Helen Gould, daughter of railroad tycoon Jay Gould married F.J. Shepard who was
the Eastern representative of the Missouri Pacific railroad, part of the great railroad system built by her father. A true philanthropist, at the outbreak of the Spanish-
American war (1898) she donated $100,000 to the U.S. Government to support the
war effort and an additional $50,000 for military hospital supplies and actually worked
at a hospital helping wounded soldiers. The YMCA and YWCA organizations also benefited from her generosity. She had three adopted children and one foster child t hat had been abandoned on the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, NY.
Philanthropist Helen Gould Shepard and husband Finlay J. Shepard, taken on December 22, 1912.