Kingdon Gould Sr. (August 15, 1887 – November 7, 1945) was an American

financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of property. Types of in ...

, champion

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

player and member of the wealthy

Gould family The Gould family is a wealthy American family that came to prominence in the late 19th century. The family's fortune was primarily earned through a railroad empire built by Jay Gould, Jason "Jay" Gould, a notorious Robber baron (industrialist), " ...

Early life

He was born on August 15, 1887, in

Manhattan, New York City Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the smallest county by area in the U.S. state of New York. Located almost entire ...

, the eldest son born to

George Jay Gould I 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 the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (DRGW), Western Pacific Railroad (WP), and the Manhatt ...

and Edith M. Kingdon. Among his siblings were

Jay Gould II Jay Gould II (September 1, 1888 – January 26, 1935) was an American real tennis player and a grandson of the railroad magnate Jay Gould. He was the world champion (1914–1916) and the Olympic gold medalist (London, 1908, then und ...

, Marjorie Gwynne Gould (wife of Anthony Joseph Drexel III),

Helen Vivien Gould Helen Vivien Beresford, Baroness Decies, formerly Helen Vivien Gould (May 2, 1893 – February 3, 1931) was an American socialite and philanthropist. She was one of the two Jay Gould descendants to marry into European aristocracy. Early lif ...

(wife of

John Beresford, 5th Baron Decies John Graham Hope Horsley de la Poer Beresford, 5th Baron Decies Privy Council of Ireland, PC (5 December 1866 – 31 January 1944), styled The Hon. John Beresford until 1910, was an Anglo-Irish army officer, civil servant, and polo player ...

George Jay Gould II George Jay Gould II (March 28, 1896 – June 7, 1963) was an American lawyer and oil company executive. Early life Gould was born on March 28, 1896, in Manhattan, New York City. He was one of seven children born to millionaire George Jay Gould I ...

, Edith Catherine Gould, and Gloria Gould (wife of Henry A. Bishop II and Wallace McFarlane Barker). His namesake father was the eldest son of the former

Helen Day Miller Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who founded the Gould family, Gould business dynasty. He is generally identified as one of the Robber baron (industrialist), robber bar ...

and

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who founded the Gould family, Gould business dynasty. He is generally identified as one of the Robber baron (industrialist), robber bar ...

, a leading American railroad developer and speculator who has been referred to as one of the ruthless robber barons of the

Gilded Age In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...

, whose success at business made him one of the richest men of his era. His aunt,

Anna Gould Anna Gould (June 5, 1875 – November 30, 1961) was an American socialite and heiress as a daughter of financier Jay Gould. Early life Anna Gould was born on June 5, 1875, in New York City. She was the daughter of Jay Gould (1836–1892) and ...

, was married to two European aristocrats,

Boni de Castellane Marie Ernest Paul Boniface de Castellane, Marquis de Castellane (14 February 1867 – 20 October 1932), known as Boni de Castellane, was a French nobleman and politician. He was known as a leading ''Belle Époque'' tastemaker and the first husban ...

(the elder son and heir apparent of the Marquis of Castellane) and

Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duke of Sagan Marie Pierre Louis Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord (August 23, 1859 – October 25, 1937), 5th Duke of Talleyrand and Dino, Prince, then Duke of Sagan, was a French socialite and son of Boson de Talleyrand-Périgord. Early life Talleyrand was ...

(Boni's cousin). He attended

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and graduated from the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science in 1909 with a E.M. degree. He was a member of the

Delta Kappa Epsilon Delta Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as ''DKE'' or ''Deke'', is one of the oldest Fraternities and sororities, fraternities in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active Colony (fraternity or sorority), colonies across No ...

fraternity on campus.

Career

Soon after his graduation from Columbia in 1908, he began serving on the boards of several of the so-called "Gould railroads" including the

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south fr ...

, the

Missouri Pacific Railroad The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad o ...

, the

Western Pacific Railroad The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California. WP's Feather River Route dire ...

, and

Texas and Pacific Railway The Texas and Pacific Railway Company (known as the T&P) was created by federal charter in 1871 with the purpose of building a southern transcontinental railroad between Marshall, Texas, and San Diego, California. However its lines never went we ...

, as well as the

Western Union Telegraph Company The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company ch ...

. He served as an officer in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

with the

American Expeditionary Forces The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) was a formation of the United States Armed Forces on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during World War I, composed mostly of units from the United States Army, U.S. Army. The AEF was establis ...

, where he distinguished himself as a division observer and interpreter. After the war, he spent two years in the brokerage firm of J.N. Noyes & Co. before resigning his partnership to focus on managing the estate of his father who died in 1923.

Personal life

On July 2, 1917, Gould was married to Annunziata Camilla Maria Lucci (1890–1961) in the rectory of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, New York City. She had been born in Arezzo, Italy and was educated at a convent in

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

. Gould met Lucci while she was tutoring his sister Helen Vivien (later Lady Decies). Together they had the following children: * Silvia Annunziata Gould (1919–1980), who married Charles Dabney Thomson in 1938; Robert B. Parker Jr. in 1946; Ernst Hoefer in 1949; Robert Joseph Portner in 1960; and George Romilly. *

Edith Kingdon Gould Edith Kingdon Gould Martin (August 20, 1920 – August 17, 2004) was an American socialite, linguist, actress, and poet. Birth She was the daughter of financier Kingdon Gould Sr., granddaughter of financier George Jay Gould, and great-granddaug ...

(1920–2004), who married Guy Martin (1911–2014) of the

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...

. * Kingdon Gould Jr. (1925–2018), who was Ambassador to

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

under

Richard M. Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 36th vice president under P ...

and

Gerald R. Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Ford assumed the p ...

; he married Mary Bunce Thorne in 1946. After their marriage, they traveled extensively and maintained a country estate, known as Furlow Lodge, in

Ulster County, New York Ulster County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston, ...

, which had been Gould's summer home as a boy. ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' wrote on July 27, 1942 :

To beat the gas & rubber shortage Manhattan’s Mrs. Kingdon Gould took the old family carriages out of moth balls, sent Daughter Edith to buy a pair of horses. Inexperienced Daughter Edith came back with a pair of brewery-truck-model
Percheron The Percheron is a horse breed, breed of draft horse that originated in the Huisne river valley in western France, part of the former Perche province, from which the breed takes its name. Usually gray (horse), gray or black (horse), black in col ...
s.

Kingdon died on November 7, 1945, at his residence, 160

East 72nd Street 72nd Street is one of the major bi-directional crosstown streets in New York City's borough of Manhattan. The street primarily runs through the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods. It is one of the few streets to go through C ...

. He was buried in his father's mausoleum in

Woodlawn Cemetery Woodlawn Cemetery is the name of several cemeteries, including: Canada * Woodlawn Cemetery (Saskatoon) * Woodlawn Cemetery (Nova Scotia) United States ''(by state then city or town)'' * Woodlawn Cemetery (Ocala, Florida), where Isaac Rice and fa ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gould, Kingdon Sr. 1887 births 1945 deaths Businesspeople from Manhattan Military personnel from New York City Kingdon Sr. Burials in the Jay Gould Mausoleum American military personnel of World War I Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni