George Jay Gould I

Infobox Person
name = George Jay Gould


image_size = 200px
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1864|2|6|mf=y
birth_place =
death_place = French Riviera
death_date = death date and age|1923|5|16|1864|2|6|mf=y
children = Helen Vivien Gould
Kingdon Gould, Sr.
Jay Gould II
Marjorie Gould
George Jay Gould II
Gloria Gould
Edith Catherine Gould
parents = Jay Gould
spouse= Edith Kingdon
death_place = French Riviera

George Jay Gould I (February 6 1864 – May 16 1923) was a financier and the son of Jay Gould. He was himself a railroad executive, leading both the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and the Western Pacific Railroad.

Birth, marriage and children

George was the son of Jay Gould (1836-1892) and Helen Day Miller (1838-1889). He married Edith M. Kingdon (1864-1921), a stage actress, and had the following children:

* Kingdon Gould, Sr. (1887-1945) who married Annunziata Camilla Maria Lucci (1890-1961) [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Kingdon Gould, 58, Long A Financier. Grandson Of Founder Of Family Fortune Dies. Once On Rail Boards. Officer In 1918. |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50D16FC3D5B10738DDDA10894D9415B8588F1D3 |quote=Kingdon Gould, financier eldest son of the late George J. and Edith Kingdon Gould, and grandson of Jay Gould, financier and railroad ... |publisher=New York Times |date=November 8, 1945 |accessdate=2008-06-19 ]
* Jay Gould II (1888-1935) who was a tennis player and who married Anne Douglass Graham [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Jay Gould Is Dead. Court Tennis Star. Grandson of the Financier Had Held Championship for Quarter of Century.
url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0716F93959107A93CAAB178AD85F418385F9 |quote=Sportsman Succumbs in Up-State Hospital at 46. His Body Brought Here for Funeral. |publisher=New York Times |date=January 28, 1935 |accessdate=2007-07-21 ]
* Marjorie Gould (1891-1955) who married Anthony Joseph Drexel II
* Helen Vivien Gould (1893-1931) who married John Graham Hope DeLaPoer Horsley Beresford (1866-1945) [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Lady Decies Dies at 38 in London. Former Helen Vivien Gould Was Principal in Brilliant International Wedding of 1911. Was Noted As Hostess. Her Entertaining Was a Feature of British Capital. Husband Is Distinguished Irish Peer. |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F0061EF73D5F11738DDDAA0894DA405B818FF1D3 |quote=Lady Decies, the former Helen Vivien Gould, daughter of the late George Jay Gould of New York, died in London this morning. She had been critically ill here for several days. |publisher=New York Times |date=February 3, 1931, Tuesday |accessdate=2007-11-26 ]
* George Jay Gould II (1896-?) who married Laura Carter [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=He Is George Jay Gould, Jr. |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9806E3D6123EE333A25756C1A9639C94679ED7CF |quote=The third son and fifth child of Mr. and Mrs. George J. Gould was christened at noon to-day in All Saints' Memorial Church, ... |publisher=New York Times |date=May 15, 1896 |accessdate=2008-08-22 ]
* Gloria Gould (1895-1943) who married Henry A. Bishop II, and after a divorce married Walter McFarlane Barker [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Gloria Gould Barker Is Drowned In Swim Pool at Arizona Home. Mrs. W.M. Barker Drowns In A Pool. Victim Of Accident. |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0B17FD3F59147B93C4A81783D85F478485F9 |quote=Mrs. Gloria Gould Barker, 37, a member of the prominent Gould family of New York, was drowned today in the swimming pool of her desert home ten miles east of here. |publisher=Associated Press in New York Times |date=August 16, 1943 |accessdate=2008-06-07 ]
* Edith Catherine Gould (1900-1937) who married Carroll Livingston Wainwright I (1899-1967) and after a divorce married Sir Hector Murray MacNeal [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Lady MacNeal Dies. Was Edith Gould. Granddaughter of Financier, 36, Succumbs at Estate in East Hampton. Wife of British Knight. Wrote Autobiography Telling of Family Life ... |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10E11F83F541B7588DDAB0994D1405B878FF1D3 |quote=Lady MacNeal, the former Edith Gould, granddaughter of the late Jay Gould, died at Gulf Crest, her estate here, late last night. Lady MacNeal, who was 36 years old, had been in poor health for two years. Death was caused by a liver ailment. Born on Father's Yacht. Edith Catherine Gould, next to the youngest of seven children, was the daughter of the late George J. Gould and Edith Kingdon Gould. ... |work=New York Times |date= |accessdate=2008-08-22 ]

George Gould also had a mistress, Guinevere Jeanne Sinclair, and had the following children with her:
*Jane Sinclair Gould
*George Sinclair Gould
*Guinevere Gould

These children were given the Gould name at the death of Edith Kingdon Gould in 1921. Time magazine wrote on March 23, 1925: "Of the seven older children by his first marriage — Kingdon, Jay, George Jay Jr., Marjorie, Vivien, Edith, Gloria — three eloped, one married an English nobleman, and one the daughter of a Hawaiian princess." [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=The Goulds Are Going |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,881484,00.html |quote=George Jay, the eldest son, undertook to complete his father's transcontinental system and "muffed it." He started building the Western Pacific. He fought Harriman, Morgan and Kuhn, Loeb & Co. He bought an entrance into Pittsburgh for the Wabash at a great price. When the panic of 1907 came, several of the roads were in poor condition, went into bankruptcy and George Jay was obliged to go to his enemies for money. He lost control of the Missouri Pacific, of the Western Union Telegraph Co., of the Denver & Rio Grande. He lost the Western Pacific, the Texas Pacific. Meanwhile, his losses had aroused his brothers and sisters, who succeeded in ousting him from control of his father's estate. The fight is still on, although George Jay died nearly two years ago. His brothers and sisters are trying to recover $30,000,000, which they say he lost from the estate by mismanagement, from his ten children by two marriages. Of the seven older children by his first marriage — Kingdon, Jay, George Jay Jr., Marjorie, Vivien, Edith, Gloria — three eloped, one married an English nobleman, and one the daughter of a Hawaiian princess. |publisher=Time (magazine) |date= |accessdate=2007-08-21 ]

Death and burial

He died of pneumonia on May 16, 1923, on the French Riviera after contracting a fever in Egypt after visiting the tomb of Tutankhamen. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York. His estate was valued at $15,054,627 but after debts were paid it was worth $5,175,590 in 1933 dollars. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=G.J. Gould Estate is Only $5,175,590. Reduced From $15,054,627 in Settling Suits Over His Father's Fortune. |url= |quote= An appraisal filed yesterday of the New York estate of George J. Gould, who died May 16, 1923, a resident of New Jersey, showed that the property taxable here was worth only $60,592, consisting of his place at Furlough Lake, in the Catskills, with its contents, and personal effects in New York City. |publisher=New York Times |date=January 7, 1933 |accessdate=2007-07-21 ] [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=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. |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00911FC3B5516738DDDAE0994DD405B838EF1D3 |quote=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. |publisher=New York Times |date=May 17, 1923 |accessdate=2008-05-23 ]

Railroad management

Upon his father's death George inherited the Gould fortune and his father's railroad holdings. While in charge of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (DRGW) at the turn of the 20th century, he sent DRGW surveyors and engineers through California's Feather River canyon to stake out a route for the DRGW to reach San Francisco, California. Through legal wranglings led by E. H. Harriman, who at the time led both the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads, Gould was forced to set up third-party companies to manage the surveying and construction to disguise his role. The route that Gould's engineers built became the Western Pacific Railroad's (WP) mainline.

In later years, the DRGW and WP would work together on trains that were passed off to each other in Salt Lake City, Utah, including the prestigious passenger train, the "California Zephyr".

Legacy

Gould's estate in Lakewood, New Jersey is now the site of Georgian Court University.

Timeline

*1864 Birth of George Jay Gould on February 6th
* with George Jay Gould in Greenburgh, New York
*1884 (circa) marriage to Edith M. Kingdon
* in Lakehurst, New Jersey
*1921 Death of Edith M. Kingdon, his wife
*1923 Death of George Jay Gould, in the French Riviera on May 16th

ee also

*Anthony Joseph Drexel I
*Georgian Court University
*Curse of the Pharaohs

External links

* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=gould&GSfn=george&GSmid=46580804&GRid=7788590&pt=George%20Jay%20Gould& Findagrave: Jay Gould II]
* [http://www.georgian.edu/aboutgcc/gould.htm The George Jay Gould Estate]

Further reading

* Brehm, Frank (2005), " [http://www.wplives.com/history/The_SF___GSL/the_sf___gsl.html The SF&GSL] ". Retrieved March 2 2005.
* Geis, Sister M. Christina, " [http://www.georgian.edu/aboutgcc/gould.htm The George Jay Gould Estate] ". Retrieved March 2 2005.
* White, John H., Jr. (Spring 1986), America's Most Noteworthy Railroaders, "Railroad History", "154"', p. 9-15.

References