Born: 20 June 1868, United States
Died: 21 December 1938
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Helen Miller Shepard
From Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.:
Helen Miller Gould, A Princess Among Givers, 1868 – 1938 A.D.
She gives not only her money but herself to the work of relieving distress and making the world better.
Helen Gould earns the friendship of those she helps by giving her personal sympathy and intelligent interest with her benefactions.
She is the daughter of Jay Gould, the famous financier. Her education was obtained under carefully chosen private instructors. This was supplemented by a course in the New York Law University, that she might have a knowledge of business for the management of her own affairs.
We mention some of her noble gifts: For the Library of the University of the City of New York, $250.000, with $60.000 added later; for the St. Louis cyclone sufferers in 1896, $100,000; to the United States Government at the outbreak of the war with Spain, $100,000, for the relief of the soldiers at Camp Wycoff, Long Island. Rutgers, Vassar, and Mount Holyoke Colleges have received generous gifts; also the Engineering School of the University of the City of New York; the Naval Branch of the Young Men’s Christian Association near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, $50,000; “Woody Crest,” a home for crippled children, $150,000.
When the Windsor Hotel, opposite her home in New York, was burned, she distinguished herself by ministering to the firemen and others in their work of rescue. The firemen showed their deep gratitude by preparing an address and sending it by the hands of a committee of ten, representing a constituency of more than eighteen hundred.
Perhaps her greatest work was her patriotic efforts during the Spanish-American war.
On December 5, 1898, General Joseph Wheeler, through Congressman Stallings, introduced in the House a bill providing that, in recognition of the patriotic devotion and bounteous benevolence of Miss Gould to the soldiers of the United States during the recent war, the thanks of Congress be tendered and an appropriate medal be prepared, the same to the presented by the President.