Citizendia
Your Ad Here

You might be looking for Stephen Jay Gould, the American biologist and author
Jay Gould

Born May 27, 1836(1836-05-27)
Roxbury, New York
Died December 2, 1892 (aged 56)
Manhattan, New York
Occupation Financier
Spouse Helen Day Miller (1838-1889)
Children George Jay Gould I
Edwin Gould I
Helen Gould
Anna Gould
Frank Jay Gould
Parents 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. Stephen Jay Gould (September 10 1941 &ndash May 20 2002 was a prominent American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science Events 927 - Simeon the Great, Tsar of Bulgaria, dies 1120 - Richard III of Capua is anointed Year 1836 ( MDCCCXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap Roxbury is a Town in Delaware County, New York, United States. Events 1409 - The University of Leipzig opens 1755 - The second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire Year 1892 ( MDCCCXCII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Manhattan Island, in New York Harbor, is much the largest part of the Borough of Manhattan, one of the Five Boroughs which form the City of New York New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous George Jay Gould I ( February 6 1864 &ndash May 16 1923) was a financier and the son of Jay Gould. Edwin Gould ( February 26, 1866 &ndash July 12, 1933) was an American capitalist and railway official Anna Gould ( June 5, 1878 &ndash November 30, 1961) was a socialite and daughter of financier Jay Gould. Frank Jay Gould ( December 4, 1877 &ndash April 1, 1956) was a philanthropist and the son of financier Jay Gould. Events 927 - Simeon the Great, Tsar of Bulgaria, dies 1120 - Richard III of Capua is anointed Year 1836 ( MDCCCXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap Events 1409 - The University of Leipzig opens 1755 - The second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire Year 1892 ( MDCCCXCII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Financier (fɨˈnænsiɚ or finãˈsje in French is a term for a person who handles large sums of Money, usually involving money lending, financing Long vilified as a stereotypical "robber baron", modern historians have discounted various myths about him and more positively evaluated his career. Robber baron is a term revived in the 19th century in the United States as a pejorative reference to businessmen and bankers who dominated their respective industries

Contents

Birth and early career

Jason Gould was born in Roxbury, New York, the son of John Burr Gould (1792-1866) and Mary Moore Gould (1798-1841). Roxbury is a Town in Delaware County, New York, United States. Gould's father was of British colonial ancestry, and his mother of Scottish ancestry. British people, or Britons, are the native inhabitants of Great Britain and their descendants or citizens of the United Kingdom, of the The Scots people ( Scots Gaelic: Albannaich) are a Nation and an Ethnic group indigenous to Scotland. 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. Surveying is the technique and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional space Position of points and the distances and angles between Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Gould later went to work in the lumber and tanning business in western New York and then became involved with banking in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Lumber or timber is Wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural Material for Construction, or Tanning is the process of converting Putrescible skin into non-putrescible Leather, usually with Tannin, an Acidic Chemical compound Western New York refers to the westernmost region of New York State. Stroudsburg is a borough in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, United States. In 1856, he published the History of Delaware County. Delaware County is a County located in the US state of New York.

Marriage

He married Helen Day Miller (1838-1889) in 1863 and had six children:

The Tweed Ring

It was during the same period that Gould and James Fisk became involved with Tammany Hall. George Jay Gould I ( February 6 1864 &ndash May 16 1923) was a financier and the son of Jay Gould. Edith M Kingdon ( 1864 - November 13, 1921) was the actress wife of George Jay Gould I (1864-1923 Edwin Gould ( February 26, 1866 &ndash July 12, 1933) was an American capitalist and railway official Howard Gould ( June 8, 1871 -1959 was a financier and the son of Jay Gould. Margaret "Grete" Mosheim ( 8 January 1905 - 29 December 1986) was a German film theatre and television actress of Anna Gould ( June 5, 1878 &ndash November 30, 1961) was a socialite and daughter of financier Jay Gould. Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord (1301-1364 was a French Cardinal, from an aristocratic family in Périgord, south-west France Frank Jay Gould ( December 4, 1877 &ndash April 1, 1956) was a philanthropist and the son of financier Jay Gould. James Fisk Jr ( April 1, 1834 &ndash January 6, 1872) known variously as "Big Jim" "Diamond Jim" and "Jubilee Jim" Tammany Hall was the Democratic Party Political machine that played a major role in controlling New York City politics and helping immigrants (most notably They made Boss Tweed a director of the Erie Railroad, and Tweed, in return, arranged favorable legislation for them. William M Tweed ( April 3, 1823 &ndash April 12, 1878) sometimes informally called Boss Tweed, was an American Politician The Erie Railroad was a Railroad that operated in New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Tweed and Gould became the subjects of political cartoons by Thomas Nast in 1869. Thomas Nast ( September 27, 1840 – December 7, 1902) was a famous German-American Caricaturist and Editorial cartoonist In October 1871, when Tweed was held on $8 million bail, Gould was the chief bondsman.

Black Friday

Jay Gould in 1855
Jay Gould in 1855
Main article: Black Friday (1869)

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. Black Friday, September 24 1869 also known as the Fisk-Gould Scandal, was a financial panic in the United States caused by two speculators’ efforts to corner the gold market 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. Ulysses S Grant, born Hiram Ulysses Grant (April 27 1822 &ndash July 23 1885 was an American general and the eighteenth President of the United States Abel Rathbone Corbin ( May 24, 1808 - March 28, 1881) was an American financier and the husband of Virginia Grant making him brother-in-law Horace Porter (April 15 1837&ndashMay 29 1921 American soldier and diplomat was born in Huntingdon Pennsylvania, the son of David R 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%. Black Friday, September 24 1869 also known as the Fisk-Gould Scandal, was a financial panic in the United States caused by two speculators’ efforts to corner the gold market Events 622 - Prophet Muhammad completes his hegira from Mecca to Medina. Year 1869 ( MDCCCLXIX) is a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year A Double Eagle is a Gold coin of the United States with a denomination of $20 Gould made a nominal profit from this operation, but lost it in the subsequent lawsuits. The affair also cost him his reputation.

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. The Missouri Pacific Railroad ( MoPac; AAR Reporting mark MP) was one of the First railroads in the United States west of the 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. The Western Union Company ( is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. The City of New York 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. The Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886 was a labor union strike against the Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific railroads involving more A strikebreaker (also called scab or knobstick) is a person who works despite an ongoing strike. "

Legacy

Gould died of tuberculosis on December 2, 1892 and was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York. Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus or T u' b' erculosis Bacillus --> is a common Events 1409 - The University of Leipzig opens 1755 - The second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire Year 1892 ( MDCCCXCII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year This article refers to the Woodlawn Cemetery in the New York City borough of The Bronx New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous 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. The Reformed churches are a group of Christian Protestant Denominations formally characterized by a similar Calvinist system of doctrine historically Roxbury is a name referring to several locations in the United States: Roxbury Connecticut Roxbury Kansas [1] The family mausoleum was designed by Francis O'Hara (1830-1900) of Ireland.

A Duke Tobacco cigarette card depicting Gould's involvement in railroads, stock, and telegraph
A Duke Tobacco cigarette card depicting Gould's involvement in railroads, stock, and telegraph

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. James Buchanan Duke ( December 23, 1856 &ndash October 10, 1925) was a U Cigarette cards are Trade cards issued by Tobacco manufacturers to stiffen cigarette packaging and advertise cigarette brands. Robber baron is a term revived in the 19th century in the United States as a pejorative reference to businessmen and bankers who dominated their respective industries 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 pioneered the practice, now commonplace, of declaring bankruptcy as a strategic maneuver. Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay their Creditors Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against He had no opposition to using stock manipulation and insider trading (which were then legal but frowned upon) to build capital and to execute or prevent hostile takeovers. Insider trading is the trading of a Corporation 's Stock or other securities (e In Economics, capital or capital Goods or real capital refers to items of extensive value In business a takeover is the purchase of one company (the target) by another (the acquirer, or bidder) As a result, many contemporary businessmen did not trust Gould and often expressed contempt for his approach to business. Even so, John D. Rockefeller named him as the most skilled businessman he ever encountered. John Davison Rockefeller ( July 8, 1839 &ndash May 23, 1937) was an American Industrialist and philanthropist

The New York City press published many rumors about Gould that biographers passed on as fact. The City of New York For example, they alleged that Gould's dealings in the tanning business drove his partner Charles Leupp to suicide. In fact, Leupp had episodes of mania and depression that psychiatrists would now recognize as indications of bipolar disorder, and his family knew that this, not his business dealings, caused his death. Mania (from Greek μανία and that from μαίνομαι - mainomai, "to rage to be furious" is a severe medical condition Major depressive disorder, also known as major depression, unipolar depression, unipolar disorder, clinical depression, or simply depression A psychiatrist (also archaically called an alienist) is a Physician who specializes in Psychiatry and is certified in treating Mental disorders These biographers portrayed Gould as a parasite who extracted money from businesses and took no interest in improving them. He was often suspected of being Jewish due to his name and depicted in anti-semitic caricatures, even though he was born a Presbyterian and married an Episcopalian. Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism; also rarely known as judeophobia) is the Prejudice against or hostility

More recent biographers, including Maury Klein and Edward Renehan, have reexamined Gould's career with more attention to primary sources. Dr Laurence F Renehan (1797-1857 served as president of St Patrick's College Maynooth in County Kildare Ireland from 1845 through 1857 Primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines In Historiography, a primary source (also called original source) is a Document, Recording They have concluded that fiction often overwhelmed fact in previous accounts, and that despite his methods, Gould's objectives were usually constructive.

Timeline

See also

Further reading

External links

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic