Frank Henry Goodyear (1849-1907)

He was born at Groton, New York. He was educated at the district school, the East Aurora Academy, after which he spent some time teaching there. Next, he went to Looneyville where he worked as a book-keeper for his future father-in-law, Robert Looney, who owned a number of sawmills there. In 1872, he went to Buffalo with $100 to establish himself in the lumber and coal business. His landholdings grew incrementally until he owned extensive forest land in Pennsylvania and within just a few years was operating fifteen sawmills. To bring his products to market, he opened the Buffalo & Susquehanna Railroad and the Sinnemahoning Railroad for 160-miles of track.

In 1887, he brought his brother, Charles, into the business and established the Goodyear Lumber Company. They acquired hundreds of thousands of acres of virgin forest in New York, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Mississippi, becoming the largest growers of hemlock in the world while and building the largest sawmill in the world producing over 150-million feet of lumber a year - more lumber than any other business in the country.

From 1906, he lived at 762 Delaware Avenue (see images) in Buffalo in a mansion designed by Carrère & Hastings that was 'ostensibly' modelled on a house on or near the Champs-Élysées in Paris. At the same time, they also also built the Florentine Renaissance Goodyear Cottage on Jekyll Island. Frank and his wife had four children but his comparatively early death was attributed to over working, leaving $10-million.