Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-06-01
DEATH At ST. PAUL
Of JAMES J. HILL,
EMPIRE BUILDER
Brainy Financier and Promoter
Who Opened 'Breadbasket
of the World in Great
Northwest.

st. Paul, May 2o.-James ]. Hill died this
morning at $50 after an unconscious pc.
riod OF IL hours. The Immediate members
of the family were at the bedside when
the end came
James j. Hill discovered tine bread
basket of the world" in the Great North
west; he led in it's development from a
wilderness into what now comprises six
wealthy States dotted with 10000 farms;
and he blazed a trail for transportation
which reached eventually from Buffalo
to Asia. with a total mileage of rail and
steamship facilities that would nearly Cir
die the earth.
That but roughly spans the story of his
achievement.
Near Guelph in Ontario, where James
J.terome) Hill was born September Is.
1888, the son of an Grish-C anadian farmer
VINO died when the boy was Is. there
stands n tree stump labelled: The last
tree chopped by James ]. Hill"
1t marked the lads resolution to go to
the United States. He had been prompt
ed by an odd incident. According to the
story that is told, a strange traveller had
and left his horse at the gate. Young Hill
saw the animal was tired and he carried
it a pail of water The stranger was
pleased with the lads thoughtfulness.
and as he drove off he tossed him a news
paper from the United States, and called
out gravely:
go there. young man. That country
needs youngest rs of your spirit"
Hin read the paper carefully. 1t
contained glowing accounts of oppor-
tunities in the States He resolved to
investigate for himself 1t was the
next morning that he chopped his last
tree
AS mere roustabout lad of Is. he
toured from Maine to Minnesota. When
in 1856, he disembarked from a Mis-
sissippi river packet at st Paul that
place was a frontier town of 5000 in
habitants. At the sign of w. ]. Bass
Co, agents for the Dubuque &, 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 transportation.
He gathered no end Of experience and
a little capital with which he launched
his own firm Of Hill, Griss &, Co, which
promptly displayed its initiative by
bringing the first load of coal that had
ever been seen In that section into st.
Paul. Two years later with a fat
bottomod steamer, he established the
first regular communication with st.
Paul and the Manitoba ports OF the
fertile Red river valley.
At about that time st. Paul was hav-
ing it's first experiment in railroad
building. Eighty miles had been laid
to st. Cloud 316 miles to Brccken-
ridge, both of which terminals were
at the southern end of the Red river
valley. and there wore about 100 miles
of track which began nowhere and
ended in that same indefinite spot"
This venture ran up debt of $33.
600 and collapsed. with its only assets
being "a few streaks OF rust and a
right of way"
Hin had had sufficient success in the
region to be seized with a consuming
desire to purchase the defunct property
After five years OF financial dirkerins.
| including the sale of all his other in
| terests, which netted fortune of 10000
| he and syndicate of three others-Sir
Donald a. Smith, George Stephen and
Norman W. Kittson,-ohtaincd the object
| of this desire.
The st, Paul, Minnesota and Manitoba
| railway was formed to operate the prop
ertY, with Hill as general manager. When
in 1883 Mr. Hill was elected president he
undertook the extension of the road from
its Dakota and Minnesota homestead to
| the Pacific ocean. He was confronted by
| three great competitors to the south,
each Of which had received big bonuses
as government aid, whereas the Mani
| toha or the Great Northern, as it came
20 be known, did not have a dollar of
| government subsidy or an acre Of grant
to forward its progress from the Mime
| sofa boundary to the sea,
| In this light. HITS plan was widely
deemed pure folly, but he pressed it to
conclusion by building and populating
as he built. For several years he laid
rails westward at tho ratio IT a mile a
day. and at a cost of $1,000 a mile, and
as he went he left a trail of embryonic
| farms by the railside.
With the line to Puget sound once
laid, he turned Empire builder He in
troduced the livestock industry into vast
areas of bunch-g-ass plains, and de-
veloped them by importing blooded stock
he sent demonstration trains through the
| country with men who showed the peo-
pie how to raise more wheat to the acre
| he made ar outlet for the grain by estab-
fishing a cheap rate by rail and steam
| ship to Buffalo whore he built grea,
| elevators; in fact for upwards of 81 years
he left nothing in his power undone tC
develop the country where he had staked
out his claim as the great common
carrier
But at the Pacific tide-watcr he wa,
not satisfied for he saw in tho Orien
still further opportunities. He or
ganizcd "A fleet of Pacific steamships fol
the commercial invasion of Japan anC
China. Japan at tho time wanted steo
rails, hut proposed getting them from
related that when John w Gates, tn,
steel magnatc Of Chicago, came to Hi
with the proposition of getting Amcrl
cans rails to Japan, the latter replied:
II with make you a rate OF $s n tor
from Chicago or Pttsburg to Yokohama
If that is too much I will carry it TO
the axle grease used on the locomotives
and freight cars; and If you can't stan,
that | will carry your freight for moth
ing"
At the s. rate named, the America
, manufacturer was enabled to secure tn
. japanese contract
The same tactics were adopted in get