Name/Title
Mary (Sarah) Ann (Brown) AngellEntry/Object ID
2023.10.434Scope and Content
Article researched and written by Chris Yoder for the SDHS newsletter.
Saugatuck Woman Married to Jay Gould?
The Oct. 12, 1894 issue of the Commercial Record reported a claim that a former Saugatuck resident was the first wife of the late financier and “robber Barron” Jay Gould (1836-1892). Sarah Ann Brown had lived in Saugatuck in a small cottage by the ferry about 1880-82 under the name of Mrs. Youngpeter. She supposedly was briefly married as a young girl to Mr. Gould, with the product being a daughter, born after a divorce and never revealed to Mr. Gould.
It took a couple years for the issue to reach the courts. An 1897 New York Times article gives details of an affidavit by the reputed daughter’s husband, J. F. Pierce, a printer, coal miner and populist politician of Rock Springs, Wyoming:
“My wife is the oldest and only legitimate child of the late Jay Gould. Her mother was Sarah Ann Brown of Rouse’s Point, Clinton County, N.Y. She was married to Jay Gould May 16, 1853, in New York City. …It was a child marriage, Jay Gould lacking a few days of eighteen years of age, and Miss Brown being only a little past fifteen years. …The child, now Mrs. Pierce, was born when her mother was only a little past sixteen years of age. Mr. Gould and his wife were incompatible, and separated before the birth of the girl on Feb. 15, 1854.” Pierce goes on to tell how the mother returned to Rouse’s Point, calling herself “Mrs. Brown”, but being a Catholic, never applied for a divorce. After Gould’s marriage in 1856, Sarah Ann gave the baby over for adoption to a family named Morton. In 1866 the Mortons moved to Hamilton, MO. Pierce writes. “The grandmother of my wife, I understand, is still living, her home being in Saugatuck, Michigan.”
The Apr. 9, 1897 issue of the Commercial Record reports: “Attorneys for the heirs of Mary (Sarah) Ann (Brown) Angell, who claims to have been the lawful wife of the late Jay Gould, have been here several times during the past winter, trying to secure evidence from her relatives to use in the pending law suit in which they endeavor to secure a share of the Gould estate. The woman lived here several years ago and has relatives at this place and at Douglas.”
Involved in pushing this claim and in seeking money from the Gould estate was a Mrs. Cody of Denver, CO. Mrs. Angell eventually changed her story and denied her marriage to Gould, revealing a different father for her daughter, but Mrs. Cody was charged with blackmail and convicted in 1899.
The Commercial Record article of 1894 lists local relatives of Miss Sarah Ann Brown Angell as J. H. Brown of Saugatuck (1830 Rouses Point, NY-1910 Saugatuck) and Mrs. A. W. (Frances Brown) Walker (1846-1924 Douglas). These two were the children of Mrs. Emily Brown (1818 Rouse’s Point, NY-1900 Saugatuck), who would have been grandmother of Mrs. Pierce.
-submitted by Chris YoderContext
Sarah Ann Angell (born Sarah Ann Brown) was a Michigan resident who made national headlines in the 1890s by filing a sensational lawsuit claiming she was the lawful, first wife of the late railroad tycoon Jay Gould.
In 1896, several years after Gould’s death in 1892, Sarah Ann filed a legal action in the New York Supreme Court to secure a dower right in the multi-million dollar Gould estate. She claimed that she and a 16-year-old Jay Gould had eloped and were married in Champlain, New York, in 1853.
Gould's legal heirs and estate executors fiercely contested her claims, producing depositions—such as one from former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice John W. Champlin—that highlighted the improbability of the 1853 marriage story. Ultimately, the New York courts threw her lawsuit out. In early 1899, after public trials and investigations into alleged conspiracies surrounding the case, her efforts to claim the Gould fortune failed completely.Cataloged By
Winthers, SallyAcquisition
Accession
2023.10Acquisition Method
Found in CollectionLocation
* Untyped Location
Digital data in CatalogItGeneral Notes
Note
This information was copied from the pre-2023 SDHC website. The location of an original version was unknown at the time of cataloging.Create Date
May 26, 2026Update Date
May 26, 2026
