The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1909-09-30
Life Story of James J. Hill
Interesting Bits of Information Concerning the Great EN-
pire Builder Who Opened the Ward County Fair
Tue.day-A Benefactor of Mankind

Hill, James jerome, railroad pres
dent and financier, son Of james and
anne Dunbar Hill, is Of Scotch and
Irish descent, and was born near
Guelph, Wellington county, Ontario,
Can, Sept. 16, 1888. From his sew
enth to his fifteenth year he attend
ed lockwood Academy, a Quaker
school, where he was carefully in
structed in mathematics and Latin.
The death Of his father in 1858 pre-
vented his studying for the medical
profess on, as had been intended, and
he secured employment In country
store. Early In 1856 he made a tour
of the United States, from Maine to
Minnesota, and decided to settle IN
st. Paul, in the latter state. Here
he engaged as shipping clerk with
]. w. Bass and Co., agents for the
Dubuque and st. Paul Packet Co.'S
line of Mississippi river steamboats,,
and used the opportunity afforded him
by this position to carefully study all
subjects relating to river transporta-
ton; especially that Of fuel. In 1865
he took the agency Of the Northwest
ern Packet Co.'s line of Mississippi
river steamboats,; and when this line
was merged with the Davidson line,
In 1867, he engaged in a general
transportation and fuel business. In
the meantime, the first division Of
the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad
company had built and put into oper-
alton portion of it's railroad, be-
ginning near the steamboat landing
in St. Paul and running westward,
through Minneapolis, to the prairie
region beyond, with branch up the
Mississippi river toward St. Cloud,
and Mr.. Hill had become it's station
agent at st. Paul. In this way his
career as a railroad man began. In
1869 he formed the fuel and ware
and IN 1870 the Red River Transpor-
tation Co., for operating line of
steamboats, on the Red River OF the
North, between points in the United
States and the province of Manitoba.
Mr.. Hill was the first to place min
,.ral coal on the market at St. Paul.
IN 1872 the first regular through
housing firm of Hill, Gr:ggs and Co.,
transportation service between St.
Paul and Winnipeg-then Fort Garry
was establ shed by him. In 1875,
together with E. N. Saunders, G. w.
Griggs, and VIM. Rhodes, he formed
the Northwestern Fuel Co.; but three
years later he sold all his interests
In the fuel and steamboat compa-
MES. In 1S77-1S79, in association
with Messrs. George Stephen, now
Lord Mount Stephen, Donald A.
Smith, now Lord Stratncona, and Mr..
Norman w. Kittson, he acquired all
but q small fraction of the stocks
and bonds of the st. Paul and Pacific
Railroad CO., and the first division of
the st. Paul and Pacific Railroad
Co., which together owned, at that
time, in the aggregate about 'o20
miles of completed railroad. of which
about 100 miles were disconnected
from the remainder. The companies
had become bankrupt in 1873, and
besides owing debts to the amount of
$33,OO0,OOO, which they found them
selves unable to pay, were complete
" discredited botn here and abroad.
In 1879 Mr.. Hill and his associates
reorganized the properties under the
name st. Paul, Minneapolis and Man
itoba Railwya Co., Mr.. Hill taking
the position of general manager. He
became vice president in 1882, and
president in 1888. With keen bust
ness sagacity and far-sighted judg.
ment, he was first to propose rail-
way from the Great Lakes to the Pa
cific Coast, through the great region
lying between the international boun-
dairy ne on the north and the North
ern Pacific railroad on the south, not
withstanding that region was then
virtually unknown and such road
would parallel two existing lines:
the Northern Pacific, built at large
cost and with government aid, and
the Canadian Pacific, the most diff
cult and expensive parts of which
had been built by the Canadian gov
eminent and donated outright to the
company, and the remainder of which
had been subs died by that govern
ment, with large grants both of
money and lands. The extension of
the Hill lines toward the Pacific coast
began in 1880; and by 1893 they had
reached Puget's Sound, with a
branch starting from the main line
in Central Montana and running south
west, through Great Falls and Hell
ena, to Butte. The st. P. M and