Mr. Gould used to tell his intimate friends that whatever nerve he possessed he inherited from his father.
While working at the tin shop, young Gould retained all his fondness for mathematics, and mastered several of the best authorities on surveying, trigonometry and engineering, besides reading a course of history. He rose at four in the morning, and devoted the time he could call his own to reading and study. Having made a particularly nice tin whistle, he invited the boys of the town to join him in amateur surveying expeditions, and with a borrowed compass and other necessary instruments, the boys acting as flagmen and chain-bearers, he soon became an expert surveyor. In the tin business he made himself so useful that at the age of fifteen he was a full partner in the concern, and when he visited Albany and New York to purchase material, he succeeded in opening accounts with Phelps, Dodge & Co. and other firms well-known to the public.
It was at this point in young Gould's career that the unvarying routine of life in a tin shop became too monotonous, and he abandoned it for a pursuit that would at least enable him to see something of the surrounding country, and possibly be more profitable. He decided to make use of the knowledge that he had gained and become a surveyor.
