cowens

James Fisk
James Fisk was born on April 1st, 1834 and was killed on January 6th, 1872. James was born and raised in Bennington, Vermont. He received an ordinary education until 1850. In 1850, he ran away from his family and joined a circus. The name was Van Amberg’s Mammoth Circus & Menagerie. Eventually, Fisk became a hotel waiter and then took over his father’s business as a peddler. Then James became interested in being a salesman. Jordan Marsh hired him as a salesman. However, this did not work out for him very well. Earlier in James Fisk’s life, he was enlisted into the army and served in the Civil War. Now that his careers were not following his plans, he fought for more money from the government. He received this money from the government. Later, he needed more money so he started smuggling cotton and selling it cheaper than it was being sold locally. This is how James Fisk made most of his wealth until he was hired by Daniel Drew. These two along with Jay Gould worked against Cornelius Vanderbilt. Eventually, Fisk and Gould became very good friends and decided to become partners and try to make money together. The two invented an ingenious plan. They illegally changed the stocks so that they would receive the profits of the railroads. The plan was so good that no one could catch them and change the stocks back. Also, the two tried to take control of the gold market by raising the price tremendously. James Fisk met a showgirl while this was happening. Her name was Josie Mansfield. He gave her an apartment that had a secret passage that was connected to the control center of the Erie Railroads. Later, Mansfield started to love one of Fisk’s associates, Edward S. Stokes. Stokes left his family to be with Josie. Mansfield and Stokes tried to take money from Fisk by threatening to show letters from Fisk to Mansfield that would show Fisk was guilty. Fisk refused to pay though. As Edward Stokes almost went broke, he shot James Fisk on January 6th, 1872 in New York City. James Fisk was a robber baron. All of his wealth came from stealing. At first, he stole cotton and smuggled it and basically took money from the government. Then he "bought" his job and made himself look good. This convinced Daniel Drew that he was worthy of being a stock broker. Once he became a stock broker, he started doing things illegally. He tricked people into giving him money. Then he changed the stocks to give him the profits. He never earned any of the money he recieved. Also, everyone thought he was great. However, they were mistaken because no one knew that he stole everything that he recieved.



"James Fisk." __Wikipedia__. 22 Feb. 2008 . "James Fisk." __HighBeam Encyclopedia__. 22 Feb. 2008 www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1B1/364501.html