St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-12-03
FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE.
He Left Home With 80 Cents in
His Pocket.

New YORK, Dec. 2.-The history of
Jay Gould, from the bare-footed boy
| who wandered over the rough hills of
Delaware county TO the railroad king
whose wealth was estimated at $50, 000,-
600, is one of the most remarkable
among our self-made men. His life for
the past few months has been a con-
slant battle against the inevitable, and
all means that medical skill and the in
terest of friends and relatives could
summon were employed to prOlong the
financier's life. He was taken about in
luxurious private cars to places where
milder air and the absence of business
excitement might be expected to work
a recuperation of his energies. FREE
quent reports during the past few weeks
as to his feeble condition were received,
but were either deprecated or denied
by those near him.
Jay Gould was born in West Settle
ment, backwoOds village of RoXDury,
Delaware county, n. Y, May 81, 1886.
He was the son of JOhn B. Gould, a
farmer. who was fairly well-to-do, and
who had been deputy sheriff in the
famous anti-rent war in the early 30s.
Young Gould was also a cousin of
Alfred Gould, the inventor of the chain
well pump, and was closely connected
with the M0Ores, prominent Scotch
family, and others well known in the
county. His mother died when he was
an infant.
Mr.. Gould left home with 80 cents in
his pocket, and studied at Hobart
academy, in neighbOring town. Here
he earned an extra penny by keeping
the books of the village blacksmith,
eventually enjoying brief partnership
in the business. He was fond of
mathematics and on leaving
school found employment in max
ing surveys for a map of Ulster
county at salary of $50 per month
The correctness of the work attracted
the attention OF John Delafeld, who ap-
piled to the legislature to authorize
map of the state to be made, in which
Mr.. Gould would have prominent part
of the work. The work failed owing to
the death of the promoter, and Mr..
Gould. having gained $1,000 or $1,000
through his previous maps and surveys,
wrote History of Delaware County,"
After an unsuccessful attempt to push
the sale of patent mouse trap, which
he had invented, Mr.. Gould entered into
partnership with Zadoc Pratt in the tan
merry business, in Pennsylvania. at a
place known as GouldsbOro. In 1886 the
plant was sold, and Gould came to New
York with quite an addition to his fort
une. He entered into business with
Charles d. Leupp, leather merchant.
In the panic of 1857 Leupp's capital was
wrecked, but Gould managed to come
through without severe loss. Gould's
father in law. Mr.. Miller, init
ated the young fnancier into
the railroad business and sold him
number of shares in the Rutland IL
Western road at 10 cents on the dollar
Gould showed so much interest that he
was soon elected president and general
manager of the road, and finally consoli-
dated it with the Rensselaer, d Saratoga
road. When the stock went up Gould
sold out at handsome profit.
In 1859 Jay Gould entered Wall street
as a broker. He established a small
private office and made money fast.
The following year he entered the firm
of Smith & Martin and became an ex-
pert in the handling of railroad securi-
ties. During the civil war Erie railway
stock went down to bed rock. aud
Gould bought it for song. He
allied himself with Daniel Drew
and prevented Commodore Vanderbilt
from cornering the Erie interests.
Gould rapidly became the leading spirit
of the Erie railway company. In July,
1867. Gould was made president of the
road. He also purchased a controlling
interest in the Tenth National bank.
Erie shareholders brought suit to re
strain the directors from Issuing any
more stock. The cOnplainants asked
for the appointment OF receiver. This
request was granted by the appointment
OF Jay Gould himself. With the con-