The New York Tribune published the following estimate of his fortune the morning after his death, and it is probably as accurate as any that can be made without access to the will and the records themselves:
“There is considerable divergence in the opinions of men who are acquainted with Mr. Gould’s affairs as to the value of the estate which will fall to his heirs. Although his investments have been known to be in certain distinct lines, the reticence of Mr. Gould with regard to many of his transactions has left a considerable margin between maximum and minimum estimates. The character of many of the securities which are his is also so unsettled that there is room for an extreme range of estimates. First in the list of his investments are Western Union and Manhattan, and there is little doubt that his holdings in these two properties aggregate from $35,000,000 to $40,000,000 market value. Of Missouri Pacific stock he may have held from $9,000,000 to $11,000,000, and at current prices the value of his holdings of this property probably reached $5,000,000. The Missouri Pacific system is so complicated with bond issues that it is difficult even for his friends to make a trustworthy guess as to his possessions of the various issues of bonds. Counting in the St. Louis and Iron Mountain issues, the different bonds of the various lines embraced in the Missouri Pacific system and the consolidated issues on the system were held by Mr. Gould to the extent of $20,000,000 or more in market value. He was credited with holding about 220,000 shares of Western Union stock and something like 110,000 shares of Manhattan. At the recent Stock Exchange figures the value of these two interests may be conservatively placed at $36,000,000. Mr. Gould’s investments in Wabash are large, but their market worth is not commensurate with the par value. It would be a generous estimate to place these holdings at a value of $10,000,000. The same amount may represent Mr. Gould’s holdings of the securities of the Texas and Pacific railway. It is difficult to say how largely he was interested in Union Pacific securities, but he was a holder of about $2,000,000 collateral trust notes of the Union Pacific, taken as security for money advances.
Mr. Gould was never known as a large investor in government bonds. He is said, though, to have subscribed liberally to the debenture bonds of the New York Central. A mass of miscellaneous securities must be counted in the aggregate, including bonds of coal properties on the line of the Missouri Pacific, southern ventures and a host of bonds and stocks of varying degrees of worth and promise.
The possessions of Mr. Gould at Irvington-on-the-Hudson and his home in this city may be estimated at $1,000,000. Far more than this amount has been invested in the two properties, the decorations of the Fifth avenue house and the extensive conservatory alone commanding the expenditure of important sums. It is also said that Mr. Gould owns considerable real estate in the West. He is understood to have considerable property in St. Louis which is productive, and he is believed to have made purchases of improved property in Chicago after the World’s Fair enterprise became assured of success. But much of his real estate investments in Texas and other parts of the Southwest, and in Southern California, is of a nature that does not yield immediate returns.
There is an agreement among several men who have means of estimating Mr. Gould’s wealth that its aggregate value may be placed around $100,000,000. A few estimates carry the value higher, while the conservative view would put the sum at $80,000,000 or $90,000,000. Russell Sage estimates his friend’s estate at $100,000,000, but Washington E. Connor is said to have placed his estimate at a considerably smaller figure. Another man, who has some knowledge of Mr. Gould’s affairs, stated that Mr. Gould had an annual income of $5,000,000, and that, considering the character of much of the property held by Mr. Gould, it was safe to say that this income must be based on a principal of $100,000,000 or more. Allowing for the difference in estimates made by those persons who should know the facts, it is believed that the following table presents to as close a degree as is possible the current value of the Gould estate, and of its principal constituents:
| Holdings. | Estimated Value. |
| Western Union stock | $22,000,000 |
| Manhattan stock | 14,000,000 |
| Missouri Pacific stock | 5,000,000 |
| Missouri Pacific system bonds | 20,000,000 |
| Union Pacific stock | 5,000,000 |
| Union Pacific bonds or notes | 2,000,000 |
| Wabash stock | 3,000,000 |
| Wabash bonds | 5,000,000 |
| Texas and Pacific stock | 5,000,000 |
| Texas and Pacific bonds | 5,000,000 |
| Other securities | 10,000,000 |
| Real estate, etc. | 4,000,000 |
| Total | $100,000,000 |
Estimates made by other newspapers and other financiers, however, who have equally good authorities on which to base their opinions, vary all the way from $50,000,000 to $150,000,000.
In calculating the amount of Mr. Gould’s estate, the first difficulty met with lies in the fact that the records of his various companies by no means tell the story of his holdings in their securities. More even than many of his rivals, he has followed the policy of getting along without going through the formality of letting the extent of his ownership appear on the books of the companies. Besides, although he reduced the number of his investments in the last few years—at least the street says he did so—he had interests extending over a wide field.
In only one branch of investments did Mr. Gould do very little, and that was in real estate. His possessions of real property were far smaller than those of many men not one-tenth as wealthy. He had his place at Irvington which represents $750,000 to $1,000,000, and his Fifth avenue house, worth $300,000 to $400,000. Several years ago he bought real estate in St. Louis, which the Missouri Pacific expected to use for headquarters. He paid $150,000 for this piece of property, which is supposed to be worth three times that amount now.
In spite of his policy of concentrating his holdings in his later years, the list of companies in which Mr. Gould had large interests is an imposing one. The principal corporations with which he was connected at the last include the Missouri Pacific railroad, the St. Louis and Iron Mountain, the International and Great Northern, Richmond Terminal, the Texas Pacific, the Union Pacific, the Wabash, the St. Louis Southwestern, the Manhattan Elevated road, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and the Western Union Telegraph Company.