Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/367

 GOULD

GOULD

lieutenant-colonel iu the Continental army, 4tli 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 tlien 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