How a Fortune was Made.

Hastings Standard, Issue 481, 20 November 1897, Page 4

How a Fortune was Made.

According to a New York correspondent, the death of the late Ogden Goeiet, whose body has just been conveyed to New York on his yacht, the May Mower, may cause a division in an individual holding of property valued at close on £10,000,000. Save Mr J. J. Astor's New York City real estate, which is valued at 70,000,000d015., and Mr Waldorf Astor's (110,000,000 dols.), Mr Goelet's big blocks of property are placed against the largest figures on the tax assessor's books. The building tip of this vast estate was a romance not unlike the acquirement of the Astor interests. As in the latter family, the beads of the various generations of Goelets appreciated the value of their real estate holdings in a city that was growing almost as rapidly as a mining town, and added to them. They adopted the principle of constant improvement, and the result is that the buildings of the estate are now notable because they represent, as a rule, the best types of modern buildings. The foundation of the great Goeiet properties was laid by Jean Goelette, a young member of a sturdy Huguenot family, who was driven out of France by the Edict of Nantes. He landed in an intensely Protestant town, where he was welcomed almost as a hero. Personally attractive, and knowing English well, he soon became popular in the little colony, where he married a daughter of the leading merchant, John Cannon, in 1G97. Accepted as a partner in his father-in-law's business, he acquired what was then considered a large property, and one which grew steadily. It was his grandson, Peter, the uncle of the late Ogden Goeiet, who put the capstone on the Goeiet fortune at about the lime of the Revolutionary war. Moving from Boston to New York, he devoted himself to acquiring real estate in Broadway, buying some lots as high as what are now 40th and 50th Streets, but which were then miles out in the country. At that time Mr Goeiet owned most of the land on which the Grand Central Station (42nd Street) and its approaches lie. Commodore Vanderbilt approached the shrewd speculator and made him anofferforit. Mr Goeiet laughed at the offer. " Very well," the Commodore is quoted as saying, " that property pleases me very much and I intend to have control of it." Again Mr Goeiet laughed, but the railway king went to the Legislature and succeeded in having an Act passed condemning the property for railway purposes. Mr Goeiet never completely forgave Commodore anderbilt for this, though the real estate magnate always referred to the railway king with prefound respect as the only man who had ever got the best of Peter Goeiet. The memorable fight of Peter Goeiet with Tweed, in which the later insisted on continuing the Madison Avenue to the southward, so that it may join Broadway, is still remembered among real estate operators. Tweed attempted the same tactics as Mr Vanderbilt, but Mr Goeiet had been taught a lesson, and when Tweed succeeded in obtaining action by the Legislature Mr Goeiet had it declared unconstitutional by the Appellate Courts.