He attended a public school
during his boyhood, thus acquiring a limited education. When quite a
youth, he removed with his family to Philadelphia, where his father
entered into the hardware business. Upon coming of age, he was admitted
to partnership with his father and one of his brothers, the style of the
firm being A. Goodyear & Sons. The house was extensively engaged in the
manufacture of hardware, and among the other articles which they
introduced was a light hay-fork, made of spring steel, which gradually
took the place of the heavy wrought iron implement formerly in general
use among the farmers. It required a large outlay and a great deal of
time to introduce this fork, but, once in use, it rapidly drove the old
one out of the market, and proved a source of considerable profit to its
inventor. The prosperity of the house, however, soon began to wane, and
it was brought to bankruptcy by the crisis of 1836.
Mr. Goodyear's attention had for some time been attracted to the
wonderful apparent success of the India-rubber companies of the country,
and he was hopeful that his improvement in the inflating apparatus of
the life-preserver would bring him the means of partially extricating
himself from his difficulties.
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