S. M. Goddard, one of the leading business men of the city of Colton, is at the head, and is the general manager, of the well-known house of James Lee & Company, wholesale dealers in flour, provisions, grain, etc. It is one of the largest business enterprises of Colton, occupying a large brick store and warehouse west of the railroad depot in that city. The building is 160 x 50 feet in dimensions and is the largest warehouse in the county. The firm of James Lee & Company was established in 1885, composed of James Lee and the subject of this sketch as partners. They, in addition to the present business, were engaged also in banking. The death of Mr. Lee occurred in October, 1886, but the business was continued under the same name, with Mr. Goddard as senior, and M. A. Hebbard as junior partner. The banking house was sold soon after Mr. Lee’s death and incorporated as the First National Bank of Colton.
Mr. Goddard has taken an important part in the business enterprises that have tended to build up Colton. He is the City Treasurer and has held that office since the incorporation of the city, and is a stockholder in many of the enterprises that have made public improvements in the city. He is the president of the Hermosa Cemetery Association, and has taken a prominent and leading part in political affairs. He is a first-class businessman of enterprise and public spirit.
Mr. Goddard was born in New York in 1854. His father, William M. Goddard, was a native of that State, a carpenter by occupation, but during the childhood of the subject of this sketch he moved to Knox County, Illinois, and there engaged in farming. Mr. Goddard was educated in the public schools until seventeen years of age. He then started in life for himself, and first became a telegraph operator, and was for some four years in the employ of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, after which he established himself in mercantile pursuits, and conducted a large grocery business, until 1882. In that year he came to California, locating in Riverside, and was there engaged by J. R. Newberry & Co. in their grocery and commission business. In 1875 Mr. Goddard was united in marriage with Miss Margaret A. Lee, the daughter of his late partner, James Lee. Bessie L. is their only child.