved gauge lathe, rod pin and doweling machine, warp-spool lathe and upright boring machine.

• G. N. Goodspeed was listed in the 1891 book, Inland Massachusetts Illustrated. It says that the company was founded in 1849 as Robinson & Goodspeed, then became Goodspeed & Wyman in 1851, then G. N. Goodspeed in 1878. In 1891 their shop was 40 by 120 feet.
• The 1907 book History of the Goodspeed Family, by Weston Arthur Goodspeed, provided the dates and names for the early history of this firm.