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 most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

and champion

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

player.

Early life

He was born on August 15, 1887 in

Manhattan, New York City Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

, 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 Manhatta ...

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 Anthony Joseph Drexel III (October 19, 1887 – February 23, 1946) was an American banker and aviator. Early life He was the eldest son of Margarita "Rita" Armstrong (1867–1948), Anthony Joseph Drexel Jr. Among his siblings were Margaretta ...

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 l ...

(wife of

John Beresford, 5th Baron Decies John Graham Hope Horsley de la Poer Beresford, 5th Baron Decies PC (5 December 1866 – 31 January 1944), styled The Honourable John Beresford until 1910, was an Anglo-Irish army officer, civil servant, and polo player in the 1900 Summ ...

), George Jay Gould II,

Edith Catherine Gould Edith Catherine MacNeal ( Gould, formerly Wainwright) (August 3, 1901 – September 10, 1937) was an American heiress and writer. Early life Edith was born aboard her father's yacht, ''Sybarite'', on August 3, 1901, while it was anchored off Co ...

, and

Gloria Gould Gloria Gould (1906 – August 16, 1943) was an American socialite who was the daughter of industrialist heir George Jay Gould I. Early life She was born on March 3, 1906, the youngest daughter of George Jay Gould I. She was one of seven chi ...

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

Helen Day Miller Helen Day Miller (September 20, 1838 - January 13, 1889) was the wife of the financier Jay Gould. Biography Early life Helen Day Miller was born on September 20, 1838, in Manhattan, New York, the fourth child of Daniel Stratton Miller and A ...

and

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made hi ...

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

Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Weste ...

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

(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 A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic b ...

(Boni's cousin). He attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

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 in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active colonies across North America. It was founded at Yale College in 1844 by fifteen ...

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 & 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 from De ...

, 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 ...

, 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. History Under the influence of ...

, as well as the

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

. He served as an officer in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

with the

American Expeditionary Forces The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought alon ...

, 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 Arezzo ( , , ) , also ; ett, 𐌀𐌓𐌉𐌕𐌉𐌌, Aritim. is a city and ''comune'' in Italy and the capital of the province of the same name located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about southeast of Florence at an elevation of above sea level ...

and was educated at a convent in

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' 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 its leaning tower, the cit ...

. 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. *

Kingdon Gould Jr. Kingdon Gould Jr. (January 3, 1924 – January 16, 2018) was an American diplomat, businessman, and philanthropist. A Republican Party (United States), Republican businessman, Gould was appointed by President Richard Nixon to serve as United Stat ...

(1925–2018), who was Ambassador to

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

under Richard M. Nixon and

Gerald R. Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

; he married Mary Bruce 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 in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster. History ...

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

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

'' 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 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 or black in color, Percherons are well muscled, and k ...
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 Cen ...

. He was buried in his father's mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gould, Kingdon Sr. 1887 births 1945 deaths People from Manhattan Businesspeople from New York City 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