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WILLIAM WHITNEY GODDING. 
his attention chiefly to administrative work, and his efficiency 
in this was of the highest character. 
He was a man who, more than almost any whom I have 
known, corresponded to Emerson’s ideal of independence. 
He did what concerned him, not what others thought he 
ought to do. In the midst of the crowd “ he kept with per¬ 
fect sweetness the independence of solitude.” 
G. Brown Goode. 
WILLIAM WHITNEY GODDING. 
1831-1899. 
[Read before the Society January 6, 1900.] 
William Whitney Godding, the subject of this memoir, 
was of English descent, but his ancestors had resided in Mas¬ 
sachusetts for three or four generations. He was born in the 
town of Winchendon, in Massachusetts, May 5, 1831. His 
native place is a typical New England town—clean, bright, 
well lighted, well paved, and with the never-failing public 
library, lyceum, and school-house. It is a picturesque place. 
A busy manufacturing town forms a part of it, and beyond 
is the “ middle town,” as it is called, full of comfortable resi¬ 
dences. A friend who accompanied Dr. Godding’s remains 
to their place of interment in Winchendon describes the resi¬ 
dence in which he was born as an old-fashioned house, with 
curious gables and broad piazzas, embowered in maples and 
fruit trees, and with a fragrant flower garden in front. In 
the distance the towering peak of Monadnock, in New Hamp¬ 
shire, was clearly visible. 
In the life of a man who has attained to high distinction 
it is always interesting to be made aware of the surround¬ 
ings which influenced his boyhood days. 
Our friend’s father was Dr. Alvah Godding, a well-edu¬ 
cated, well-cultured physician, whose skill, kindness, and 
benevolence are remembered to this day. He was emphat- 
