This month I chose to write about James Everette Gould. His family plot sits near the back of the cemetery in row 5. There are no headstones in the Gould plot, just an old metal marker belonging to James’s son, Elmer Gould, who passed away in 1971. I found James’s old metal marker hidden deep beneath the weeds. It is no longer attached to the base and is barely legible, see below. To prevent his marker from becoming lost or completely illegible, it is safely stored at the Odd Fellows Lodge in Sonora. James Everette Gould was born on September 22, 1878 in Confidence, California. The town of Confidence is 15 miles northeast of Sonora and it sits at an elevation of 4,200 feet. This region of Tuolumne County was placer-mined during the Gold Rush (1849), and lode mined shortly afterward.

James Gould was the first son born to James Knight Gould from Oxford County Maine and Mary A. York from Dakota, Wisconsin. James Gould had two younger brothers. His first brother died in 1892 at the young age of 20 months and is buried in the family plot. His second brother, Edgar Thomas Gould, was born much later in 1898.

As an adult James Gould was a tall man with a medium build. He had blue eyes and brown hair. In 1899 James Gould married Lillian Belle Hiatt. Lillian Hiatt was born in May 1880. She was the first and only daughter of Alfred Henry Hiatt from Ohio and Laura Hiatt from Indiana. Lillian Hiatt had one brother, Frank Burdine Hiatt, who was born in June 1882. Frank Burdine never married. He became a rancher and lived with his parents all of their lives.

James & Lillian Gould lived in Confidence where James worked as a day laborer. Lillian gave birth to their first son Frank E. Gould on July 13, 1899. They welcomed their second son, Elmer A. Gould, on June 10, 1901. Three months after the birth of Elmer tragedy struck the Gould family. James’s wife of 2 years passed away on Sept. 8, 1901 at the young age of 21. Unable to care for his young sons by himself, baby Elmer Gould was taken to San Jose, California where he lived with James’s parents. Two year old Frank Gould stayed in Confidence and was raised by Lillian’s parents. On James Gould’s 23rd birthday he was widowed and alone.

James Gould was renting a room from Edward Bachanan in Stanislaus, along with 28 other borders, when he met his second wife Alice Dunn. She was born in California in February 1889. Alice Dunn experienced heartache at very young age. After the loss of her mother, she became an inmate at the Mount St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Infant/Orphan Asylum in San Francisco. Mount St. Joseph's orphanage was a landmark in the city. It was erected on Mount St. Joseph at Bayview in 1869. The orphanage survived the 1906 earthquake with no damage, but in the early morning of October 9, 1910 the orphanage was completely destroyed by a fire. The fire is believed to have started from defective electric wiring and was discovered just in time to save the lives of the 450 children housed within its walls.

James Gould and Alice married in 1910. The Gould family traveled from Tuolumne County to San Jose where James worked as a laborer in a lumberyard. James and Alice Gould raised two daughters, Frances M. Gould and Elaine Gould. While living in San Jose James’s son Elmer and Alice’s widowed father, Francis M. Dunn, lived with them. Eventually the family returned to Tuolumne County. James Gould was living in Soulsbyville when he passed away on November 11, 1954.

There are many gaps in James Everette Gould’s life that I could not account for, but his story is typical of the time, i.e., hard work and heartbreak.

R.I.P. James Everette Gould.

Written By Denine Urquhart