Jay Gould is Dead -- December 2, 2017

New York Evening World, 02-December-1892

Gilded Age predatory capitalist and railroad developer Jay Gould died of tuberculosis 125 years ago today, on 02-December-1892.  This article is from the New York Evening World, 02-December-1892

EXTRA.

JAY GOULD IS DEAD.

The Great Financier Passed Away at 9.15 To-Day.

CONSCIOUS TO THE LAST.

End Came Peacefully In the Room Where His Wife Died.

All the Members of His Family Received His Farewell Glance and Smile.

Little Apparent Effect of His Death in the Stock Market or Wall Street.

Mr. Gould's Fortune Estimated to be Not Less Than One Hundred Million Dollars.

Jay Gould, the famous financier and railroad magnate, died at his home, S79 Fifth avenue, at 9.15 o'clock this morning. Mr. Gould's death was apparently painless, he was conscious at the last, and his bedside was surrounded by all the members of his family.

Mr. Gould died In a room on the second floor of his home, in the extension in the rear of the building, just over the conservatory, the same room in which his wile died. A few moments before the end Mr. Gould expressed a desire to bid his family good-by. Then he looked tenderly into the face of each one, smiled at each and all was over.

Although the event was not unexpected, the public mind having been prepared for the news by the publication in yesterday's Evening World of the facts of his critical illness, the announcement that the end had come created intense excitement among businessmen all over the city.

The direct cause of Mr. Gould's death is said to have been exhaustion caused by hemorrhages from the stomach, of which he is reported to have had three. The first was Thanksgiving pay, the next two days later, and the third last Wednesday. His children abandoned hope of his recovery yesterday afternoon.

That the death of Mr. Gould bad not been looked for so soon by his children and by his physician, Dr. Munn, is evident by the early morning reports given out at the house to the effect that the patient's condition was apparently unchanged.

It was just 9.20 o'clock when Dr. Munn called his wife up on the telephone and notified her that Mr. Gould had just passed away.

About the same time a bulletin announcing the fact of Mr. Gould's death was posted in the Western Union Building.

For fully twenty minutes after this, reporters who called at Mr. Gould's house were refused confirmation of the report.

Undertaker John Main's wagon was driven up to the Gould house at 10.35 this forenoon. It came from 35 West Forty-fourth street.

Main is sexton of Dr. Paxton's church, at which Mr. Gould was an attendant.

The presence of this wagon confirmed beyond doubt the presence of death, and a crowd began to congregate on the street and stare at the curtained windows.

The undertaker's assistants lifted out a large ice-box covered with black cloth and carried, it into the house.

Within half au hour after the death, was announced, District Messenger boys were hurrying in and out of the rear entrance. They had been called to carry the news to the immediate friends of the family.

Then began an almost unending procession of private carriages. The vehicles drew up at the door, the occupants stepped out, and mounting the stops of the mansion, left their cards aud condolences.!

Chauncey Depew passed the house on his way downtown, accompanied by two little girls, abut ten minutes after Mr. Gould's death bad been announced. He stopped and asked a group of reporters if Mr. Gould was stlll alive, and being told that he was dead, passed on without comment, except an ejaculatory "Huh!"

Collis P. Huntington drove up to the house at 9.30 and, alighting at the door, inquired as to the condition of Mr. Gould.

When told that the great financier was dead, he re-entered his carriage. An EVENING WORLD reporter caught him as he was leaving and asked what effect, in his opinion, Mr. Gould's death would have on Wall street affairs. His reply was:

"None whatever. Men are individuals; property doesn't die. Mr. Gould's property is left in just the same shape as it was before his death, and Mr. George Gould is perfectly competent to take up the burden where his father laid it down."

Mr. Edwin Gould lives just back of the Gould mansion, at l East Forty-seventh street. The curtains of this house were drawn immediately after Mr. Edwin Gould entered on leaving his father's house.

The Gould family tomb is in Woodlawn Cemetery and stands in a plot comprising an acre of ground overlooking Woodlawn Lake. It is known as the "Lakeview Plot " and is a circular, gently sloping mound in the finest location of the cemetery. The plot cost Jay Gould $S00,000.

The mausoleum is a copy of tbe Parthenon, and was designed by F. T. Fitz Mahony. It is built throughout of Westerly (R. I.) granite, and its dimensions are: S3 feet wide, 33 feet long and 20 feet high to the apex of the roof.

There are twenty catacombs in the mausoleum. The tomb Itself cost $100,000, and the first member of the family it received was Mrs. Gould, who died Jan. l3 last.

Rev. Dr. Paxton, pastor of tbe church at which Mr. Gould was a worshipper, called at the Gould residence early this morning. When he came out be said to an EVENING WORLD reporter that the death-bed scene was most affecting. He corroborated the statement made by another friend of the family as to Mr. Gould calling his children to his bedside and bidding them each good-by.

"The end was peaceful and painless," said he, "and the children bore up as well as could be expected under their grief."

Rev. Dr. Paxton said, also, that the funeral services will be held at the Gould residence next Monday either at 10 o'clock in the morning or 4 o'clock In the afternoon, as may be decided by George Gould and his sister Helen.

Rev. Dr. Paxton will be assisted in the last rites by Rev. Dr. Chancellor MacCracken, of the University of the city of New York, a close friend of Mr. Gould.

The place of interment, Dr. Paxton said, had not been decided upon yet, but he will probably be burled beside his wife In Woodlawn cemetery.

It was this afternoon definitely settled that in the funeral service Dr. Paxton and Chancellor MacCracken will no assisted by Rev. Roderick Terry, of 169 Madison avenue. The choir from Dr. Paxton's church will also be present and render the singing.

Dr. Munn remained in the house throughout the forenoon. Around 12 o'clock the callers were very numerous. Col. Hain remained downstairs conducting some of the ladies who were intimate friends of the family to Miss Helen Gould's apartments, upstairs. None of the callers remained over a few minutes, and the great majority simply left their cards at the door.

The undertaker put crape on the doorbell at 11 o'clock.

I have no idea who Jay Gould, Jr was.