Thomas Goodall, founder of the Sanford Mills and the Goodall Worsted Company, was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, England, in 1823 and died in Sanford, Maine, in 1910. The original Goodall Mill, Sanford Goodall Mill No. 1, employed 40 operatives in 1867. By 1917, the Sanford Mills, the Goodall Industries, employed 2860 operators.