Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-12-03


Having left the Beechwood seminary
Gould entered his fathers store as clerk
and general utility man. After a short
stay with his father he entered the EN-.
! ployment of Squire Burnham, who kept
a crossroads store some two miles away
from the elder Gould's establishment.
AT this place he taught himself book
I keeping, and also studied land survey
ing. While he was in Burnham's en-
ploy some men arranged to make sur
Yey OF Delaware and the adjoining coun-
ues and publish maps to sell to the
farmers. Gould entered into the serv-
ice of this firm and assisted in the sur
veys.
Young Gould's neatness and accuracy
IN this work attracted the attention of
John Delatield, who obtained from the
Legislature grant for Typographical
survey OF the state and engaged Jay to
assist him, but died before much was
done. Young Gould then undertook
the work alone, completed the survey
and mapping of Albany and Delaware
counties, and also did some profitable
work IN directing parties which sur
veyed Lake and Geauga counties. O.
and Oakland county, Mich. From these
surveys and the sale of maps and other
sources he had accumulated about So
600, and this two or three wears before
reaching his majority. In 1856 he pub
hshed his History of Delaware Coun-
ty,"' which had sunk into such complete
oblivion in twenty years that the acct
dental discovery of q copy in New York
IN 1876 furnished very exciting theme
for the illustrated papers and some mat
ter for humor to photographers.
About this time Zadoch Pratt, of
Greene county, N. Y, invited Gould to
join him in establishing tannery in
Luzerne county, Pa. This invitation
was accepted and the tannery was built
and put III operation by the firm OF
Pratt & Gould. The partners did not
long agree, and Gould borrowed the
money to buy Pratt out. While in this
business Gould often went to New
York to sell the product of his tannery,
and this rather disposes of the pretty
story which has been current for many
years that his first appearance in New
York was to endeavor to sell a mouse
trap of his own invention.
Mr.. Gould sold out the entire tannery
and his right to the hemlock growths Of
the vicinity soon after reaching the age
of tWenty-one, and just in the nick of
time, too, for in few weeks came the
panic of 1851. Even thus early he had
developed his maxim that the time to
buy is just after crushing panic, and
with that principle fixed in his mind he
sought the great metropolis with all his
means i'll ready cash. In his business
visits to New York Mr.. Gould had made
the acquaintance of well-tO-do leather
merchant named Miller Now, when
he came to the city to make it his home
this merchant took him into his family
as n boarder. There was a daughter
Miss Helen Day Miller-and between
her and Gould an affection sprang UP
which resulted in marriage when Gould
was about of age.
His father-in-law, Mr.. Miller, had
shares in railroad from Rutland in
Vermont to some other point. The
shares paid no dividends, and he asked
his young son-in-law to look into the
matter and sell the shares. Gould did
look into the matter, but he did not sell
the shares; instead of that he bought all
he could, as well as the bonds, all at ten
cents on the dollar He now went into
the directory of the road and became
the president. The stock and bonds
both advanced in price and out of this
-
of this thirty years later, when he was
a witness before the Pacific railway
commission, Mr.. Gould said: II have
been all my life dealing in railroads
that is, since | was of age-and always
in futures. | have made my money
in futures. The first railroad bonds l
ever had [ bought at ten cents-Rut-
land and Washington-and not only my
bonds became good but | sold my stock
out at $l.25.'
Though so young, he was now sue
Cessful man and soon started business
as broker in New York on his own ac-
count. But he later formed partner
ship and controlled the affairs of the firm
of Smith, Gould and Martin.
Mr. Gould has never been a specu-
lator in stocks in the sense in which that
term is usually understood. He has,
however, unquestionably often aston
ished the boldest operators by his action
i'll this way. Nearly always such opera
tons have been subsidiary to some large
campaign he was carrying out.
Upon one occasion, when his adver-
saries seemed to be getting the better OF
him in every move, they boosted that
they We're masters and that the great
man was tottering previous to his fall.
1t became apparent to Mr.. Gould that
these men were being believed not only
by the public but by the bankers too.
He calmly ordered his general man of
work Morosini, to go TO this safety de-
post vault and bring his securities.
Before dispatching Morosini he invited
the Wall street reporters and half a
dozen bankers to come and see for them
selves whether he had gone broke.
Morosini a gigantic Italian who fought
with Garibaldi, had to make several
trips before he could fetch all the
wealth. At last it was all there and
spread out for inspection. There were
1858 200, 600 of stocks and bonds in faca
value and they were of that char.
acter which money lenders call gilt
edged. He had in addition $50, 100000
worth of lower grade stocks.
Mr.. Gould confessed that he had been
a borrower, but the banks held col
laterals for all his loans. His tactics
surprised his opponents. 1t was so for
eign from anything this secretive man
had ever done before that they could
not understand it, But none of them
believed that Mr.. Gould was bankrupt,
This was about 1880, He must have
had at least $40, 600, 900 then. His first
venture in Rutland and Washington
was exactly on the lines which he has