George Jay Gould I (February 6 1864 – May 16 1923) was a financier and the son of Jay Gould. He was himself a railroad executive, leading both the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and the Western Pacific Railroad.

Railroad management

While in charge of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (DRGW) at the turn of the 20th century, he sent DRGW surveyors and engineers through California's Feather River canyon to stake out a route for the DRGW to reach San Francisco, California. Through legal wranglings led by E. H. Harriman, who at the time led both the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads, Gould was forced to setup figurehead companies to manage the surveying and construction. The route that Gould's engineers built became the Western Pacific Railroad's (WP) mainline.

In later years, the DRGW and WP would work together on trains that were passed off to each other in Salt Lake City, Utah, including the prestigious passenger train, the California Zephyr.

Birth, marriage and children

George was the son of Jay Gould (1836-1892) and Helen Day Miller (1838-1889). Upon his father's death he inherited his fortune and railroad holdings.

He married Edith M. Kingdon (1864-1921), a stage actress, and had the following children:

• Helen Vivien Gould (c1885-1931) who married John Graham Hope DeLaPoer Horsley Beresford (1866-1945)
• Kingdon Gould (1887-1945) who married Annunziata Camilla Maria Lucci (1890-1961)
• George Jay Gould II (1888-1935) who married Laura Carter
• Marjorie Gould (1891-1955) who married Anthony Joseph Drexel II
• Vivian Gould (1893-?) who married a Beresford
• Gloria Gould (c1895-?) who married Henry A. Bishop II and later married Walter McFarlane Barker
• Elizabeth Gould (1900-1937) who married Carroll Livingston Wainwright I (1899-1967)
• Edith Kingdon Gould (1901-1937) who married a McNeil.

George Gould also had a mistress, Guinevere Jeanne Sinclair, and had the following children with her: Jane Sinclair Gould; and George Sinclair Gould. These children were given the Gould name at the death of Edith Kingdon Gould in 1921.

Death and burial

He died of pneumonia on May 16, 1923, on the Riviera in France and he is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York.

Gould's estate in Lakewood, New Jersey is now the site of Georgian Court University .

See also

• Anthony Joseph Drexel I
• Georgian Court University

External links

• Findagrave: George Jay Gould
• The George Jay Gould Estate

References

• Brehm, Frank (2005), The SF&GSL. Retrieved March 2 2005.
• Geis, Sister M. Christina, The George Jay Gould Estate. Retrieved March 2 2005.
• White, John H., Jr. (Spring 1986), America's Most Noteworthy Railroaders, Railroad History, 154', p. 9-15.