Jay Gould
Jay Gould, actually Jason Gould, ( born May 27, 1836 in Roxbury, New York, † December 2, 1892 in New York City ) was an American investor and entrepreneur. Gould was taken by Portfolio.com in the list of the worst American CEO.
Curriculum vitae
Gould was the son of a farmer from Roxbury in Delaware County. The principal of his school, the Howard Academy, helped him to get a job as an accountant at einerm blacksmith. After one year, offered him the blacksmith to take over half of the forge. Gould sold in 1854 the share of his father and thus proved his business acumen. At the age of 16 he left school, but devoted himself to continue in mathematics and the national survey. As a surveyor, he published a map of Ulster County, New York. In 1856 he published "History of Delaware County, and Border Wars of New York." He became a partner of Zadock Pratt with whom he opened a tannery in Pennsylvania, which he called " Gouldsboro ". Over time, he bought Pratt out of business, who retired. In 1856 he formed a new partnership with Charles Mortimer Leupp. Charles was the son of Gideon Lee, the leading leather merchant at that time.. Partnership was satisfactory until the Panic of 1857 While the financial turmoil were a curse for Leupp, who lost all his money, which he invested in the business, they were for Gould, a stroke of luck by low interest rates on land he bought the possession of his former partner. However, this had a sequel: the land of "The Gouldsboro Tannery " was hotly contested with the help of armed forces. The brother of Charles Leupp, David W. Lee, who was also a partner in the firm " Leupp and Gould ," was of the opinion that Gould had families Leupp and Lee cheated at the demise of the company, and he gained control of the tannery back.
Gould's father introduced him to the rail industry by asking Gould, to help him to save his investment in the Rutland and Washington Railroad. This was his first acquaintance with the banking business.
On January 22, 1863, he married Helen Day Miller, who bore him six children. His son Frank Jay Gould (1877 - 1956) was the owner of several casinos and hotels on the Côte d' Azur. His grandson, George Jay Gould II 1908 Olympic champion at the Jeu de Paume, a precursor of the modern sport of tennis.
Railway business
About his father- Gould got a job at the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad. In a short time he reorganized the company and bought it on. Just as he did with Rutland & Washington Railway, from which he took out high profits. In 1859 Gould went public and fought on the side of Daniel Drew and James Fisk in the war for control of the Erie Railroad. Finally, Gould and Fisk won the power over the railway company and began to plunder it literally. They forged and manipulated the stock value and had to hand over the management in March 1872.
During this time, Gould and Fisk allied with the Tycoon "Boss" William Tweed, they made the director of the Erie Railroad. Tweed for his part reciprocated by the two promised coverage from justice. In addition, Gould was in close connection to the brother of U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant. The Black Friday of 1869 made Goulds speculation temporarily to an end when he was about to enter big in the gold market. After he had left the Erie Railroad, he went to the Union Pacific Railroad Company, from which he retired in 1883 - with plenty of gain.
At the zenith of its power Jay Gould controlled 16,000 km railway track, one-ninth of the entire set in the U.S. railway tracks. He left his family fortune estimated at $ 72 million. Gould is regarded as the most ruthless of the so-called Robber Barons.
In 1880 he had purchased the 1838 built by Alexander Jackson Davis in neo-Gothic style Lyndhurst estate in Tarrytown (New York) and expanded as his country seat. 1961 gave his daughter Anna Gould it to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.