GOULD
GOULD
lieutenant-colonel in the Continental army, 4th
Connecticut regiment, who was killed when
Trjon made his raid on Danbury; and also a de-
scendant of Maj. Nathan Gould, who emigrated
from England to Connecticut in 164G. and was
one of the nineteen signers of the petition for the
Connecticut charter.
John Burr Gould was
the first' white male
child born in Dela-
ware county, N. Y.
Jason, afterward Jay
Gould, was educated
at the district school
and at Hobart acad-
emy. When fifteen
years old he was a
clerk in a tinshop in
Koxbury, and when
^ CN^ , ( sixteen a partner and
< ~~J^j,.^—J' f— ^^'^-W manager of the busi- <^ ' ness. Meanwhile he
studied surveying and civil engineering, deriving his instruction from books without a master. His father sold liis farm and became a clerk for the son who engaged to survey Ulster county and who was promised §20 per month for his services, but his employer failed to pay him and he com- pleted the work and sold it for §.500. He then sold his tinshop and removed to Albany, where he can%-assed the legislature for the contract of surveying the state, but was unsuccessful. He then undertook the work himself, employing men to survey the various counties. He wrote histories of Ulster, Sullivan and Greene counties and from the sale of his books and maps accu- mulated SoOOO. With this money he joined Zadock Pratt in establishing a tanneiy in Penn- sylvania, the place becoming known as Goulds- boro, where a post-ofiioe was established and Mr. Gould, then twenty years old, was made post- master. He also became the largest stockholder and a director in the bank at Stroudsburg. In 1859 he bought out Pratfs interest and sold it to Charles L. Leupp & Co. for §80,000. This led to a lawsuit and dispossession proceedings acconi- plisliel by force and Mr. Gould became sole owner. He then sold the tannery and removed to New York city, where in 1862 he was married to Helen Day, daughter of Daniel G. Miller of the grocery firm of Philip Dater & Co.. and through his fatherin-law he engaced in speculation in railroad .stock. He bouslit the entire issue of the first mortgage bonds of the Rutland & Wasli- ington railroad at ten cents on the dollar, and .soon afterward, with Russell Sage of Troy, took up the Rensselaer & Saratoga railroad. JIaking considerable money he bought the stock of the Cleveland & Pittsburg railroad at 6.5 and sold it at
120. He lost some monej' in Uni(m Pacific but
made millions in Missouri Pacific and soon after
obtained control of the Erie railway, becoming its
president and a partner in a series of questiona-
ble transactions with James Fisk, Jr. This intro-
duced him to the legislature of New York, to
supreme court judges and to association with
William M. Tweed, the financial and railroad
magnate of the time, and Mr. Gould retired from
the presidency of the road with a colossal for-
tune. This was largely augmented by the trans-
action in gold in which President Grant's brother-
in-law Corbin was a prominent factor and this
incident was the inauguration of private and
public dinners given to executive officials by
the holders of large interests subject to official
action, and resulted in the great panic in Wall
street known in the history of finance as Black
Friday, Sept. 24, 1869. He then became inter-
ested in the American telegraph company with
which organization he laid an Atlantic cable,
broke down the rates of the monopoly, the We,st-
ern Union telegraph company, and thus forced
an amalgamation of the two, with Mr. Gould a.s
a chief stockholder. He afterward became largely
interested in the Wabash, the Kansas Pacific, the
Union Pacific, the International & Great North-
ern, the Manhattan Elevated, the St. Louis, the
Iron Momitaiu & Southern, the St. Louis &
Southwestern and the Texas Pacific railroads,
and at the time of his death his railroad holdings
were estimated at §75,000.000. His wife died
Jan. 13, 1889, and left six children, four boys and
two girls. George J.. Edwin. Howard and Frank
became the owners of the railroad properties of
their father, held positions as directors and o.'fi-
cers in many of them and proved themselves able
business managers. Helen Sliller retained pos-
session of the city and country homes of her
parents and devoted her life to charity, which
she personally dispensed; and her sister Anna
was married to Count de Castellane of France.
The children of Jay Gould gave to the village of
Roxbury, N.Y., a church edifice as a memorial
to their father, costing about §150 000, this was
dedicated Oct. 13, 1894. Jay Gould died in New
York city, Dec. 2. 1892.
GOULD, Thomas R., sculptor, was born in Boston, JIass., in 1818. He engaged m the dry goods business in Boston with his brother till 1848, and then entered the studioofSeth Cheney, the engi-aver and crayonist. where he modeled his first piece in 1851. He worked in Boston till 1868 and then removed his studio to Florence, Italy, where he resided for the remainder of his life. His better known works are two heads, "Christ" and "Satan." both exhibited at the Boston Athenseum in 1863: and a statue in marble, " The West Wind " (1874). a copy of which was
