The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1916-05-30
JAMES J. HILL
: PASSES AWAY
IN MINNESOTA
RAILROAD WIZARD DIES AFT
Err BEING UNCONSCIOUS 12
HOURS-DlSCOVERED THE
, FOOD DISTRICT"

j u,
railroad builder, capitalist and most
widely known figure of the northwest.
died at his Summit avenue residence
at $3.50 O'Clock this morning as a re-
suit of an affection due to bowel trou-
Bile.
Mr.. Hill was unconscious for near
ly twelve hours before he died. DR..
Herman M. Biggs, of New York and
Dr. Stanley Seager of Rochester,
Mimi. together with members of the
immediate Hill family were at the
bedside when the end came. Mr..
Hills personal secretary, M. r.
Brown, made the announcement of
his employers death to waiting
newspaper correspondents at the Hill
residence. His statement was made
verbally with the intimation that a
written bulletin might be issued lat
er.
James j. Hill discovered 'the
breadbasket of the world in the
Great Northwest; he led in it's de-
velopment from wilderness into
what now comprises six wealthy
states dotted with 100000 farms; and
he blazed a trail for transportation
which reached eventually from Buff
falo to Asia, with total mileage of
rail and steamship Facilities that
would nearly grdle the earth.
That but roughly spans the story of
his achievement.
Near Guelph, in Ontario, where
James Jerome Hill was born in
1888, tre son Of an Irish Canadian
farmef, who died when the boy was
Is, there stands a tree stump labeled:
The last tree chopped by James ].
Hill"
1t marked the lads resolution to
go to the United States He had
been prompted by an odd incident.
According to the story that is told,
a strange traveller had stopped at the
Hill farm to take dinner and left his
horse at the gate. Young Hill saw
the animal was tired and he carried
1t pail of water. The stranger was
pleased with the lads thoughtfulness
and, as he drove off he tossed him a
newspaper from the United States
and called out gravely:
GO there young man That coun
try needs youngsters of your spirit"
Hill read the paper carefully. 1t
contained glowing accounts of op-
portunities in the states He resolv-
ed to investigate for himself 1t was
the next morning that he chopped his
last tree.
AS a mere roustabout lad of 18, he
toured from Maine to Minnesota.
When, in 1856, he disembarked from
a Mississippi river packet at st. Paul
that place was frontier town of
5000 inhabitants. At the sign of w.
J. Bass & Co., agents for the Du
buque and ST. Paul Packet company,
he found a job as both stevedore and
clerk.
In the fifteen years that followed
he seized every opportunity to study
the whole problem of river transpor-
pcrience and a little capital, with
which he launched his own firm of
Hill, Griss e Co., which promptly
displayed it's initiative by bringing
the first load of coal that had ever
been seen in that section into ST.
Paul. Two years later, with flat
bottomed steamer he established the
first regular communication with ST.
Paul and Manitoba ports of the fer
tile Red river valley.
At about that time st. Paul was
having it's first experiment in rail-
road building. Eighty miles had been
laid to St. Cloud, 316 miles to Breck-
enridge, both of which terminals
were at the southern end of the Red
river valley, and there were about
100 miles to track (which began no.
where and ended in that same indefi-
mite spot" This venture ran up a
debt of $33,00O.0OO and collapsed,
with its only assets being few
streaks of rust and a right of way"
Mr.. Hill was member of the Jeckyl
Island club and has spent many days
near Brunswick