Jim Fisk and Jay Gould: The Robber Barons

Jim Fisk and Jay Gould: The Robber Barons

Jay Gould and Jim Fisk began their lives in different ways, but their mutual goal of money making was what eventually brought these two infamous men together. Such goal-oriented men, they were willing to go to any lengths to bring in the cash. As railroad owners, they made their initial fortune, and then things progressed to bigger and better things. Eventually, Fisk and Gould were able corner the gold market and caused a crash of the stock market. This event came to be known later as Black Friday.
Jay Gould was born in Roxbury, New York, to Mary More Gould and John Gould, a storekeeper and farmer. From childhood, he showed the potential and intelligence that would one day help him to become a multi-millionaire businessman. Physically, he was small and unhealthy; plagued with illness all his life. He left school at 14, clerked in a store, studied surveying, and ended up taking a job as a surveyor’s assistant for $20 ...