In a history of the life of such a man as Jay Gould, it is well that certain of his personal characteristics and certain of the chief events of his career be summarized before a complete study of his biography and character is made. It is thus possible better to understand both events and personal qualities.
The education which Jay Gould acquired through his own energies as a youth, found its best application in this work of development. In his purely speculative adventures he was aided by a disposition whose traits, as has already been intimated, were formed in his youth or early manhood. It is impossible to contemplate without astonishment and even admiration, the spectacle of so stable a character as one must admit Mr. Gould’s to have been, fixed in boyhood and remaining unchanged all through a career which extended from a condition of the most modest kind (not to call it absolute poverty) to a position from which practically he ruled the financial world of this continent and materially affected the fortunes of the other. With untold wealth at his command, he was as simple in tastes, as unaffected in manner, as abstemious in habits, as industrious, as self-dependent and self-reliant, as when he set out in boyhood to make himself a rich man. Nor did any of his less amiable characteristics undergo a less change. In some of his first business ventures, can be read the same disposition for silent intrigue, the same secretiveness touching his intentions, the same subtlety and elaborateness of plan, and the same indifference to the feelings or comments of others, as marked the tremendous operations which are the climaxes of his purely speculative career—the war over Erie and the gold operations which culminated in that memorable and deplorable day which is written in history as “Black Friday.”
There was, perhaps, never a time in Jay Gould’s career when it was possible to estimate his wealth with anything approaching correctness. His secretive disposition stood in the way of a general acquaintance with the outcome of his many ventures. Long after he had gained control of the Wabash system of Railways, the Manhattan Elevated and the Western Union Telegraph Company, during a little flurry in Wall street, in which everybody thought the finger of Jay Gould was hidden, but nobody knew, a broker sagely observed, “Mr. Gould has many properties, but a brass band is not one of them.” He never went forth trumpeting his affairs. Moreover, his wealth always consisted of stocks and bonds which were subject to the fluctuations of the market, and which unquestionably derived a considerable proportion of their value from the fact that he controlled the property which they represented. Once, however, he put aside his natural secrecy and made an exhibition of his wealth in order to quiet some annoying reports that were current touching his financial condition. This was in March, 1882, when he spread the contents of his strong box before his astonished visitors.
Mr. Gould’s secretiveness was exhibited quite as strikingly in his benefactions as his speculations. He never achieved a reputation as one in the habit of doing good to his fellowmen, and yet few rich men were more charitable than he. Only once did he forego his customary reticence, and then it was in a time of great public calamity. Yellow fever was raging in Memphis, and subscriptions were being raised in all the large cities of the country. Gould did not wait, but telegraphed to the authorities of Memphis to draw on him for all the money they needed. As a rule, like William H. Vanderbilt, he dispensed his benefactions through a trustee. This, during the last few years of his own life, was Thurlow Weed.
“I am Mr. Gould’s philanthropical adviser,” said this remarkable man on one occasion in 1879; “whenever a really deserving charity is brought to my attention, I explain it to Mr. Gould. He always takes my word as to when and how much to contribute. I have never known him to disregard my advice in such matters. His only condition is that there shall be no public blazonry of his benefactions. He is a constant and liberal giver, but doesn’t let his right hand know what his left hand is doing. Oh, there will be a full page to his credit when the record is opened above.”
It should also be added to the list of his virtues, that he abstained absolutely from spirituous liquors, including wine, and never used tobacco. He was, however, fond of highly-spiced food, and it is said that indulgence in such viands caused the stomachic disarrangements which forced him to devote himself in 1888 to the pursuit of health. He loved flowers exceedingly, and in his country seat at Irvington-on-the-Hudson built up one of the finest conservatories in the world.
Jay Gould’s career was not a colorless one, but was full of episode and variety. He was a genuine American in that he had engaged, before he was out of his teens, in some dozen pursuits, which number he doubled in the next few years. Milking twenty cows in his father’s dairy; clerking in a country store; running a hardware shop; learning the tinner’s trade; working in a country newspaper office, and writing a history of Delaware county, were among his earlier employments. And then came his enlistment in a surveying corps and his experience in map drafting, which led up to the leather industry. This chapter in Mr. Gould’s career is a sensational one. His enlargement of the tannery business in Pennsylvania, his establishment of a village named for himself, Gouldsborough, and of a bank of which he was director, were the business portions of the sensation. The suicide of his partner and the war for possession of the tannery, between two bands of roughs fighting one for Gould and one for his partner’s estate, were sensations of another kind. Next Mr. Gould went into the railroad business, drifting there by the aid of his father-in-law, who wanted to make the best of a marriage which he had opposed. From that time to this, Mr. Gould has been prominently before the public in financial operations, and his history is the history of Wall street. Opinions of Mr. Gould have been just as varied as his own pursuits. There are those who laud him to the skies for the success he had in creating his enormous fortune, and who think him the sum of all good things. There are many others who think of him as being simply a close-fisted, unscrupulous, selfish business man of undoubted ability, but with no thought except to add to his wealth by whatever means might be necessary at the expense of others. And there is another large class of those who consider Mr. Gould to have been a type of all that is worst in Americans, a man who wrecked fortunes and honor of others to add to his own, who purchased legislatures at will whenever he had anything to desire from them, and who had absolutely no redeeming traits of character. It will be our effort to show what justification there may be for each opinion. Whatever other merit may be claimed for this modest biography of a rich man, it is certainly to be considered as entirely fair, with no bias for or against its subject, and no inclination to do anything but justice to his memory. No effort has been spared to secure reliable, accurate and exhaustive information on the history and personal characteristics of Jay Gould. Inasmuch as great influence is exerted on every man’s life by those business associates most closely connected with him, attention has been given to those other noted financiers whose association with the “wizard” have been the nearest. The ever-present influence of ancestry and immediate family make that subject also an essential one to the true understanding of the man. The history of “Black Friday” and its disastrous consequences are treated in full, also the investigation of the Senatorial Committee and Gould’s connection with Missouri Pacific and Western Union. His domestic life, his yacht, his home on the Hudson, his magnificent conservatory, all indications of the spirit and tastes of the man, are also given careful attention.
The early life of such a man must perforce afford an interesting study, and no apology is necessary for a pretty full account of Jay Gould’s boyhood, youth and early manhood.