Palestine daily herald. [volume] (Palestine, Tex.) 1902-1949, 1908-09-16
]. ]. PILL IS SEVENTY
Great American Railroad King Reach
es the ScripturaI Age of "Three
Score and Ten"
Special to the Herald.

Special to the Herald.
st. Paul, Mimi, Sept. 16.-When
James j. Hill, the great American
railroad king awakened this morning
he had reached the scriptural age of
Three score and ten" But time has
dealt gently with him and physically
as well as mentally Hill is today as
strong and fresh as few men twenty
year 1906 it was stated that Mr.. Hill
had announced his intention of retir-
ing from active business on July l.,
1907, but that time came and passed
and found him still in harness, work
ing as hard, if not harder than ever
to consolidate and strengthen his enor-
nous financial and railroad interests,
the largest in the control of single
man in the world. 1t is believed that
the unsettled condition of the money
market and the iXigencies of his rail-
road enterprises resulting from recent
legislation by congress caused Mr..
Hill to postpone the date of his retire
ment. However that may be, no man
has earned a rest from lifelong ac-
tivity more than Hill. During his life
time he has acquired an enormous for
tune estimated at more than one hun
dred million dollars and brought under
hic Or ron of in
terests than are or ever have been in
the hands of any single individual. He
controls the Great Northern system,
which he created, and also the Bur-
lington and the Northern Pacific. AS
head OF the Great Northern he has
more than seven thousand miles of
>efncK under his control, the Burling-
ton gives him eight thousand miles |
more and the Northern Pacific about |
five thousand miles. The tracks of
his railroads, if placed together, would |
come within five thousand miles of |
reaching around the earth. In addi-
ton to that he controls the largest /
steamer line between the United
States and Canada and the fine steam
ship line between Buffalo and Duluth
He is also supposed to have con-
trolling interest in the Erie railroad
and important interests in many of II
the Atlantic lines.
Mr.. Hill is a Scotch-Irish-C Canadian
American and was born on small
farm near Guelph, Ontario, on Septem.
Der 16, 1888. His father was a
North of Ireland Orangeman and his
mother Scotch lassie of the Dunbar
clan, with a pedigree traceable back
to the house of Stuart. As boy Hill
showed dislike for farm work, but
such interest in books that his father
decided to make Presbyterian clergy
man out of him. He entered school
at the age of seven, but when he had
reached his seventeenth year young
Hill decided that he would not become
a minister, but business man. He
became clerk in local grocery store,
but after one year he went to the
United States. He drifted to ST. Paul,
then a bustling town of about five
thousand inhabitants. He found work
At the dock, shoveling grain into
steamers. He soon became clerk,
however, and remained in a clerical
position for eight years.
When the war came, young Hill,
with Captain Shelley organized troop
If Minnesota rough riders and offer
ed his services to the state of Mime
sofa. There was some delay and
Captain Shelley took the men to Iowa
and entered the service from that Il
state. Hill remained at home and did f
! great deal in sending men and food n
Icy