Jay Gould
Categories: United States railroad executives | 1836 births | 1892 deaths | Union Pacific Railroad
Jason Gould (May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American financier.
Contents |
Birth and early career
Gould was the son of John Burr Gould (1792-1866) and Mary Moore (c1800-1841), and was born in Roxbury, New York. He studied at the Hobart Academy, but left at age 16, to work for his father in the hardware business. He continued to devote himself to private study, emphasizing surveying and mathematics. Gould later went to work in the lumber and tanning business in western New York and then became involved with banking in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. In 1856 he published the "History of Delaware County".
Marriage and children
On 22 January 1863, Gould married Helen Day Miller (1838-1889). She was the daughter of Daniel S. Miller. Together Helen and Jay had the following children:
- George Jay Gould I (1864-1923) who married Edith M. Kingdon (1864-1921) on September 14, 1886; and, after her death, he married his mistress, Guinevere Jeanne Sinclair
- Edwin Gould I (1866-1933) who married Sarah Cantine Shrady (1877-1951)
- Helen Gould (1868-1938) who married Finlay Johnson Shepard (1867-1942)
- Howard Gould (1871-1959) who married Viola Katherine Clemmons on October 12, 1898
- Anna Gould (1875-1961) who married: Paul Ernest Boniface, ("Boni") Comte de Castellane (1867-1932); and after a divorce married his cousin: Helie de Talleyrand-Perigord (1858-1937), 5th duc de Talleyrand, 5th duc de Dino, 4th Herzog von Sagan, and Prince de Sagan
- Frank Jay Gould (1877-1956) who married Helen Kelley, then Edith Kelly, and then Florence La Caze (1895-1983)
The railroad business
Through his wife's father, Daniel S. Miller, he was appointed a manager of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad. He purchased and reorganized the railroad. He also purchased the Rutland and Washington Railroad and sold it for a large profit.
The Tweed Ring
It was during the same period that Gould and James Fisk became involved with Tammany Hall; they made Boss Tweed a director of the Erie, and Tweed in turn arranged favourable 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
In August 1869, Gould and Fisk began to buy gold in an attempt to corner the market, hoping that the increase in price of gold would increase the price of wheat such that western farmers would sell, causing a great amount of shipping of breadstuffs eastward, increasing freight business for the Erie railroad. During this time, Gould used contacts with President Ulysses S. Grant's brother-in-law, A.H. 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 affair also cost him his reputation.
Late career
After being forced out of the Erie Railroad, Gould gained control of the Union Pacific Railroad, withdrawing from it in 1883 after realizing a large profit. He built up what became known as the Gould System of railways by gaining control of a total of four western railroads, including the UP and the Missouri Pacific Railroad. In 1880 he was in control of 10,000 miles (16,000 km) of railway, about one-ninth of the length of rail in the United States at that time. Gould also obtained a controlling interest in the Western Union telegraph company, and, after 1881, in the elevated railways in New York City. Ultimately, he was connected with many of the largest railway financial operations in the United States from 1868-1888.
Death
Gould died of pneumonia and mental strain on December 2, 1892 and was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York. His fortune was estimated at $72 million, all of which he left 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 [1].
Legacy
In his lifetime and for a century after, Gould had a firm reputation as the most unethical of the 19th century American businessmen known as robber barons. He routinely tested the boundaries of the law, finding ways to turn a situation in his favor when other businessmen might have settled on breaking even. He pioneered the practice, now commonplace, of declaring bankruptcy as a strategic maneuver. He had no opposition to using stock manipulation and insider trading (which were then legal but frowned upon) to build capital and to execute or prevent hostile takeover attempts. As a result, many contemporary businessmen did not trust Gould and often expressed contempt for his approach to business. Even so, John D. Rockefeller named him as the most skilled businessman he ever encountered.
The New York City press published many rumors about Gould that biographers passed on as fact. For example, they alleged that Gould's dealings in the tanning business drove his partner Charles Leupp to suicide. In fact, Leupp had episodes of mania and depression that psychiatrists would now recognize as indications of bipolar disorder, and his family knew that this, not his business dealings, caused his death. These biographers portrayed Gould as a parasite who extracted money from businesses and took no interest in improving them. Anti-semitism in connection with Gould's name motivated some of this hostility, even though he was a lifelong Calvinist.
More recent biographers, including Maury Klein and Edward Renehan, have reexamined Gould's career with more attention to primary sources. They have concluded that fiction often overwhelmed fact in previous accounts, and that despite his methods, Gould's objectives were usually constructive.
-
Timeline
- 1836 Birth of Jay Gould as Jason Gould
- 1841 Death of Mary Moore, mother
- 1850 US Census with Jay Gould in Roxbury, New York
- 1856 Publication of History of Delaware County
- 1863 Marriage to Helen Day Miller (1838-1889)
- 1864 Birth of George Jay Gould I, his son
- 1866 Death of John Burr Gould, his father
- 1866 Birth of Edwin Gould, his son
- 1868 Birth of Helen Gould, his daughter
- 1869 Black Friday
- 1870 US Census in first Manhattan home
- 1870 US Census in second Manhattan home
- 1871 Birth of Howard Gould, his son
- 1875 Birth of Anna Gould, his daughter
- 1877 Birth of Frank Gould, his son
- 1880 Purchase of Lyndehurst from the widow of George Merritt, shortening name to Lyndhurst
- 1880 US Census with Jay Gould in Greenburgh, New York
- 1889 Death of Helen Day Miller, his wife
- 1892 Death of Jay Gould
See also
- Lyndhurst, his country estate on the Hudson River
- Death of Jay Gould in the Brooklyn Eagle
Further reading
- The Dark Genius of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons by Edward J. Renehan - (2005) ISBN 0465068855
- The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J.P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy by Charles R. Morris; Publisher: Times Books, 2005; ISBN 0805075992
External links
References
- New York Times; September 15, 1886; page 1; "George Gould marries"
- New York Times; October 13, 1898; page 1; "Howard Gould marries"
- New York Times; September 15, 1959; page 39; "Howard Gould dies here at 88; last surviving son of Jay Gould, rail financier -- yachtsman, auto racer"de:Jay Gould