Jay Gould
Jay Gould | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Jason Gould May 27, 1836 Roxbury, New York, United States |
| Died | December 2, 1892 (aged 56) |
| 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 |
| Parent(s) | John Burr Gould (1792-1866) Mary More Gould (1798-1841) |
Jason "Jay" Gould (May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American financier who became a leading American railroad developer and speculator. Although he has long been vilified as an archetypal robber baron, whose successes made him the ninth richest American in history,[1] some modern historians working from primary sources have discounted various myths about him.[2][3]
Birth and early career
Jason Gould was born in Roxbury, New York, the son of John Burr Gould (1792–1866) and Mary More Gould (1798–1841), a poor family. Gould's father was of British colonial ancestry, and his mother of Scottish ancestry. 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. In 1856 he published History of Delaware County, and Border Wars of New York which he had spent several years writing.[4]
Gould later went to work in the lumber and tanning business in western New York (founding Gouldsboro in a joint-venture with Zadock Pratt)[5] and then became involved with banking in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
Marriage
He married Helen Day Miller (1838–1889) in 1863 and had six children:
- George Jay Gould I (1864–1923), married Edith M. Kingdon (1864–1921)[6]
- Edwin Gould I (1866–1933), married Sarah Cantine Shrady[7]
- Helen Gould (1868–1938), married Finlay Johnson Shepard (1867–1942)[8]
- Howard Gould (1871–1959), married Viola Katherine Clemmons on October 12, 1898; and later married actress Grete Mosheim in 1937[9]
- Anna Gould (1875–1961), married Paul Ernest Boniface, Comte de Castellane (1867–1932); and after a divorce married Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord, 5th duc de Talleyrand, 5th duc de Dino, 4th Herzog von Sagan, and Prince de Sagan (1858–1937)[10]
- Frank Jay Gould (1877–1956), married Helen Kelley; then Edith Kelly; and then Florence La Caze (1895–1983)[11]
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 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
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. For the rest of his life, newspaper writers would attribute to Gould almost any market development they could not explain otherwise.[citation needed]
Lord Gordon-Gordon
In 1873 Gould attempted to take control of the Erie Railroad by getting foreign investments from Lord Gordon-Gordon, a cousin of the Campbells looking to buy land for immigrants, Gould bribed Gordon-Gordon with $1 Million in stock. However, Gordon-Gordon turned out to be a fraud, cashing the stock immediately. Gould sued Gordon-Gordon, with Gordon-Gordon put on trial in March 1873. Gordon-Gordon gave the names of his European personages in court, whom he claimed to represent, and was granted bail while the references were checked. Gordon-Gordon took this opportunity to flee to Canada, where he convinced authorities that the allegations brought against him were false.[12][13]
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 was successful, but were stopped and arrested by the Northwest Mounted Police before they could return to the United States. The kidnappers were put in prison and refused bail.[12][13] 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 and put the local militia on a state of full readiness. Thousands of Minnesotans volunteered for a full military invasion of Canada. However, after negotiations, the Canadian authorities released the kidnappers on bail.[12][13]
The whole incident resulted in Gould losing any possibility of taking control of Erie Railroad.
Late career
After being forced out of the Erie Railroad, Gould started, in 1879, to build up a system of railroads in the Midwest by gaining control of four western railroads, including the Union Pacific 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, and, by 1882, he had controlling interest in 15% of the country's tracks. Gould withdrew from management of the UP in 1883 amidst political controversy over its debts to the federal government, realizing a large profit for himself.
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. 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."[citation needed]
He was a member of West Presbyterian Church (New York City) at 31 West 42nd Street, which later merged with Park Presbyterian to form form West-Park Presbyterian (New York City).[14]
Death
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. Although a donor to charity from the 1870s onward, 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.[15] It is located within the Main Street Historic District and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.[16] The family mausoleum was designed by Francis O'Hara (1830–1900) of Ireland. Gould's mausoleum contains no external identification.
Legacy
In his lifetime and for a century after, Gould had a firm reputation as the most unscrupulous of the 19th century American businessmen known as robber barons. Many times he allowed his rivals to believe that he was beaten, then sprang some legal or contractual loophole on them that completely reversed the situation and gave him the advantage. He had no scruples about using stock manipulation and insider trading (which were then legal but frowned upon) to build capital and to execute or prevent hostile takeovers. As a result, many contemporary businessmen could not compete, did not trust Gould and often expressed contempt for his approach to business. John D. Rockefeller named him as the most skilled businessman he ever encountered. (citations needed)
In an era without government regulation, in which private New York bankers led by J.P. Morgan and Co. extended their control over a growing share of US industry in an ultimately-unsuccessful attempt to reduce rampant destructive competition, the New York City press could be less than flattering to Gould, who bought up control over corporations, looted their assets, and sold them before the damage became known.[17]
For example, some New York newspaper accounts alleged that Gould's dealings in the tanning business drove his partner Charles Leupp to suicide. But Leupp had episodes of mania and depression that psychiatrists would now recognize as indications of bipolar disorder, which his family thought could have caused his death (citation needed). Gould was often suspected of being Jewish due to his name and business acumen as well as his large nose, and was depicted in anti-semitic caricatures, even though he was born a Presbyterian and married an Episcopalian (citation needed).
Contemporary efforts to rescue Gould's reputation and contemporary interest in Gould are spurred by conflicts in analyses of the post-1975 rise of speculative, destructive financial capital in many prominent national economies, and the 2007-present economic crisis and its temporary resolution in public-financed bailouts for failed firms and spectacular compensation for their top managers, deepening moral hazard and public debt, and further reducing the role of productive capital in the economic mix.[18]
See also
- List of personalities associated with Wall Street
- Lord Gordon-Gordon, who swindled $1million from Gould.
- Lyndhurst, his country estate on the Hudson River
- Death of Jay Gould in the Brooklyn Eagle
- Paragould
References
- '^ In Fortune Magazines "richest Americans, with an estimated wealth at death of $77,000,000 Gould's Wealth/GDP ratio equalled 1/185.
- ^ Klein, Maury (1997). The Life and Legend of Jay Gould.
- ^ Rennehan, Edward J., Jr. (2005). Dark Genius of Wall Street.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Gould, Jay (1856P). History of Delaware County. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania?: Keeny & Gould.
- ^ Jay Gould and the Leather Industry: Success or failure? by Lucius F. Ellsworth, http://www.h-net.org/~business/bhcweb/publications/BEHprint/v02/ellsworth.pdf
- ^ "George J. Gould Dies in Villa in France. Leaves $30,000,000. With His Second Wife and Her Children Near, He Yearned for His Sons. Last Malady a Secret. Death Holds Up Litigation With Family Over His Father's Estate. First Became Ill in March. Had Apparently Regained Health When He Suffered a Relapse". New York Times. May 17, 1923. Retrieved 2008-05-23.
George Jay Gould died this morning at 3:30 o'clock at the Villa Zoralde, Cap Martin, where he had been living for some months with his wife and her two children. His death, it was stated at the villa, came quietly and was expected, as he had never rallied from the illness from which he had been suffering all Winter.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Edwin Gould Dies Suddenly at 67. Son of Railroad Financier and Builder Was Noted for Benefactions to Children. Left School of Finance. Made $1,000,000 Profit Operating Alone in Wall Street Before Father Forgave Him". New York Times. July 13, 1933. Retrieved 2008-08-06.
Edwin Gould, second son of the late Jay Gould, financier and railroad builder, died suddenly of a heart attack shortly after ...
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Mrs. F. J. Shepard Dies of a Stroke. Former Helen Gould, Famous for Philanthropy, Stricken at Her Summer Home Gave Away Much of Fortune. Mrs. Finley J. Shepard Is Stricken at 70. Philanthropist and Daughter of Jay Gould Got Permission to Marry. Wed at Lyndhurst. Benefactions in War With Spain. Descendant of Pioneers". New York Times. December 21, 1938, Wednesday. Retrieved 2007-06-18.
Mrs. Finley J. Shepard of New York, the former Helen Gould, who was famous for her philanthropies in many fields, died at her Summer home here at 12:15 this morning, after being in a coma for more than 24 hours. She had suffered an apoplectic stroke ten days ago, and had been ill for two months. Her age was 70 years.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Howard Gould dies here at 88. last surviving son of Jay Gould, rail financier, yachtsman, auto racer". New York Times. September 15, 1959. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
Howard Gould, last surviving son of Jay Gould, the railroad financier, died Sunday in Doctors Hospital. He was 88 years old. Although Mr. Gould's res idence ...
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Duchesse de Talleyrand Is Dead. Youngest daughter of Jay Gould". New York Times. November 30, 1961. Retrieved 2008-08-06.
The Duchesse de Talleyrand-Périgord, daughter of the late Jay Gould, American railroad financier, died today in Paris where she passed most of her life.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Frank Jay Gould Dead on Riviera. Youngest Son of Rail Empire Maker was 78. Built Up Resort of Juan-les-Pins Heir to $10,000,000 N.Y.U. Graduate of 1899". Associated Press in New York Times. April 1, 1956. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
Frank Jay Gould died today at his apartment at Juanles-Pins on the French Riviera. He was 78 years old.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ a b c Donaldson, William (2004-09-02). Brewer's Rogues, Villains and Eccentrics. London: Phoenix. pp. 299–300. ISBN 0-75381-791-8.
- ^ a b c Johnson, J. L. "Lord Gordon Gordon". The Manitoba Historical Society. Retrieved 2008-08-22.
- ^ New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. "Designation List 425"
- ^ History of the Reformed Church of Roxbury, NY
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.
- ^ Josephson, Matthew. 1962. The Robber Barons: The Great American Capitalists, 1861-1901. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
- ^ Kotz, David M. 2008. Neoliberalism and Financialization. University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Timeline
- 1836 Birth of Jay Gould as Jason Gould
- 1841 Death of Mary Moore Gould, 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
Further reading
- Josephson, Matthew. (1962). The Robber Barons: The Great American Capitalists, 1861-1901. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Hilferding, Rudolf (1981). Finance Capital: A Study of the Latest Phase of Capitalist Development. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Renehan, Edward J. (2005). The Dark Genius Of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons. New York: BasicBooks. ISBN 0465068855.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Morris, Charles R. (2005). The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J.P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy. New York: Holt. ISBN 0805075992.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help); Text "http://people.umass.edu/dmkotz/Neolib_and_Fin_08_03.pdf" ignored (help) - Kotz, David M. (2008). Neoliberalism and Financialization. Amherst: University of Massachusetts.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help)http://people.umass.edu/dmkotz/Neolib_and_Fin_08_03.pdf - "George Gould marries". New York Times. 1886-09-15.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - "Howard Gould marries". New York Times. 1898-10-13.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - "Howard Gould dies here at 88; last surviving son of Jay Gould, rail financier — yachtsman, auto racer". New York Times. 1959-09-15.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help)
External links
- 1836 births
- 1892 deaths
- American Calvinists
- American financiers
- 19th-century American railroad executives
- Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (The Bronx)
- American people of Scottish descent
- Deaths from tuberculosis
- Gould family
- History of the United States (1865–1918)
- People from Delaware County, New York
- People of the Union Pacific Railroad
- Infectious disease deaths in New York
- People with bipolar disorder
- Robber barons
- American Presbyterians