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Richard Wallace Goddard was born in St. John, New Brunswick on November 9, 1860, to parents George Wallace and Hannah (nee Jenney) Goddard. His mother died in 1871 and his father married Janet Edgar in 1874. In 1876, George and son Richard Wallace Goddard made the voyage to the West Coast. Family lore states they sailed on a ship around the Cape Horn and landed in the United States (California). Although there is a train across the USA at the time, it is possible that they worked on the ship for their passage. They moved on to Vancouver, where they got off the ship in Coal Harbour, and George worked as a blacksmith in Point Grey before moving to Langley. In 1877, Richard's stepmother Janet, and his sister Eleanor and brother Beverly headed west on the Santa Fe Railway, and then north to BC. It seems that by their arrival, or by 1878 at least, George and Richard had ended up in Langley, where George, at the age of 49, had settled on property at the corner of the Langley trunk Road (now Glover Road) and the Telegraph Trail, and Richard lives with him. George might have had a blacksmith shop in the area, and it might have been on the property. Oldest son William had passed away in a logging accident in 1877, and second son George remained in New Brunswick. o died in Langley at the age of 74 on September 26, 1935.