Thomas Wells began acquiring land near Heartbreak Road in 1644, and his two sons extended the holdings along Argilla Road. Part of the Wells farm was sold by Nathaniel Wells in 1809 to Oliver Cogswell, who built this dwelling about 1815.
The house was owned later by Mr. Alvin Story (1832-1896), and in the early 20th Century was purchased and occupied by Dr. Joseph L. Goodale of Boston, who improved the plain farm dwelling into an attractive summer home. *Source: Waters, Thomas Franklin, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Vol. 2, page 733.
In 1914, Joseph L. Goodale, Augustus Rantoul and Richard Crane Jr. petitioned the state and won approval to dam Treadwell’s Creek to create Rantoul Pond, which is directly behind this house. Dr. Goodale planted an orchard at what is now Russell Orchards in 1920 for his son. The orchard thrived and was successful commercially.
Dr. Joseph Lincoln Goodale, 188 Argilla Rd.
Joseph L. Goodale (1868-1957) and other Boston physicians enjoyed birding on the marshes, and in the early 1890s purchased properties on Argilla Road. The home Dr. Goodale purchased from the Cogswell family became known as Southgate. With neighbors, he dammed up a section of marsh wetland near Fox Creek which is now known as Rantoul Pond. Dr. Goodale, whose practice specialized in diseases of the nose and throat, planted a vineyard and experimented with hybrid varieties in winemaking, as well as planting seedlings of a variety of apples, pears, peaches and plums. In 1920, he transplanted these from his nursery to land bordered by Northgate and Argilla Roads. With his second son Geoffrey, he managed Goodale Orchards and Southgate Farm with the assistance of Alec and Dan MacLeod. Kenneth and Gladys MacLeod assumed ownership of the Orchard upon Dr. Goodale’s retirement. In 1979, Max and Meredith Russell purchased the property from Friends of the Goodale Orchard and renamed it Russell Orchards. Joseph’s eldest son Robert, with his wife Susan and four children, lived in the 1669 Isaac Goodale House which they had moved from West Peabody in 1929. Joseph and Adelaide May’s third son Edward was one of the dog team drivers on Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s 1929-30 Expedition to the South Pole. Edward served in the Navy Rescue Operations and the United States Antarctic Research Program sponsored by the National Science foundation and facilitated the passage of thousands of researchers to Antarctica.
- Article submitted by Maisie Goodale Crowther
- 188 Argilla Road, the Oliver Cogswell house (1815)
- Membership: American Laryngol. Association (president 1917), American Medical Association, Massachusetts Medical Society, Boston Society Medical Science, Boston Society Medical Improvement, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
