Other names
The Goddard household
Events involving this person
1922
Victor's imagined Barbados building brings family wealth
Description
His brother Victor, when the family had no money, imagined for two years that the family firm's name stood on a Barbados building; a casual acquaintance then bought it for them for $50,000, and it was later sold to a bank for $850,000.
Persons
Location
Authored by
Anonymous (not verified)
Date (happened)
1924
Told
22 September 1969(refuted)- 6 November 1967
Sources
- Source: Walk by Faith ¶3 (In 1924, when our family didn’t have a cent, Victor rearranged the name on a building (in his mind’s eye) to imply we owned it. This he did for two years, when – without any more money than when he started imagining – a casual acquaintance purchased the …)
Victor sells wartime stores through a rowboat loophole
Description
Neville tells how his brother Victor, foreseeing the war in 1939, borrowed about $1,500,000 to fill Barbados warehouses with duty-free ships' stores; when no ships came and the government and rival merchants refused to let him sell the goods locally with duty paid, he had his lawyers define a ship so as to include a rowboat, advertised the duty-free goods to anyone owning a boat, and sold the lot in forty-eight hours, paying off the bank and making a fortune for the Goddards.
Persons
Authored by
Anonymous (not verified)
Date (happened)
- 1939
- between 1939 and 1945
Told
25 November 1965
(doubtful)
Sources
- Source: The Unrighteous Steward: Memory ¶11 (Well, he didn’t like that, so he said, “Nevertheless, I’ll give you my final word, Goddard. No is the answer. You bought it for ships and for ships it remains!” Then my brother said to him, “Is that your real final word?” “Yes, Goddard.” He said, “Well, …)
- Source: The Potter's House ¶39 (So he took an ad, a huge big ad, the following day, and he itemized all the merchandise: “To anyone who has a thing that floats, and he is confident he can make an island, can come and buy this merchandise tax-free. Bring it only in cash, no checks, brin…)
1961
Two years earlier in Barbados a man asked him how this could have happened to a Goddard, since the Goddards are all business people; Neville answers that his family is a successful business family wit
before 1964
(possible)
He states that he is one of nine brothers and one sister in the Goddard family, and that he is the fourth son.
before 1965
(possible)
Neville remarks that his family, who once had not a penny, are now so strong financially that no one locally has the $25 million it would take to buy them out.
Victor imagines and acquires the Barbados business building
Description
His penniless brother Victor imagined for two years that the family name J. N. Goddard and Sons stood on a Barbados building's marquee instead of F. N. Roach & Co.; on the day of its sale an acquaintance offered to buy it for them on their signature alone, and they bought it for $50,000 in 1924 and sold it to a bank for $850,000.
Persons
Location
Authored by
Anonymous (not verified)
Date (happened)
- before 1967 (possible)
- before 6 November 1967
- 1924
Told
- 6 November 1967
- 6 November 1967
Sources
- Source: The Bible Is Addressed to the Imagination ¶4 (I think of my brother, my family, who had not a nickel, not a penny, and here he rearranged in his mind’s eye a certain structure which if true would imply that we owned this building and all that it contained.)
- Source: The Bible Is Addressed to the Imagination ¶5 (Continuation states the building was acquired for $50,000 in 1924.)
before 1967
(possible)
He describes the family he grew up in — ten children, father, mother, grandmother and aunts, all supported and none ever left outside.
before 1968
(possible)
Growing up in Barbados the Goddards kept ducks and chickens fed on cheap fish scraps; if his mother wanted ducks for Sunday dinner she had one of her nine sons set a brace aside ten days early and fed
before 1968
(possible)
Neville tells of being born into a large, very poor Barbados family with no background, and how his mother's rebuke "Have you forgotten that you are a Goddard?" so ingrained the name's importance that
before 1972
(possible)
In Barbados, sitting on the veranda with Jim — an artist and chef and close friend of the large Goddard family whom they supported — Neville told him of his experiences, and Jim said he could not have