My great grandfather William Proctor Gould, Jr., (in the photos) was the son of John McKee Gould (b. 4/3/1831) and Delia Frances Thornton. John McKee Gould was the first son of the William Proctor Gould (1793-1867; described below), and Eliza Williams Chotard. (I believe that William Proctor Gould described below had a second son, William Proctor Gould II.) William Proctor Gould, Jr., (in photos) had daughters Susan Perry Gould (Kennedy) (my grandmother), Rosa Gould (Caldwell), and Delia Gould (Doll), and a son William Gould. A letter from Millicent Doll Shargel to her daughter Delia is useful. William Proctor Gould, Jr., had one brother, John McKee "Buddy" Gould, and several sisters (see Susan Perry Gould Kennedy's letters). --jimsturges
William Proctor Gould
Born in Salem, Massachusetts, October 9, 1793. Died at the "Hill of Howth," Boligee, Alabama and buried at Beth Salem Church, October 7, 1862 (other source says 1867).
William was his mother's youngest son--his brothers were all sailors and she would not let him go to sea. He ran away and sailed to Marseilles, France. On returning to the United States he went to Washington where he met Colonel John McKee (new information posted March, 2004), who was the agent of the government appointed to the Choctaw Indians in Alabama. Colonel McKee became his good friend and brought William Proctor Gould to Tuscaloosa, Alabama with him.William became Register of the Government Land Office when Colonel McKee was elected to Congress. Here in Tuscaloosa he met Eliza Williams Chotard when she came to Alabama with her mother to place land grants she owned on land there. William met and fell in love with her. This story is told in her (Eliza's) journal which she wrote for her children. They later moved to the "Hill of Howth" on a large plantation. There (in the home beloved by several generations) these two portraits hung side by side many years.
Susan Gould Kennedy, June, 1989
There is also a William Proctor Gould Diary.
There are additional images and documents in this directory.
