Moses Brown Ives Goddard, the son of Charlotte Rhoda Ives and William Giles Goddard, was born in Warwick, RI on April 21, 1831. One of nine children, Moses’s twin brother Robert died in 1835, at the age of four.  His mother hailed from the prominent Ives family of Providence and was part of the second generation of partners at the firm of Brown and Ives. His father was a well-known writer and professor at Brown University. His brother William became one of the most prominent bankers and civic leaders of the Gilded Age.

 

As was the family custom, Moses attended Brown University, graduating in 1854. Like his brothers, Moses served in the Civil War and afterward became a prominent merchant, though not nearly as prominent as William.

 

As a patron of the arts, Moses was one of the principal benefactors of the Mendelssohn Choral Society, which was established in 1879 under the leadership of Joseph Hastings.  Hastings brought the Old Germania Orchestra (the forerunner of the Boston Symphony Orchestra) down from Boston to support, instrumentally, his vocalists. The Society performed many oratorios, including Haydn’s The Creation and Handel’s Messiah, and brought leading late-century soloists to perform with the group in Providence. In 1906, the year before he died, Moses made a gift of the statue of Marcus Aurelius that still stands on Brown University’s campus.

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Erik Christiansen, PhD, Rhode Island College

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