New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-05-30

poured in from all parts of the country
with expressions of coincidence for the
| family. A constant stream Of family
/ friends called at the home and at the
residence of Louis ". Hill, next door
Few entered, most of them merely leav-
| ing words Of sympathy for the elder
Mrs. Hill and her children; -
Mr.. HiITs last public requests were
gifts for the advancement OF education,
in which he was deeply interested
, throughout the latter years of his life.
One of his most important donations
was $4,000 10 the College OF Puget
Sound. at Tacoma, Wash, made shortly
before the beginning of his last illness.
Another bequest of $4,000 was prom
ised Marquette University, at Mllwau-
kee, at the same time.
His gift TO the Tacoma institution
was regarded as significant. For many
wears almost feud existed between
Tacoma and fhe Hill interests. The
Hill steamers never were permitted 10
enter the port, and it was only few
years ago that the Great Northern Rail
way extended its lines TO Tacoma. Mr..
Hill was credited in the early days with
T
grow in the main streets of Tacoma be-
/ fore he would run his trains there.
The i'll feeling started in the early
| days of railway construction in the
West. when Tacoma, having been chosen
as the western terminal Of the North
ern Pacific, showed its courtesies to
that road.
The executors of Mr.. Hills estate
probably will be Louis w. Hill. his son
and the Northwestern Trust Company
The great power held by Mr.. Hill will
pass 10 his son Louis, who has been
I closely associated with him in business
/ for ten years.
That control of the First National
Bank Of st. Paul passed from James
/ J. Hill TO his son, Louis w. Hill, two
weeks ago became known to-day. Mr.
| Hill is understood TO have told his
/ son that he was more responsible fol
/ its rapid growth and development than
any other person, and that his sor
was entitled to the reward of hi:
efforts.
In all that vast region west Of the
Great Lakes, spoken of in the East a:
"the Great Northwest" there was ne
| greater figure in the railroad work.
than that Of James j. Hill. He had ar
/ humble start and surmounted great dit
| ficulties, vet in his rise TO fortune Their,
was decidedly an element of luck
There is little doubt that he woulC
have become rich man, but he nigh
not have made so great name for him
self had not Minnesota suffered foI
three years from pest of grasshoppers
The story is that of a man who saw hi
opportunity and arose to meet it,
A Native of Ontario.
Born in Guelph, Ontario, September g
1888, of an Irish father and a Scottish
mother, James j. Hill was getting TIT
foundation of a good education by th'
time he was fifteen, when he had t
quit school and go TO work for him
self, because his father died. III
worked on farm, and was still follow
ing the plough when he was eighteeI
years old. In 1856 he started out e
better himself in the United States. II
ST. Paul, at that time a village of 500
inhabitants, he got Job with ship
ping company.
In 1865, though only twenty-seven, HI
started in business for himself a
commission, steamboat and railwa.
agent" the railway of which he oh
tanned the agency being the little 81
Paul & Pacific. lie forged ahead of hi
competitors and old employers, almos
from the start, though his capital wa
small, representing simply the saving
he had laid by during his residence il
St. Paul. The daily papers began u
chronicle one achievement after an
other.
From 1857 TO 1869 Mr. Hill conducted
a fuel and transportation business, ant
prospered so that in 1870 he ORGANIZED
the firm of Hill, GriGgs & Co., Hill Civ
ing his attention TO the transportation
business and Griggs 10 the fuel end
They brought St. Paul its first coal
The partnership was dissolved in 1915
by which time Hill had become recog
nized as one of the leading bushes!
men Of the city.
"The Years Which the Locusts Did Eat
The three years that grasshopper!
were eating up almost everything II
| Minnesota were 1874, 1910 and 1876
! Hill used to sit in front Of his ware
house and talk about buying the St
| Paul & Pacific Railroad, and nearly
| everybody who heard him smiled
| Dutch capital had been invested in the
| railroad and the bondholders had put
nearly S20.OOO.OOO into the enterprise
| In 1872 the Dutchmen believed that
hey were being badly swlndled and
topped the money, and the following
year the road went into the hands Of d
| .cceivcr
Donald A. Smith, afterwsrd Lord
strathcona. head OF the Bank of Mon
| real, became interested in the rail
| Dad. Minnesota was dismal place
| or investment at that time, but
1875 George stephen. afterward
Lord Mountstephen, and Donald Smith
vent to ST. Paul. They arrived there
On "a Sunday morning and James j.
| lnl made the railroad people take
hem over the line from ST. Paul TO
breckenridge. stephen was pleased
iespite the havoc the grasshoppers
| rad made, but he was man OF mod
rate fortune and he realized that the
My thing TO do was TO get the Dutch
zen 20 put up more money. He went %
lolland in 1876 and obtained an OPP
ION on the road and agreed 10 pay
D cents on the dollar. That was less
nan the accrued interest due on the
,nds and then unpaid. Stephen came
Jack TO the United States and through