Not only was Jay Gould responsible for one of the first major events in American history referred to as Black Friday, but, he was also obsessed with railroads.
Jay Gould, who invested heavily into railroads throughout his stock speculation days, first got his start with railroads within the Erie Railroad in a deceitful way.
Between 1866 and 1868, Daniel Drew, an associate of Jay Gould, brought Gould and his accomplice Jim Fisk onto the board of the Erie Railroad.
The two were issued shares which watered down the stock. This all occurred unbeknownst to Cornelius Vanderbilt whom purchased a large quantity of shares.
The two were issued shares which watered down the stock. This all occurred unbeknownst to Cornelius Vanderbilt whom purchased a large quantity of shares.
As a result of Vanderbilt trying to gain control of the Erie Railroad, he lost more than $7 million. Once Vanderbilt became privy to the scheme, he threatened litigation to the trio.
The trio of Drew, Gould, Fisk fled to New Jersey where they couldn't be pursued for criminal charges that originated in New York. Eventually, Gould returned most of the money to Vanderbilt after Drew caved and returned to New York and make a plea deal with Vanderbilt.
Vanderbilt ended up conceding control to the trio after a deal was made and most of the money returned. They also managed to avoid justice by working with AKA bribing a corrupt politician, Boss Tweed, to arrange favorable legislation to legalize the newly issued shares.
Later after this, both Gould and Fisk went against Drew manipulating the Erie Railroad stock price costing Drew millions forcing him to go bankrupt.
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Several years later, after the Black Friday Scheme on Gold, Gould again pursued a railroad empire in the form of connecting the Atlantic and Pacific via rail.
Taking control of Union Pacific in 1873 and completely revamped the company. Completely reworked the financial structure, the administrative side, and grew the resources throughout the rail network.
By 1879 Gould owned the Missouri Pacific Railway, Central Pacific, Denver and Rio Grande Railway. In 1881, Gould had the largest sum of track in America, totaling 15,800 miles or track close 15% of the total track miles in the U.S.
However, he never did accomplish his dream of connecting the Atlantic to the pacific via railroad due to extremely poor help and passed from tuberculosis in 1892 at the age of 56. Similar robber barons of his time lived well into their 70s and 80s.
Iron Horse the Collab Candle and Coffee with the homies at Ambush Candle Co go live 11/25/24