Jay Gould
Thornhurst Township, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
The first business venture of the noted speculator and railroad manipulator was at nearby Thornhurst. Here, 1856-61, he owned a large tannery with Zaddock Pratt. Gould's tannery profits became a basis of his fortune
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Long before Jay Gould became one of the Gilded Age's most feared financiers, he was a young man learning the tanning trade in the Pennsylvania backwoods. In the mountains near Thornhurst he partnered with the veteran tanner Zaddock Pratt in the late 1850s, running a large tannery that stripped hemlock bark to cure hides—one of the region's dominant early industries. The venture proved shrewdly lucrative, and Gould reportedly maneuvered his older partner out before turning his ambitions toward the railroads and stock markets that would make him infamous.
Why it matters
This quiet mountain tannery was the seedbed of a fortune that helped define the era of railroad barons and Wall Street speculation, tying a remote Pennsylvania hollow to the making of Gilded Age America.
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Related people
- · Jay Gould
- · Zaddock Pratt
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Jay Gould
Thornhurst Township, PA · est. 1947
Long before he became one of the Gilded Age's most feared financiers, Jay Gould got his start in this quiet Pocono village—then named Gouldsboro in his honor. Between 1856 and 1861 he partnered with the wealthy leather magnate Zaddock Pratt to run a large tannery here, converting the hemlock forests of northeastern Pennsylvania into the tanbark that cured hides on an industrial scale. The profits Gould pulled from this remote operation gave him the capital he would later parlay into control of railroads, gold, and Wall Street itself.
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