Jay Gould

Jay Gould (genealogical #326—Alexander More's line) is America’s 9th wealthiest man of all time! One of the railroad baron’s of the 19th century, Gould owned the Union Pacific Railroad and the Western Union Telegraph Company. He died in 1892 leaving a fortune of $70 million and a gothic revival mansion on the Hudson River, Lyndhurst Castle, that is now part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

http://www.johnmore.com/Fascinating%20Facts.htm

Jay Gould Born Jason Gould May 27, 1836 Roxbury, New York, United States[1] Died December 2, 1892 (aged 56) Manhattan, New York, United States Occupation Financier Spouse Helen Day Miller (1838-1889) (m. 1863–1889) Children George Jay Gould I Edwin Gould I Helen Gould Howard Gould Anna Gould Frank Jay Gould Parents John Burr Gould (1792-1866) Mary More Gould (1798-1841)

Jason "Jay" Gould (May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was a leading American railroad developer and speculator. He has long been vilified as an archetypal robber baron,[2] whose successes made him the ninth richest American in history.[3] Condé Nast Portfolio ranked Gould as the 8th worst American CEO of all time.[4] Some modern historians working from primary sources have discounted various myths about him.[5][6] Contents

   1 Early life and education

   2 Early career

   3 Marriage

   4 Railroads

   5 The Tweed Ring

   6 Black Friday

   7 Lord Gordon-Gordon

   8 Peak career

   9 Personal life

   10 Death

   11 See also

   12 Notes

   13 Further reading

   14 External links

Early life and education

Jason Gould was born in Roxbury, New York, the son of Mary More (1798–1841) and John Burr Gould (1792–1866). His father was of British ancestry and his mother was of Scottish ancestry. Gould's maternal grandfather Alexander T. More was a businessman, and his great-grandfather John More was a Scottish immigrant who founded the town of Moresville, New York. Jay Gould studied at local schools and the Hobart Academy. Early career

Its principal was credited as getting him a job working as a bookkeeper for a blacksmith.[7] A year later the blacksmith offered him half interest in the blacksmith shop, which he sold to his father during the early part of 1854. Gould devoted himself to private study, emphasizing surveying and mathematics. In 1854, Gould surveyed and created maps of the Ulster County, New York area. In 1856 he published History of Delaware County, and Border Wars of New York, which he had spent several years writing.[8] In 1856, Gould entered a partnership with Zadock Pratt [7] to create a tanning business in Pennsylvania in what would become Gouldsboro. Eventually, he bought out Pratt, who retired.

In 1856, Gould entered another partnership with Charles Mortimer Leupp, a son-in-law of Gideon Lee, and one of the leading leather merchants in the United States at the time. Leupp and Gould was a successful partnership until the Panic of 1857. Leupp lost all his money, while Gould took advantage of the opportunity of the depreciation of property value and bought up former partnership properties for himself.[7] After the death of Charles Leupp, the Gouldsboro Tannery became a disputed property . Charles Leupp's brother-in-law, David W. Lee, who was also a partner in Leupp and Gould, took armed control of the tannery. He believed that Gould had cheated the Leupp and Lee families in the collapse of the business. Eventually, Gould took physical possession, but was later forced to sell his share of the company to Lee's brother.[9] Marriage

He married Helen Day Miller (1838–1889) in 1863. They had six children:

   George Jay Gould I (1864–1923), married Edith M. Kingdon (1864–1921)[10]

   Edwin Gould I (1866–1933), married Sarah Cantine Shrady[11]

   Helen Gould (1868–1938), married Finlay Johnson Shepard (1867–1942)[12]

   Howard Gould (1871–1959), married Viola Katherine Clemmons on October 12, 1898; and later married actress Grete Mosheim in 1937[13]

   Anna Gould (1875–1961), married Paul Ernest Boniface, Comte de Castellane (1867–1932) and divorced; second, married Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord, 5th duc de Talleyrand, 5th duc de Dino, 4th Herzog von Sagan, and Prince de Sagan (1858–1937)[14]

   Frank Jay Gould (1877–1956), married Helen Margaret Kelly; then Edith Kelly; and then Florence La Caze (1895–1983)[15]

Railroads

	This section requires expansion.

Gould's father-in-law Miller was credited with introducing the younger man to the railroad industry, when he suggested that Gould help him save his investment in the Rutland and Washington Railroad. The Tweed Ring

It was during the same period that Gould and James Fisk became involved with Tammany Hall, the New York City political ring. They made Boss Tweed a director of the Erie Railroad, and Tweed, in return, arranged favorable legislation for them. Tweed and Gould became the subjects of political cartoons by Thomas Nast in 1869. In October 1871, when Tweed was held on $1 million bail, Gould was the chief bondsman. Black Friday Jay Gould in 1855 Main article: Black Friday (1869)

In August 1869, Gould and Fisk began to buy gold in an attempt to corner the market, hoping that the increase in the price of gold would increase the price of wheat such that western farmers would sell, causing a great amount of shipping of bread stuffs eastward, increasing freight business for the Erie railroad. During this time, Gould used contacts with President Ulysses S. Grant's brother-in-law, Abel Corbin, to try to influence the president and his Secretary General Horace Porter. These speculations in gold culminated in the panic of Black Friday, on September 24, 1869, when the premium over face value on a gold Double Eagle fell from 62% to 35%. Gould made a nominal profit from this operation, but lost it in the subsequent lawsuits.

The gold corner established Gould's reputation in the press as an all-powerful figure who could drive the market up and down at will. Lord Gordon-Gordon Lord Gordon-Gordon

In 1873 Gould attempted to take control of the Erie Railroad by recruiting foreign investments from Lord Gordon-Gordon, whom he believed was a cousin of the wealthy Campbells looking to buy land for immigrants. Gould bribed Gordon-Gordon with $1 million in stock. But, Gordon-Gordon was an imposter; he cashed the stock immediately. Gould sued Gordon-Gordon, and the latter went to trial in March 1873. In court, Gordon-Gordon gave the names of the Europeans whom he claimed to represent, and was granted bail while the references were checked. He fled to Canada, where he convinced authorities that the charges against him were false.[16][17]

After failing to convince or force Canadian authorities to hand over Gordon-Gordon, Gould and his associates, which included two future governors of Minnesota and three future members of Congress, attempted to kidnap him. The group snatched him successfully, but they were stopped and arrested by the North-West Mounted Police before they could return to the United States. The kidnappers were put in prison and refused bail.[16][17] This led to an international incident between the United States and Canada. Upon learning that the kidnappers were not given bail, Governor Horace Austin of Minnesota demanded their return; he put the local militia on a state of full readiness. Thousands of Minnesotans volunteered for a full military invasion of Canada. After negotiations, the Canadian authorities released the kidnappers on bail.[16][17] The incident resulted in Gould losing any possibility of taking control of Erie Railroad. Peak career Jay Gould's Pullman Company rail car "Atalanta" now in Jefferson, Texas

After being forced out of the Erie Railroad, in his 40s Gould started to build up a system of railroads in the Midwest and West. Beginning in 1879, he gained control of four western railroads, including the Union Pacific, which completed part of the transcontinental railroad, and the Missouri Pacific Railroad. By 1880, he controlled 10,000 miles (16,000 km) of railway, about one-ninth of the length of rail in the United States at that time, and, by 1882, he had controlling interest in 15% of the country's tracks. Because the railroads were making enormous profits and had control of rate setting, his wealth increased dramatically.

When Gould withdrew from management of the Union Pacific in 1883 amidst political controversy over its debts to the federal government, he realized a large profit for himself.

Gould obtained a controlling interest in the Western Union telegraph company, and, after 1881, in the elevated railways in New York City. From 1868-1888, he was connected with many of the largest railway financial operations in the United States. During the Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886, he hired strikebreakers. According to labor unionists, he said at the time, "I can hire one-half of the working class to kill the other half."[18] Personal life

Gould was a member of West Presbyterian Church at 31 West 42nd Street. It later merged with Park Presbyterian to form West-Park Presbyterian.[19] Death The mausoleum of Jay Gould

Gould died of tuberculosis on December 2, 1892, and was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York. His fortune was conservatively estimated to be $72 million for tax purposes. He willed all of his fortune to his family. At the time of his death, Gould was a benefactor in the reconstruction of the Reformed Church of Roxbury, now the Jay Gould Memorial Reformed Church.[20] It is located within the Main Street Historic District and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.[21] The family mausoleum was designed by Francis O'Hara (1830–1900) of Ireland. Gould's mausoleum contains no external identification.

 Descendents of Jay Gould

 Jay Gould timeline See also

   Lord Gordon-Gordon, who took a $1 million bribe from Gould

   Lyndhurst, his country estate on the Hudson River

   Death of Jay Gould in the Brooklyn Eagle

   Paragould