JAMES FISK Biography - Bussiness people and enterpreneurs

 
 

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JAMES FISK

Name: James Fisk                                                                     
Born: April 1, 1834                                                                 
Died: January 6, 1872                                                               
                                                                                     
                                                                                     
James Fisk, Jr. (April 1, 1834 - January 6, 1872), known variously as "Big Jim,"     
"Diamond Jim," and "Jubilee Jim," was an American financier. Fisk was born in       
Bennington, Vermont. After a brief period in school, he ran away in 1850 and         
joined Van Amberg's Mammoth Circus & Menagerie. Later, he became a hotel waiter,     
and finally adopted the business of his father, a peddler. He adopted what he       
learned in the circus to his peddling and grew his father's business. He then       
became a salesman for Jordan Marsh, a Boston dry goods firm. A failure as a         
salesman, he was sent to Washington D.C. in 1861 to sell textiles to the             
government. By his shrewd dealing in army contracts during the Civil War, and,       
by some accounts, cotton smuggling across enemy lines (in which he enlisted the     
help of his father), he accumulated considerable wealth, which he soon lost in       
speculation.