Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-01-10

men - men with the constructive instinct, and with
infinite capacities for taking risks. Genluses II
Won please but always builders. Their schemes
Of life and their methods are to-day different =
thew started out on widely divergent paths, but they
each arrived. They have SO completely arrived that
to-day in the talk about railroad construction IN America
you hear but three names - ames Hl, Nhdlie' W.
Hays and B. Yoakum.
Sixtveight wears ago. in the town of Guelph Ontario,
lanes Hill was born There he lived until the age OF
eighteen At that time it was the custom IN Canada
for the ambitious young men to come to the States
Innas going ''West" Jim Hill did the proper thing
and came to ST. Paul in 1886 He got job as checking
clerk on the evee St Paul the head OF Mississippi
navigation and all the traffic of the Northwest was car
ried on bv steamer Here Hill got his first practical
lessons in transportation And here, also, ne got MS
first hint of the commercial possibilities OF the Norlh
west.
During the sixties the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad
was projected and built into the wilderness tot North
west Over this line and the Red River OF the North
a considerable traffic sprung up with the HUDSON
Bav Company at Fort Garry (WnniPeg). HUI
familiarity with the river traffic showed him an oPPor-
tunitv. He secured a steamboat and went INTO the
transportation business on the Red river Here ne
found competitor Norman W. Kittson but the rival
interests were soon merged, and Hill became the aCtl9
head of the Red River Transportation Company.
The ST. Paul & Pacific Railroad, having received a
aroe land grant had been able to float large block
of construction bonds in Amsterdam, Holland Inc
road was built into the northern wilderness as 1ar aS
Fisher S Landing, on the T\td l1dhC NV, Do' -0
the money and credit both gave out There was not
traffic enough pay operating expenses and the BOND
holders, receiving interest, got disguised. ne
country was new and they had not the patience to wait
Here was Hills opportunity = and he grasped It, In
his Red River enterprise he had learned the possibilities
of the Red River Valley He had also made the acquan
lance of Donald A. Smith, governor OF the hudson S
Bay Company
The ST. Paul & Pacific was in the hands OF a receiver
and the bonds about be foreclosed. Hill, klttson
and Donald A. Smith obtained an option on the bonds
for ST. ooo, 900 and prepared for reorganization on
basis of S35, 900, 900 But S7,ooo,ooo IN cash was
necessary to finance the deal. Donald A. smith NOV
Lord Strathcona had nephew at the head OF the oak
of Montreal. The 100000 was borrowed! =, the
deal consummated and the money replaced before any
one outside the deal was the wiser. Hill and klttSon
and Smith were milonaires. .
The rest of the story how the St. Paul Paohe
was improved and extended into the Red River Valley
how if became the Great Northern and was extended
TO the coast = the world knows by heart.
Daring as was the move by which Hill secured nj
first millions still daring was the project OF Duild
ing line to the coast . =,
In face of the fact that the Northern Paclhc aloee
bv land grant as large the territory of an ORDINARY
nation could not pay operating expenses, HILL VIII
stub line 100 miles long, determined to extend 1t t
the Pacific coast Here he showed his infinite capac
ity for taking risks. He had already accumulated
comfortable fortune = he already a millionaire