Jay Gould was born May 27, 1836 in Roxbury, New York. He was America’s top railroad developer and financier. He gained much success in the railroad industry, but was considered the most dishonest businessmen of the nineteenth century, because of his illegal actions in purchasing stocks and the stock market itself.
"The worst man on earth since the beginning of the Christian era." Gould was educated in local schools close to where he was born and grew up. While he was working as a surveyor in 1865, he completed and published “History of Delaware County, and Border Wars of New York”. Then he went to work with a son-in-law of the top leather businessman of America, but then the Panic of 1857 came and the partnership went downhill. |
In 1859, Gould began venturing in the stocks of small railways, while he was a U.S. railroad executive. He joined forces with two other men, Daniel Drew and James Fisk, in 1866 to prevent Cornelius Vanderbilt from buying control of the Erie Railroad and only a year later Gould became a director of the Railroad. This was the start of his illegal activity in manipulating stocks.
In 1869, Gould, Fisk and William Magear Tweed teamed up to bend the gold market which caused the Black Friday Panic. Gould was forced to cease his control of the Erie Railroad in 1872 by the public, and he began buying large chunks of the Union Pacific Railroad Company and in two years he had full control of it.
By 1881 Gould owned all fifteen of the U.S. rails. With his success in manipulating the company’s stocks, he got out of the company and began building a new rail system southwest of St. Louis in 1882. Not only did he own the railways, but also owned the Western Union Corp and the New York World.
Jay Gould died on December 2, 1892 of tuberculosis in Manhattan, New York.
In 1869, Gould, Fisk and William Magear Tweed teamed up to bend the gold market which caused the Black Friday Panic. Gould was forced to cease his control of the Erie Railroad in 1872 by the public, and he began buying large chunks of the Union Pacific Railroad Company and in two years he had full control of it.
By 1881 Gould owned all fifteen of the U.S. rails. With his success in manipulating the company’s stocks, he got out of the company and began building a new rail system southwest of St. Louis in 1882. Not only did he own the railways, but also owned the Western Union Corp and the New York World.
Jay Gould died on December 2, 1892 of tuberculosis in Manhattan, New York.