The Gould Family
The Gould family, beginning with James Gould—builder of the first lighthouse on St. Simons Island—played an important role in the island’s agricultural, civic, and church history.
The Gould family, beginning with James Gould—builder of the first lighthouse on St. Simons Island—played an important role in the island’s agricultural, civic, and church history.
James Gould (1722–1852) was born in Granville, Massachusetts, in 1722. He moved to Maine to work in the lumber business before bringing his trade to the South. In 1807, he settled on St. Simons Island after receiving a contract to build a lighthouse on the south end of the island, on land donated by John Couper. His life inspired Lighthouse, part of Eugenia Price’s St. Simons Trilogy. His photo can be seen here on the left.
Gould designed and built St. Simons’ first lighthouse, completed in 1810, and served as its keeper until 1837. He also acquired 900 acres bordering Black Banks River and Dunbar Creek, naming it New St. Clair Plantation, and later added 700 acres called Black Banks Plantation. By 1840, these properties were worked by 52 enslaved people and used to grow cotton and other crops.
Around 1807, Gould married Jane Harris Gould. They had four children before her death in Savannah in 1820 while seeking treatment for migraines; she is buried there due to a hurricane preventing her return to St. Simons.
Immediate descendants buried near James include: Mary E. H. Gould (1809–1872) – Known for her love of roses, reflected in her headstone at New St. Clair.
Horace Bunch Gould (1812–1881) – James and Jane’s third child, senior warden of Christ Church Frederica, and key figure in inspiring Anson Dodge to rebuild the church. His wife, Deborah Abbott Gould (1828–1906), daughter of Irish immigrants, is buried nearby. Four of their nine children, along with spouses and grandchildren, are also interred in this plot:
Jessie Caroline Gould (1848–1921), next to her husband, Wilson Campbell (1837–1886)
James Dunn Gould (1860–1934) and first wife, Mary Greene Gould (1864–1924); four of their eight children: Richard (1889–1961), Richard Jr. (1926–1963), Potter (1892–1984), and James Dunn (1896–1975), as well as Orville Richardson Gould (1899–1900). A fifth child, Horace Bunch Gould (1898–1979), is buried across the driveway with his wife, Emmie Curry Gould. James Dunn Gould’s second wife, Idelia Foreman Postell Gould (1879–1952), is also nearby. They can be seen in the photo on the right from 1910.
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Angela Abbott Gould (1860–1934) and husband William Frederick Steuart (1843–1899) Jane Gould (1815–1883) – Married Orville Richardson of Topsham, ME, in 1834; their children Helen Mary and James are buried in the Gould plot with her husband, who died in 1871.
Note: Anna Deborah Gould (1856–1927), who married the Rev. Anson Dodge in 1890, is buried in the Dodge Family Plot.
James F. “Jim” Gould, another son (born 1811), was living in Anderson, west Texas, by 1860 and is not buried at Christ Church Frederica.
