Jason "Jay" Gould (May 27, 1836 - December 2, 1892) was a leading American railroad developer and speculator. He was long vilified as an archetypal robber baron. In 1859 Gould began speculative investing by buying stock in small railways. Jay Gould, Daniel Drew and James Fisk engaged in stock manipulations known as the Erie War, with the result that in the summer of 1868 Drew, Fisk, and Vanderbilt lost control of the Erie, while Gould became its president. After being forced out of the Erie Railroad, in his 40s Gould started to build up a system of railroads in the Midwest and West. Beginning in 1879, he gained control of four western railroads. By 1880, he controlled 10,000 miles of railway, about 1/9th of the length of rail in the US at that time, and, by 1882, he had controlling interest in 15 percent of the country's tracks. He obtained a controlling interest in the Western Union telegraph company, and, after 1881, in the elevated railways in NYC. From 1868 to 1888, he was connected with many of the largest railway financial operations in the US. He died of tuberculosis in 1892 at the age of 56. His fortune was conservatively estimated at $72 million for tax purposes, which he willed in its entirety to his family. Bain News Service, undated.