Jay Gould

In 1863, Gould married Helen Day Miller and remained together till her death in 1889. The couple had six children; George Jay I, Edwin I, Helen, Howard, Anna and Frank Jay Gould.

Among them, his eldest son George Jay Gould I became famous as the owner and manager of several railway companies. His eldest daughter Helen Miller Gould became a famous philanthropist.

Jay Gould died from tuberculosis on December 2, 1892 in New York. He was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery, New York and was survived by his six children.

Jay Gould was born on May 27, 1836 in Roxbury, a village located in the Delaware County, New York. His father, John Burr Gould, was a farmer and a storekeeper. His mother, Mary More, was the daughter of a businessman.

He started his education at local school at Roxbury. Very soon, he made it clear that he did not want to be a farmer. His father then enrolled him at Hobart Academy, located at Hobart, also in Delaware County. To sustain himself, sixteen years old Jay began working as a book keeper for a blacksmith.

Concurrently, he continued his education in private, studying at night, putting special emphasis on mathematics and surveying. Some accounts also mention that he worked at his father’s hardware store for some time.

By 1853, Jay Gould was offered half interest in the blacksmith shop he had been working in. He sold that to his father in 1854 and with that money he moved to New York, where he opened a survey business.

From 1854 to 1856, over a period of three years, Gould surveyed Ulster, Albany and Delaware counties of the New York State and created the maps of that region. Concurrently, he also started writing and in 1856, published ‘A History of Delaware County and the Border Wars of New York’.

In 1856, Gould met Zadock Pratt, an established businessman and a tannery owner. He hired Gould to survey another tanning site in Pennsylvania. When the site was found, Pratt and Gourd jointly opened the tannery.

The $120,000 capital was invested solely by Pratt while Gould was entrusted with running the business. According to some accounts Gould also invested $5,000 in the project, which began to expand rapidly. However, the partnership did not last.

Pratt was not satisfied with the returns he received on his investments. Gould next convinced Charles M. Leupp, a rich leather merchant from New York City, to loan him money and in the same year, bought out Pratt’s share for $60,000. Subsequently, he and Leupp became partners in the business.

The partnership ran successfully until the Panic of 1857, in which Leupp lost all his money. Gould now used the opportunity to buy out the properties for himself. However, after Leupp’s death, he was forced to sell his share of the tannery to Leupp’s brother-in-law.

He now moved to New York City and began trading in leather and possibly lumbers. Around this time, he also became involved in banking business at Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania and started speculating at the Wall Street, manipulating prices for his own gain.

His involvement in the speculation business started when in the late 1850s his would-be father-in-law, Daniel S. Miller, asked Gould to help him save his investment in the Rutland and Washington Railroad. In the ensuing Panic of 1857, Gould was able to buy out the majority share of the company at 10 cent per dollar.

Thus he established his control in Rutland and Washington Railroad and skillfully reorganized the company. More importantly, the deal initiated him into the speculation business. He quickly mastered the art of stock trading and manipulation. By 1860, he became a well-known name in the Wall Street.

Throughout the American Civil War, which broke out on April 12, 1861, Gould continued speculating on railroad stocks. When in 1863 the investors took control of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad, Gould was appointed its manager. He now began running the company and made a lot of money from it.