Viewing Object

George Wallace Goddard was born in England in 1829. He worked as a blacksmith. He married Hannah Jenney on October 13, 1850 and they had a daughter and four sons: William Henry, George, Eleanor Isobel, Richard Wallace, and Beverly. The family moved to New Brunswick in 1853, sometime after their first son was born. In 1871, Hannah died. In 1874, he married Janet Edgar.

In 1876, George and his 18-year-old 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, Janet and her stepdaughter Eleanor and stepson 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. 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.

George and Janet lived the rest of their lives on the Telegraph Trail property. Janet passed away on May 17, 1909, at the age of 82, and George passed away in Fort Langley on November 20, 1919, at the age of 90. Both are buried in the Goddard plot in the Fort Langley Cemetery.


(Source: BC Archives, Goddard family file)

Janet Edgar was born in Scotland on February 17, 1827. She was living in the Red Bank area of Northumberland County, New Brunswick, by the time of the 1861 Census, with her mother Margaret Edgar and younger sister. Janet married George Wallace Goddard on June 8, 1874, three years after the death of his first wife. She becomes stepmother to his five children from his first message. In about 1876, Janet's husband and his third son, Richard, head to the West Coast. Family lore states that they sailed on a ship around the Cape Horn and up the coast. Although there is a train across the USA at the time, it is possible that they worked on the ship for their passage.

In 1877, Janet and her stepdaughter Eleanor and stepson Beverly had 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 settled on property at the corner of the Langley trunk Road (now Glover Road) and the Telegraph Trail. George might have had a blacksmith shop in the area, and it might have been on the property.

George and Janet lived the rest of their lives on the Telegraph Trail property. Janet passed away on May 17, 1909 at the age of 82, and is buried in the Goddard plot in the Fort Langley Cemetery.

(Source: BC Archives, Goddard Family file)

Possible sister of either Mr. or Mrs. George Goddard.
Term Source: HPC Records (GODDA-4/260)