George Jay Gould I
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| George Jay Gould | |
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| Born | February 6, 1864 |
| Died | May 16, 1923 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.
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[edit] Railroad management
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.
[edit] Birth, marriage and children
George was the son of Jay Gould (1836-1892) and Helen Day Miller (1838-1889). Upon his father's death George inherited the Gould fortune and his father's railroad holdings.
He married Edith M. Kingdon (1864-1921), a stage actress, and had the following children:
- Helen Vivien Gould (c1885-1931) who married John Graham Hope DeLaPoer Horsley Beresford (1866-1945)
- Kingdon Gould (1887-1945) who married Annunziata Camilla Maria Lucci (1890-1961)
- Jay Gould II (1888-1935) who was a tennis player and who married Anne Douglass Graham
- Marjorie Gould (1891-1955) who married Anthony Joseph Drexel II
- George Jay Gould II (1896- ) who married Laura Carter
- Gloria Gould (1895-1943) who married Henry A. Bishop II, and after a divorce married Walter McFarlane Barker
- Edith Kingdon Gould (1900-1937) who married Carroll Livingston Wainwright I (1899-1967) and after a divorce married Sir Hector Murray MacNeal
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 an Hawaiian princess."
[edit] 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.
[edit] Legacy
Gould's estate in Lakewood, New Jersey is now the site of Georgian Court University.
[edit] Timeline
- 1864 Birth of George Jay Gould on February 6th
- 1880 US Census with George Jay Gould in Greenburgh, New York
- 1884 (circa) marriage to Edith M. Kingdon
- 1900 US Census with George Jay Gould 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
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Brehm, Frank (2005), The SF&GSL. Retrieved March 2, 2005.
- Geis, Sister M. Christina, 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.
- New York Times; January 7, 1933; G.J. Gould Estate Is Only $5,175,590; Reduced From $15,054,627 In Settling Suits Over His Father's Fortune. 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.
