Gould, Jay

Gould, (Jason) Jay

(1836–92) financier; born in Roxbury, N.Y. A surveyor by training, he wrote History of Delaware County, and Border Wars of New York (1856). He became a tanner and leather dealer in New York (1857–60) and began speculating in small railways on the stock market. He, along with associates James Fisk and Daniel Drew, fought and beat Cornelius Vanderbilt for control of the Erie Railroad (1867–68). Having used bribery to gain control, Gould and his partners did not hesitate to loot the railroad's treasury by stock manipulation. His attempt to corner the gold market caused the Black Friday panic (September 24, 1869). Ejected from his Erie Railroad post in 1872, he gained control of several western railroads and extracted a $10 million profit by threatening the Union Pacific. He also owned the New York World (1879–83) and most of New York City's elevated railroads, and controlled Western Union Telegraph Company. The epitome of the "robber baron," he died "unlamented" but worth over $100 million.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.