A little park of an acre and half lies between Wellington and Queen Streets just west of St. Vincent Street. Parents, pushing their children on the swing set, may glance over to the wooden sign and wonder who Archie Goodall was. This is his story.
The Goodall saga has its beginnings in Scotland as noted by the Galt Reporter in an obituary for Archie Goodall’s grandfather, William Goodall, who died in Waterloo County, Ontario in 1862.
“Mr. Goodall was a native of Roslin, near Edinburgh, and previous to the year 1835 was a tenant farmer of Greenlaw Mains, near Penicuik, and finding after several years’ uninterrupted industry, that he was losing money annually, he resolved to find his fortune in Canada, whilst he had property enough left to give him and his young family a start in the New World.”
Of the seven sons of William Goodall, John Wallace Goodall was the second youngest. Born in Scotland in 1818, he first married Helen Henderson and, after her passing in 1869, he married again to Barbara Fraser who was 20 years his junior. In all, John W. Goodall was father to 18 children.
Archibald Henderson Goodall was one of the younger sons of John W. Goodall’s first marriage. He was born in 1867 in Galt, Ontario which is now part of City of Cambridge.
As a 15-year-old, young Archie Goodall got his first job as a telegraph operator with the Grand Trunk Railway. He received a dollar a day as his pay and later recalled that was some pretty good money back in 1882.
Five years later, the young man was given the job of agent at the Thornton GTR station but, before he could start, Goodall was diverted to Allandale as the dispatcher there was short an assistant.
Within months of his arrival at Allandale, Archie Goodall was promoted to train dispatcher, a position that he held for 45 years. With a railway industry boom going on, he could see that his future was solid, so he returned to southwestern Ontario to marry his sweetheart and then brought her to Allandale. Archie Goodall and Florence Aldous were married on July 4, 1888.
Archie and Florence’s first home was located on William Street not far from the GTR station. They later moved to Worsley Street and then bought the large brick home at 74 Mary St. where they remained for many years. The couple’s only child, Ellen Marguerite Goodall, always known as Nellie, was born on May 2, 1889.
By the early 1890s, Archie Goodall was already looking for ways to be involved in his adopted community. From a long line of Presbyterians, he joined various committees attached to the local church of that denomination including the Christian Endeavor Society and choir. Florence interested herself in temperance activities. Archie was later quite involved in Collier Street United Church.
At the same time, Archie Goodall became associated with the Mechanics’ Institute as they were laying the groundwork for what would eventually become a public library in Barrie. He also joined the local curling club and was appointed as a school trustee for the Allandale Ward, with all of this occurring before he was 30 years of age.
The only thing that slowed him down, and only temporarily it seems, was an operation to treat an appendicitis in March 1898. Archie Goodall was a fortunate man as the surgical treatment for his condition was still rather novel in these early years and available at the newly opened Barrie General Hospital.
As the next century dawned, Archie Goodall added in regatta sailing, the Red Cross, membership in the Sons of Scotland, and work with both the Hospital Board and the Parks Board, the latter of which became his longest service of all.
In July 1958, Archie Goodall sat down for an interview with the Barrie Examiner to talk about what the reporter termed “a very unusual and pleasant event”. It was Archie and Florence’s 70th wedding anniversary.
The couple received the customary recognition from the Queen, Queen’s Park and Ottawa but Prime Minister John Diefenbaker was so impressed that he included a handwritten congratulatory note of his own.
By this time, Archie had passed his 92nd birthday while Florence was only one year younger. Archie had long ago retired, leaving a GTR career of 49 years behind him in 1932. He was so long there that he could recall the fire that razed the train station that preceded the present one in Allandale.
He told the Barrie Examiner that he had a “vivid recollection of the fire which destroyed the former Allandale station in ‘the Nineties’ because on duty in the office upstairs, I was forced to pick up valuable papers etc. and make a hurried exit.”
Six weeks after his anniversary, Archie Goodall passed away at his Mary Street home.
It was only fitting that the 30-year occupant of the secretary’s seat with the Barrie Board of Parks Management be honoured with a green space in his name. The name for the newly created park was announced in the spring of 1962 and the grounds were ready for the laughter of children one year later.
