|
|
JAY GOULD, one of the greatest financiers that the world has ever produced was born May 27, 1836, at Roxbury,
Delaware county, New York. He spent his early years on his father's farm and at the age of fourteen entered Hobart
Academy, New York, and kept books for the village blacksmith. He acquired a taste for mathematics and surveying
and on leaving school found employment in making the surveyor's map of Ulster county. He surveyed very extensively
in the state and accumulated five thousand dollars as the fruits of his labor. He was then stricken with typhoid
fever but recovered and mace the acquaintance of one Zadock Pratt, who sent him into the western part of the state
to locate a site for a tannery. He chose a fine hemlock grote, built a sawmill and blacksmith shop and was soon
doing a large lumber business with Mr. Pratt. Mr. Gould soon secured control of the entire plant, which he sold
out just before the panic of 1857 and in this year he became the largest stockholderin the Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania,
bank. Shortly after the crisis he bought the bonds of the Rutland & Washington Railroad at ten cents on the
dollar, and put all his money into railroad securities. For a long time he conducted this road which he consolidated
with the Rensselaer & Saratoga Railroad. In 1859 he removed to New York and became a heavy investor in Erie
Railroad stocks, entered that company and was president until its reorganization in 1872. In December, 1880, Mr.
Gould was in control of ten thousand miles of railroad. In 1887 he purchased the controlling interest in the St.
Louis & San Francisco Railroad Co., and was a joint owner with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad
Co. of the Western portion of the Southern Pacific line. Other lines soon came under his control, aggregating thousand
of miles, and he soon was recognized as one of the world's greatest railroad magnates. He continued to hold his
place as one of the master financiers of the century until the time of his death which occurred December 2, 1892.
FROM:
A Biographical Record
Of Schuyler County, New York
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
New York and Chicago 1903.
About OnlineBiographies.info
Online Biographies is part of the RatsNest Group of websites which is striving
to be your one stop source for History, Biographies and New England
Genealogy. Please fell free to use all ouf sites as often as you need
them, that is what they are here for. If you have a web site you are always welcome to link to any of the pages
that we have online. Remember that new pages are being added all the time so you will find something new on most
visits.
There are now over 10,000 biographies at this web site.
Privacy Policy for
OnlineBiographies
|
NAVIGATION
Famous American
Biographies
Names A to H
Names I to Z
Online -
Biographies
Biographies of the Presidents.
Railway Officials in America 1906
For all your genealogy needs visit Linkpendium
|