Daniel Gugel Purse Sr.

Daniel Gugel Purse Sr. (November 14, 1839 – August 6, 1908) was an American army captain and businessman from Savannah, Georgia. After serving with the First Georgia Volunteers during the Civil War, he became president of the Savannah Board of Trade.

Life and career Purse was born in 1839 in Savannah, Georgia, to Thomas Pilkington Purse, a Virginia native, and Eliza Jane Gugel, of Savannah.

He graduated academically from Oxford College of Emory University in Atlanta and commercially from Duff's Business Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He "taught school, read law a short time," before beginning a commercial life in Savannah.

Purse's most noted achievements are the development of Tybee Island, from largely a desert into a popular summer resort, and the construction of the Tybee Railroad over large sections of salt marsh. He was also extensively engaged in rice planting. Daniel Gugel Jr. (1869), Thomas (1874), Henry (1878), Charles (1880) and Clayton (1882). The seventh died in infancy in 1885.

After the Civil War, in 1866, he went into business with Daniel Remshart Thomas (1843–1915), a fellow Savannahian. Three years later, the two men built a duplex on Taylor Street in Savannah, now known as the Thomas-Purse Duplex, in Monterey Square. The western half is now known as the Thomas-Levy House, with Purse owning number 14 next door.

He was a prominent member of Savannah's St. John's Episcopal Church,