GOULD 



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GOULD 



wonderful series of fountains near the Ceme- 

 tery of the Innocents. These fountains were 

 later removed and arranged in a public square, 

 where they still are known as the Fountain 

 of the Innocents. Goujon executed many 

 carvings for the Louvre, and his 'most notable 

 contribution to this wonderful structure is the 

 Gallery of Musicians. His death is said to 

 have taken place during the Saint Bartholomew 

 Massacre in 1572. 



GOULD, goold, the name of an American 

 family which won a position of commanding 

 influence in business and finance. Its most 

 famous member, Jay Gould, was a remarkable 

 railroad financier. Two of his children, George 

 Jay Gould and Helen Miller Gould Shepard, 

 attained special prominence, one as a business 

 man and capitalist, the other because of her 

 generous and noble efforts to make the world 

 better. 



Jay Gould (1836-1892) was born in Roxbury, 

 N. Y. He received an academy education, 

 and at the age of sixteen began work in a 

 hardware store. Four years later he entered 

 the tanning and lumber business, in 1857 be- 

 came a bank director in the little town of 

 Stroudsburg, Pa., and soon began to buy rail- 

 road stock. This stock he disposed of at a 

 handsome profit after the financial panic of 

 1857, and with the money thus gained he pur- 

 chased a controlling interest in the Rutland 

 & Washington Railroad (between Troy, N. Y., 

 and Rutland, Vt.), becoming its president, 

 treasurer and general manager. 



In 1859 he removed to New York, where he 

 entered upon a career that was destined to 

 have far-reaching effects in the history of 

 American railroads. He began by obtaining 

 control of the Erie Railroad when it was in 

 financial straits, and in 1868 was elected its 

 president. By a similar method, that of de- 

 pressing the value of the stock in the open 

 market and then buying during the period of 

 depression, he continually added to his rail- 

 road holdings until in 1880 he controlled 10,000 

 miles of road, nearly one-tenth the mileage of 

 the entire country. Among the lines which 

 came under his control were the Union Pa- 

 cific, the Missouri Pacific, the Wabash, the 

 Texas Pacific and the Saint Louis & Northern. 



The consolidation of the various competing 

 telegraph lines into the Western Union Tele- 

 graph Company in 1881 was also due to his 

 genius for engineering great enterprises. Prob- 

 ably the most spectacular of his financial 

 moves occurred in 1869, when he and James 



Fisk attempted to "corner" the gold market. 

 The result of this was the disastrous financial 

 panic of September 24, whose place in history 

 is known as "Black Friday" (which see). 

 Gould's fortune, at his death, was estimated to 

 be $72,000,000. 



George Jay Gould (1864- ), eldest son of 

 Jay Gould, was born in New York City and 

 was privately educated. At the age of twenty- 

 one he succeeded his father as partner in the 

 banking house of W. E. Connor & Company 

 of New York, and three years later entered 

 the railroad service as president of the Little 

 Rock & Fort Smith Railway. Under his able 

 management the Gould interests were extended 

 until they embraced a total railroad mileage 

 of more than 21,000, besides large holdings in 

 other great corporations. 



In 1893 he became president of the Saint 

 Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, of the 

 International & Great Northern, and of the 

 Missouri Pacific roads, and from 1892 to 1913 

 was at the head of the Manhattan Elevated 

 Railway of New York City. Through his 

 initiative the Wabash, one of the Gould lines, 

 became a transcontinental system, with Balti- 

 more as its Atlantic port, and he also brought 

 about a friendly alliance between the Gould 

 and Rockefeller interests. In 1914 he lost 

 control of the Wabash system and his power 

 as a railroad magnate weakened. 



Helen Miller Gould Shepard (1868- ), who 

 for years devoted the greater part of the 

 fortune left her by her father to the welfare 

 of humanity, is the eldest daughter of Jay 

 Gould. She became interested in philanthropic 

 work early in life. When the Spanish-Amer- 

 ican War broke out in 1898 she gave $100,000 

 to the United States government for sanitary 

 and hospital uses, and at Camp Wikoff, near 

 Montauk Point, Long Island, personally helped 

 in the care of sick and .convalescent soldiers, 

 besides donating $50,000 for supplies. Other 

 notable gifts include the library building of 

 New York University, a $10,000 donation to 

 Rutgers College, and one of equal value to 

 the school of engineering of New York Uni- 

 versity, and a generous contribution to the 

 Hall of Fame (which see). She has also been 

 deeply interested in charity work among the 

 children of the poor. In 1913 Miss Gould 

 married Finley J. Shepard, a prominent rail- 

 way official. She is a member of the board 

 of the Russell Sage Foundation and of the 

 Women's International War Relief Association, 

 and holds honorary degrees from New York 



