Edwin Gould I

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Edwin Gould (February 26, 1866 – July 12, 1933), was an American capitalist and railway official.

He was born in New York City to Jay Gould on February 26, 1866. [1] He studied at Columbia University and he died in Oyster Bay, New York in 1933 of a heart attack.

Time magazine writes on July 24, 1933:

His brothers and sisters, save for Helen, all insisted on marrying actresses or noblemen —generally more than once. His sister Anna divorced Count Boni de Castellane and married the Duc de Talleyrand. His brother Howard (now living abroad) married Actress Viola Kathrine Clemmons and separated from her. His brother Frank Jay Gould (now settled on the Riviera as owner of Nice's unprofitable Casino) married Margaret Kelly, a banker's daughter, then British Actress Edith Kelly, then French Actress Florence La Caze. His elder brother George had married Actress Edith Kingdon, by whom he had seven children, and after her death in 1921 married British Actress Guinevere Sinclair, legitimatizing three other children he had had by her. Not only the publicity of these affairs rose to trouble Edwin Gould but the legal entanglements arising from them. In 1916, Younger Brother Frank and Younger Sister Anna sued the four trustees for mismanagement of their father's estate. For eleven years this suit, to which there were innumerable parties, children, strange grandchildren, stranger great grandchildren, dragged on. Finally the law decided that Brother George had mismanaged the estate and a judgment for $50,000,000 was entered against the four trustees—settlement for which was made by compromise at $20,000,000. Meantime, however. Brother George had died, leaving an estate of $15,000,000 which was whittled down to $5,000,000 and promptly became the source of another legal battle between his seven legitimate and three legitimatized children and their diverse children by numerous marriages. All this was as distressing to Edwin Gould as the unanimity with which historians described his father as the greatest and most wicked pirate of the buccaneering age in U. S. industry. But he modestly went his way, made and gave away his modest millions, died without ostentation, of a sudden heart attack.

Contents

[edit] Family

He married Sarah Cantine Shrady (c1870-1951). [2] [3] She inherited $US 10,000,000 upon his death. They had two sons:

  • Edwin Gould, Jr., (1894-1917). He died on Jekyl Island in 1917. [4] [5]
  • Frank Miller Gould (c1895-1945). He graduated from Yale in 1920, married Florence Amelia Bacon in 1925, she was from Dallas, Texas. They had two children: Marianne Gould (1938- ); and Edwin J. Gould (1943- ). Frank died on January 13, 1945. [6] [1]

[edit] Death

He retired in 1926, and he died on July 12, 1933. After dinner he complained of not feeling well, and died after midnight in his bed, at his home in Oyster Bay, New York. He was buried in the family mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery. [1]

[edit] Accomplishments

  • Chosen a captain in the Seventy-first regiment of the State National Guard.
  • Served as secretary of the St. Louis, Arkansas, and Texas Railway until it was reorganized as the St. Louis and Southwestern.
  • Served as vice-president and President of the St Louis and Southwestern railroad.
  • Organized the Continental Match Company in 1894 (consolidated with the Diamond Match Company in 1899).
  • President of the Bowling Green Trust Company.
  • Vice-president of the American Writing Paper Company.
  • President of the Five Boroughs Realty Company.
  • Director of many railroad and other corporations.
  • In 1917-1918, he served with Squadron A, New York National Guard.
  • In 1918, he was major of ordnance in the First Brigade of the New York guard,

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c New York Times; July 13, 1933, Thursday; Edwin Gould Dies Suddenly at 67; Son of Railroad Financier and Builder Was Noted for Benefactions to Children. Left School of Finance. Made $1,000,000 Profit Operating Alone in Wall Street Before Father Forgave Him.
  2. ^ Gould; Time (magazine); July 31, 1933
  3. ^ New York Times; October 15, 1951, Monday; Mrs. Edwin Gould Dies in Hospital; Widow of Financier's Son Was Daughter of Surgeon Who Attended President Grant.
  4. ^ Sublimed Gould; Time (magazine); July 24, 1933
  5. ^ New York Times; February 26, 1917, Monday; Edwin Gould, Jr., Killed on Hunt with Own Gun; Was Clubbing 'Coon Caught in Trap When Trigger Caught, Firing the Weapon. Shot Severed Artery. Young Hunter Died Before His Sole Companion on Lonely Island Could Give Aid. Father is Bringing Body. Mother Prostrated at News of Tragedy, Which Occurred Near Jekyl Island. Left the Body and Called Help. Followed a Local Custom. Mother Prostrated by the News. Edwin Gould, Jr., Killed on Hunt. Had Chosen a Business Career. Brunswick, Georgia, February 25, 1917. Edwin Gould, Jr., 23 years old, who was staying at his father's Winter home on Jekyl Island, was killed last night by the discharge of a shotgun in his hands while he was trying to kill a raccoon found in a trap he had set.
  6. ^ New York Times; January 14, 1945; Frank M. Gould, 45 Dies at Oyster Bay; Son of Edwin and Grandson of Jay Was Rail Executive. Owned Prize Horses. Oyster Bay, Long Island; January 13, 1945. Frank Miller Gould, only surviving son of the late Edwin Gould and a grandson of Jay Gould, financier and railroad builder, died at his home here today after a long illness. He would have been 46 years old on February 6.
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