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From Maps to Riches – The mapping career of Jay Gould
- By The Map Collector
- Published 1 June 1979
- Maps
- Unrated
The Map Collector
The Map Collector, initiated by Peter Scott and Valerie G. Newby, was a journal on historical cartography published every quarter. The first issue appeared in 1997 and continued for nearly 20 years. After 74 issues the last copy appeared in Spring 1996. Mrs. Valerie G. Newby, is presently editor of the IMCoS Journal.
www.imcos.org
By Walter W. Ristow
WHEN HE DIED on December 3, 1892, Jay Gould was the wealthiest, as well as the most despised, man in the United States. In an era of free enterprise and rugged individualism, the undersized and sickly Gould proved to be one of the most cunning and crafty manipulators, and the greatest financial freebooter and buccaneer in the nation's history.
In an age famed for its lusty and acquisitive robber barons, none of his contemporaries, it was said, quite approached Gould's 'genius for trickery and thimble-rigging, his boldness in corruption and subornation, his talent for strategic betrayal, his mastery over stock and bond rigging, his daring in looting a company and defrauding its stockholders. [1]
Portrait of Jay Gould at age sixteen, about the time he began his mapping career.
(Courtesy of Library of Congress).
Jay Gould's ruthless amassing of wealth was the antithesis of the traditional All-American boy in the inspirational stories of Horatio Alger, late nineteenth century novelist. Jay's boyhood and youth were, however, very much in the pattern of Alger's simon pure heroes, and Gould's initial successes were achieved in surveying and mapping, highly esteemed professions in the history and development of the United States.
Jason Gould, as he was christened, was born in West Settlement, Delaware County, New York, on May 27, 1836, the sixth child and first son of John Burr Gould and Mary Moore Gould. The latter died when Jay was only six years old, and his care and training were assumed by older sisters. Until he was fourteen years old, the lad attended Beechwood Academy in the nearby village of Roxbury, of which John Gould was a founder and patron. One of Jay's classmates at Beechwood was John Burroughs, who was to become the distinguished naturalist and author. The Burrough's farm, like the Gould's, was located on the lower slopes of the Catskill Mountains, some four miles north of Roxbury. It was not as productive as the Gould dairy farm, and John Burroughs recalled, some years later, that 'the Goulds were very prosperous, and naturally stiff-necked, and they lived in a little better style than the others farmers. [2]
Upper left segment, with title cartouche, of Brink and Tillson's Map of Ulster County, New York, 1853. Jay Gould assisted in preparing surveys for the map, but sold out his interest to Tillson before the map was published.
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)
Before and after classes at Beechwood Academy, Jay helped his father and sisters with chores on the farm. He was never physically strong, however, and he had little taste for farm life and work. John Gould hoped that his son might help run the farm after completing his studies at the Academy. Jay had other ideas, however, and proposed that he be permitted to continue his education at Hobart Academy, some fifteen miles northwest of Roxbury. The elder Gould, apparently convinced that Jay was adamantly opposed to a farming career, granted permission, with the provision that the boy support himself.
In the autumn of 1850, Jay, who was then fourteen years old, walked the fifteen miles from his home to Hobart. He obtained a job as a clerk in a local store, and contracted to work for his room and board. Jay's scholastic interests were primarily in mathematics and surveying, and he soon acquired all the knowledge in these subjects that the instructors could offer. To supplement this rudimentary training, Jay often arose at three o'clock in the morning to study engineering and surveying books, before beginning his duties in the store three hours later.
In 1851, John Gould exchanged his dairy farm for a residence and hardware store in Roxbury, and Jay returned to the village to keep the books and help manage the store. In such spare time that was available, he continued his surveying studies. Jay remained in Roxbury through the winter of 185152, but gladly terminated his hardware career in the spring of the latter year, when he was offered a job as a surveyor's assistant.
His new employer, John J. Snyder, agreed to pay the sixteen year old boy twenty dollars a month and keep, for conducting surveys of Ulster County, which borders Delaware County on the east. Snyder's wife was bedridden and unable to prepare meals, however, and Jay later confided to a friend that he had never been so near starved as when he boarded with the Snyders. To compound matters, John Snyder was heavily in debt and unable to pay the young assistant.
Detail of northwest portion of the 1854 Map of Albany County, New York, prepared and published by Jay Gould and his cousin, LB. Moore. The whole map measures 96 by 136 centimetres.
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)
Jay accordingly joined in a partnership with two other of Snyder's assistants, Oliver J. Tillson and Peter Henry Brink, to complete the Ulster County map. Headquarters were set up in the home of Tillson's parents, some ten miles south of Kingston, the county seat. Three decades later, in a letter to Helen Gould Miller, Jay's daughter, Tillson described the procedures of the three young surveyors. 'Our manner of work', he wrote, 'was to start out in the forepart of the week, each taking a separate road to survey and return to my father's home the last of the week. We used an instrument called an odometer (similar to a wheelbarrow), which measured distances, and a Compass to take angles and directions. [3]
Field work in Ulster County was completed in about two months, after which the three partners drafted the map in the Tillson home. At this stage in the project, as Tillson related to Gould's daughter, Jay 'became discontented and wished to sell his interest. He did not wish to incur the expense of his share of the engraving and publishing charges ... We therefore auctioned off between us the various books and instruments, etc., and I personally bought his interest in the map and took his receipt, dated Dec. 27, 1852. [4] Writing in 1894, Tillson recalled that he bought Gould's interest in the map for forty dollars. Other accounts state that Gould received as much as five hundred dollars. The actual payment received by Gould was probably around two hundred dollars, the amount Tillson subsequently paid to Brink for the latter's interest in the map.
The 'Map of Ulster County, New York, From Original Surveys by Oliver J. Tillson and P. Henry Brink', was published in 1853. Brink and Tillson are also listed as the publishers. Jay Gould's name does not appear anywhere on the map, which measures approximately 1016 x 1145mm. Townships are outlined and names of all landowners are given. The map includes roads, canals, and rivers, as well as generalized topography. There are inset maps of the villages of Saugerties, Rondout, and Kingston, and fifteen border illustrations of churches, cemeteries, industrial plants, banks, academies, and public buildings.
WHEN HE DIED on December 3, 1892, Jay Gould was the wealthiest, as well as the most despised, man in the United States. In an era of free enterprise and rugged individualism, the undersized and sickly Gould proved to be one of the most cunning and crafty manipulators, and the greatest financial freebooter and buccaneer in the nation's history.
In an age famed for its lusty and acquisitive robber barons, none of his contemporaries, it was said, quite approached Gould's 'genius for trickery and thimble-rigging, his boldness in corruption and subornation, his talent for strategic betrayal, his mastery over stock and bond rigging, his daring in looting a company and defrauding its stockholders. [1]
Portrait of Jay Gould at age sixteen, about the time he began his mapping career.
(Courtesy of Library of Congress).
Jay Gould's ruthless amassing of wealth was the antithesis of the traditional All-American boy in the inspirational stories of Horatio Alger, late nineteenth century novelist. Jay's boyhood and youth were, however, very much in the pattern of Alger's simon pure heroes, and Gould's initial successes were achieved in surveying and mapping, highly esteemed professions in the history and development of the United States.
Jason Gould, as he was christened, was born in West Settlement, Delaware County, New York, on May 27, 1836, the sixth child and first son of John Burr Gould and Mary Moore Gould. The latter died when Jay was only six years old, and his care and training were assumed by older sisters. Until he was fourteen years old, the lad attended Beechwood Academy in the nearby village of Roxbury, of which John Gould was a founder and patron. One of Jay's classmates at Beechwood was John Burroughs, who was to become the distinguished naturalist and author. The Burrough's farm, like the Gould's, was located on the lower slopes of the Catskill Mountains, some four miles north of Roxbury. It was not as productive as the Gould dairy farm, and John Burroughs recalled, some years later, that 'the Goulds were very prosperous, and naturally stiff-necked, and they lived in a little better style than the others farmers. [2]
Upper left segment, with title cartouche, of Brink and Tillson's Map of Ulster County, New York, 1853. Jay Gould assisted in preparing surveys for the map, but sold out his interest to Tillson before the map was published.
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)
Before and after classes at Beechwood Academy, Jay helped his father and sisters with chores on the farm. He was never physically strong, however, and he had little taste for farm life and work. John Gould hoped that his son might help run the farm after completing his studies at the Academy. Jay had other ideas, however, and proposed that he be permitted to continue his education at Hobart Academy, some fifteen miles northwest of Roxbury. The elder Gould, apparently convinced that Jay was adamantly opposed to a farming career, granted permission, with the provision that the boy support himself.
In the autumn of 1850, Jay, who was then fourteen years old, walked the fifteen miles from his home to Hobart. He obtained a job as a clerk in a local store, and contracted to work for his room and board. Jay's scholastic interests were primarily in mathematics and surveying, and he soon acquired all the knowledge in these subjects that the instructors could offer. To supplement this rudimentary training, Jay often arose at three o'clock in the morning to study engineering and surveying books, before beginning his duties in the store three hours later.
In 1851, John Gould exchanged his dairy farm for a residence and hardware store in Roxbury, and Jay returned to the village to keep the books and help manage the store. In such spare time that was available, he continued his surveying studies. Jay remained in Roxbury through the winter of 185152, but gladly terminated his hardware career in the spring of the latter year, when he was offered a job as a surveyor's assistant.
His new employer, John J. Snyder, agreed to pay the sixteen year old boy twenty dollars a month and keep, for conducting surveys of Ulster County, which borders Delaware County on the east. Snyder's wife was bedridden and unable to prepare meals, however, and Jay later confided to a friend that he had never been so near starved as when he boarded with the Snyders. To compound matters, John Snyder was heavily in debt and unable to pay the young assistant.
Detail of northwest portion of the 1854 Map of Albany County, New York, prepared and published by Jay Gould and his cousin, LB. Moore. The whole map measures 96 by 136 centimetres.
(Courtesy of Library of Congress)
Jay accordingly joined in a partnership with two other of Snyder's assistants, Oliver J. Tillson and Peter Henry Brink, to complete the Ulster County map. Headquarters were set up in the home of Tillson's parents, some ten miles south of Kingston, the county seat. Three decades later, in a letter to Helen Gould Miller, Jay's daughter, Tillson described the procedures of the three young surveyors. 'Our manner of work', he wrote, 'was to start out in the forepart of the week, each taking a separate road to survey and return to my father's home the last of the week. We used an instrument called an odometer (similar to a wheelbarrow), which measured distances, and a Compass to take angles and directions. [3]
Field work in Ulster County was completed in about two months, after which the three partners drafted the map in the Tillson home. At this stage in the project, as Tillson related to Gould's daughter, Jay 'became discontented and wished to sell his interest. He did not wish to incur the expense of his share of the engraving and publishing charges ... We therefore auctioned off between us the various books and instruments, etc., and I personally bought his interest in the map and took his receipt, dated Dec. 27, 1852. [4] Writing in 1894, Tillson recalled that he bought Gould's interest in the map for forty dollars. Other accounts state that Gould received as much as five hundred dollars. The actual payment received by Gould was probably around two hundred dollars, the amount Tillson subsequently paid to Brink for the latter's interest in the map.
The 'Map of Ulster County, New York, From Original Surveys by Oliver J. Tillson and P. Henry Brink', was published in 1853. Brink and Tillson are also listed as the publishers. Jay Gould's name does not appear anywhere on the map, which measures approximately 1016 x 1145mm. Townships are outlined and names of all landowners are given. The map includes roads, canals, and rivers, as well as generalized topography. There are inset maps of the villages of Saugerties, Rondout, and Kingston, and fifteen border illustrations of churches, cemeteries, industrial plants, banks, academies, and public buildings.
