Jean-Baptiste Godin

Jean-Baptiste André Godin (26 January 1817 – 15 January 1888) was a French industrialist, writer and political theorist, and social innovator. A manufacturer of cast-iron stoves and influenced by Charles Fourier, he developed and built an industrial and residential community within Guise called the Familistère (Social Palace). He ultimately converted it to cooperative ownership and management by workers.

Born on the 26th of January 1817 at Esquéhéries (Aisne), Godin was the son of an artisan smith and his wife. Starting work at his father's forge, he entered an iron works at age eleven as an apprentice. At age seventeen, he made a tour of France as journeyman with his older cousin, Jean-Nicholas Moret, also an ironsmith.

In 1840 he first married Esther Lemaire, at the age of 23. They had a son M. Émile Godin.

On July 14, 1886, after his first wife had died, Godin married Marie-Adèle Moret (27 April 1840 - 18 April 1908), born in Brie-Comte-Robert (Seine-et- Marne). She was the second daughter of his cousin Jean-Nicholas Moret and his wife Marie-Jean Philippe. Before their marriage, she had worked at Le Familistère for nearly 25 years, where she established numerous services for families with children: the nursery, infant school, and primary school; taught teachers; and set up an insurance program for workers, as well as founding health facilities.

After Godin's death in 1888, Marie-Adèle helped care for the minor children of his son M. Émile Godin, who died 15 days after his father. She especially devoted herself to organizing Godin's papers, publishing some of his manuscripts, and working to keep Le Familistère going.

Returning to Esquéhéries with his new wife in 1840, Godin started a small factory for the manufacture of castings for heating-stoves. That year he took out a patent for the stove, which he had invented. He believed that this was going to be a useful product for the age. With his business increasing rapidly, to take advantage of the railroad at Guise, Godin moved the factory there in 1846. He manufactured cookers and heating stoves of many kinds, mainly made from cast iron. Sometimes these were enameled. He became quite wealthy and used his money to establish funds and development for workers.

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