Biography jay gould

Biography jay gould: He was an important

Rob Wile. Share icon An curved arrow pointing right. Impact Link. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. Gould was born to a working-class farmer near New York's Catskill mountains. Gould got a taste for profiting off land early. He moved to the city as soon as he could.

With that deal, Gould achieved biography jay gould "but not unrivaled wealth. He went after the Erie RXR, which had already been a target of some of the shrewdest investors of the day. At the same time, Cornelius Vanderbilt had also decided he wanted to expand his railroad empire. So Gould was barking up a pretty tall tree. But he had an ally: Jim Fisk.

Fisk, in turn, had connections with Drew, and the three formed an entente to muscle out Vanderbilt. But Fisk and Gould weren't about to allow themselves to get Their next trick would earn Gould his reputation as a legendary shark. There was really only one guy he needed to go after though: Boss Tweed. With Tweed's help, Gould was able to get to Judge Barnard.

Fisk and Gould also brought market pressure to bear. By one account, in order to increase traffic on the Erie, they sought to drive up the price of gold. The plan ended up backfiring on Gould, and ended up implicating President Grant. Meanwhile, legal battles over Erie continued, and eventually the Erie Ring was broken up. After all this, Gould proved irrepressible.

He went on to acquire even more railroads, most famously the Union Pacific, which is still with us today. And he built up New York City's elevated rail lines. Gould died in Many were relieved. Others were somewhat more charitable. Today, Gould's heirs are still around. Gordon Gould runs a Vitamin distributor. Read next. Thanks for signing up!

Look out for your first newsletter with today's big story in your inbox soon. His purity in private life, his generosity, and his fidelity to friends, were proverbial. He won the enthusiastic devotion of many prominent men of sound judgment and great probity, and his death removed from Wall street a figure which had impressed itself ineffaceably upon the financial history of the United States.

It was his lot to have less said in his praise than any other successful financier of this generation. Many of the charges were absolutely unjust. His silence, a remarkable trait, sometimes sprang from pride, which prevented him from combating a misrepresentation when he was the only sufferer, while at other times it grew out of a shrewd knowledge that success would be furthered by concealing his plans.

Gould's answers to many accusations, given years after their utterance, were drawn out only upon the witness stand, coming then too late to change an opinion widely entertained. He sometimes suffered on account of the transgressions of others, but always possessed the belief that, in time, justice would be done to him by a fair minded public.

This confidence has been justified since his death, by a generous judgment of his achievements and cordial tributes to his memory. Gould was a descendant of two notable families of New England. Major Nathan Gold, the pioneer, was a man of great force of character, who came from St. Edmondsbury, England, to Fairfield, Conn. His son, Nathan Gauld, jr.

Several of the family were soldiers in the American Revolution. The wife of Col. The Burrs included many soldiers, judges, and public officials of good repute. Abraham Gold, the first of his line to spell his name Gould, was killed at the head of his regiment, the 5th Connecticut, at Ridgefield, Conn. Abraham Gould, his son, "a grim, earnest, honest man," settled in in Roxbury, N.

John Burr Gould, his son, the first male white child born in Roxbury, was a man of [p. While defending his home against the anti-renters, he found an enthusiastic supporter in his boy, Jay. A well read man, noted for public spirit, he helped to found schools and advance the interest of the community. Prom his excellent mother, Jay Gould inherited that religious instinct, which kept alive, in his later years of battle with the world, the gentleness of manner and the generosity of dealing which repeatedly characterized him when he bargained with other men over millions of dollars worth of property.

He was educated at the district school and Beechwood and Hobart seminaries, and at the age of seventeen learned Latin and Greek in a school in Albany. Application, acute perception and a retentive memory characterized him as a student. He was genial and fond of fun and open air sports but not of rude games. Not fitted for farm work, Mr. Gould longed for a business career.

To gratify this aspiration, his father exchanged the farm for a hardware store in Roxbury, and here the young man received his first business training. He began as a clerk, was a partner at fifteen, and became chief manager of the business. During this time, he learned surveying. Studying his biographies jay gould from 3 to 6 A.

His first professional work, begun in April,was the survey and mapping of Ulster county, N. At the outset, he was an assistant in the venture. His partner failed before the survey was completed, and two other young surveyors being admitted to partnership, Mr. For several years, Mr. Gould hoped to realize enough from his ventures to carry him through Yale College.

This dream was never realized. The young civil engineer then surveyed and mapped,the counties of Albany, Delaware and Sullivan, and the town of Cohoes. He also had charge of the mapping of counties in Ohio and Michigan, and the survey of a railroad from Newburg to Syracuse and of The Albany and Niskayuna plank road. Some of the contracts were transferred to a surveyor in Philadelphia before completion and netted Mr.

The building of the Niskayuna plank road by him in three days and a half was a remarkable achievement. This road yet exists and has always been of great service to the town, even to those who originally opposed it. The enterprise revealed his characteristic traits. He had prepared to make the survey with the common level.

Biography jay gould: Jason Gould was an American railroad

I could not for a good while even unloosen the needle, much less adjust the instrument. I was completely knocked in the head. Fortunately, the snow turned to rain, when the men were ready to begin, and during two stormy days Mr. Gould mastered the instrument. Confronted with other unexpected problems, he met them all victoriously by study in the State library and otherwise, without betraying how they had disconcerted him.

While engaged in field work in Delaware county, Mr. Gould gathered the material for his famous history of the county. He wrote the work with great care, toiling over its pages when he should have been asleep, resting four or five hours a day only. When completed, it was sent to Philadelphia to be printed. In April,the young author learned that his manuscript had been burned.

Biography jay gould: His Gould is a brilliant but

The tenacity of purpose which he revealed so remarkably in later life, served him then in good stead. He rewrote the book. A few proof sheets had been saved, and parts of the history had been printed in Bloomfield Mirror. The greater part he rewrote from memory.

Biography jay gould: He was the prototype for

He devoted himself to this task by night and day, and saw the book of pages triumphantly issued in September, Railroad investing [ edit ]. Tammany Hall [ edit ]. Black Friday [ edit ]. Main article: Black Friday More railroads [ edit ]. Erie Railroad [ edit ]. Western railroads [ edit ]. Criticism and appraisal [ edit ]. Personal life [ edit ].

Descendants [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. Citations [ edit ]. The Life and Legend of Jay Gould. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN Little, Brown. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Dark Genius of Wall Street. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. Jay Gould: Ruthless Railroad Tycoon. Titans of Fortune Publishing. The New York Times. December 3, Retrieved December 3, History of Delaware County.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania? January 21, More Classic American Railroads. MBI Publishing Company. ISBN X. Retrieved September 22, North Globe Pequot Press. The Complete History of Railroads. Brewer's Rogues, Villains and Eccentrics. London: Phoenix. The Manitoba Historical Society. Retrieved August 22, Terminal R. RothbardLudwig von Mises Institute The World.

New York. April 20, The Rye Chronicle. Rye, New York. July 17, American Antiquarian Society. Retrieved February 29, National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, Pratt later sold his share to Gould, and rumors circulated that Gould had deceived Pratt by hiding some of the company's funds in his own bank, forcing his partner to leave the business with significantly less compensation than his original investment.

That same year, Gould formed another partnership with Charles Mortimer Leupp. Their joint venture was quite successful until the stock market panic ofwhich led to Leupp losing all his money and taking his own life. Leupp's brother-in-law, David W. Lee, forcefully took control of Gould and Leupp's tannery, having heard rumors that Gould regularly deceived Charles.

Gould later regained control of the workshop but eventually had to sell his stake in the company. Gould soon became interested in the railroad industry. His close friendship with several politicians helped him secure biography jay gould lucrative deals. Taking control of the Erie Railroad together with James Fisk, Gould quickly became one of the wealthiest and most prominent entrepreneurs in the country.

In AugustGould and Fisk attempted to corner the gold market, significantly driving up its price and profiting from subsequent reselling.