James, Jr. (Jim) Fisk (1834–1872) businessman and speculator

Born in Bennington, Vermont, to a YANKEE PEDDLER, Fisk quit school at 12 and joined his father in selling wares from his wagon around New England. After buying his father’s business, he enjoyed great success and was soon hired by a dry goods firm with which he had done business. His first great success as a wholesaler of dry goods came when the Civil War began, and he sold various dry goods to the U.S. Army from a base he established in Washington, D.C. He was so successful that he was made a partner.

After spending most of the Civil War buying dry goods for his firm, Fisk sold his partnership back to the firm and, with the money he made, ventured to Wall Street. He became a protégé of the noted speculator Daniel DREW, who helped him establish a brokerage called Fisk, Belden & Co. Through his Wall Street connections, he became acquainted with Jay GOULD, and the two obtained seats on the board of the ERIE RAILROAD. While sitting on its board, they became involved in what became known as the Erie Wars, fighting Cornelius VANDERBILT for control of the line. Along with Drew and Gould, he personally seized 50,000 shares of Erie stock and fled with his two compatriots to Jersey City, New Jersey, to avoid Vanderbilt. Emerging victorious, they ran the railroad in lavish fashion from its New York headquarters. The operations made him a wealthy man, and he spent his money amply. Fisk bought Pike’s Opera House in New York City, refurbished it, and threw lavish productions until the costs eventually caused him to stop funding the operation.

Fisk also gained notoriety when he participated in the gold corner with Jay Gould in 1869, when they were suspected of forcing up the price of gold to unsustainable heights with the purported and unwitting support of President Ulysses Grant. The corner created what became known as Black Friday in 1869 and led to a depressed stock market and a subsequent RECESSION that hit New York City especially hard. Combined with his relationships with Tammany Hall leaders, the gold corner made him, like Gould, one of the most despised men of the era. But his flamboyant manner also endeared him to many New Yorkers. He ran the largest steamboat on the Hudson River, aptly named the James Fisk.

Fisk met an untimely end when he was shot by a suitor of his mistress at New York’s Grand Central Hotel in 1872. He died the day after the shooting. He was widely mourned in New York City and remains one of the period’s most colorful characters.

Further reading

• Ackerman, Kenneth D. The Gold Ring: Jim Fisk, Jay Gould, and Black Friday 1869. New York: Dodd Mead, 1988. 
• Fuller, Robert H. Jubilee Jim: From Circus Traveler to Wall Street Rogue. New York: Texere, 2001. 
• Swanberg, W. A. Jim Fisk: The Career of an Improbable Rascal. New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1959.