Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1916-05-30

toured from Maine to Minnesota.
When, in 1856. he disembarked from
= Mississippi river packet at ST. Pau.
that place was frontier town OF 5000
inhabitants. At the sign of w. j. Bass
e. Co., agents for the Dubuque & st.
Paul Packet Company, he found \ job
ats ht,th steyedore and clerk.
Seized Every Opportunity.
x. In the fifteen years that followed he
seized every opportunity toE study the
wholenprcd dicu of river transportation
He gathered no end of exp grience and
a little capital with which ile launched
his own firm Of Hill, Griss & Co..
which promptly displayed its initiative,
by bringing the first load ef coal that
had ever been seen in that section
into st. Paul. Two years later, with
a fatbottomed steamer he establish
ed the first regular communication
with ST. Paul and the Manitoba ports
of the fertile Red River Valley.
Streaks Of Rust.
At about that time st. Paul was hav-
ing it's first experiment in railroad
building. Eighty miles had been laid
to St. Cloud, 16 miles to Brecken.
ridge, both of which terminals were
at the southern end of the Red River
Valley, and there were about 100 miles
OF track (which began nowhere ant
ended in that same indefinite spit.
This venture ran up debt of 5000
900 and collapsed, with it's only assets
being "a few streaks Of rust and
right Of way"
Hill had had sufficient success in
the region to be seized with a con.
Stunning desire to purchase the defunct
property. After five years OF financial
dckering, including the sale OF all his
other interests, which netted a for
tune of 100000, he and syndicate
of three others-Sir Donald A. Smith,
George Stephen, and Norman w. Kilt
n,-obtained the object OF this de'
sire.
Without Subsidy. .
The St. Paul. Minnesota and Mani
toba Railway was formed to operate
the property. with Hill as general
manager. When in 1883 Mr.. Hill was
elected president he undertook the ex-
tension Of the road from it's Dakota
and Minnesota homesteak to the Pacl.
fic ocean. He was confronted Dy
three great competitors to the south,
each of which had received big bon
uses as government aid, whereas the
"Manitoba" or the Great Northern, as
it came to be known, did not have
dollar of government subsidy or an
acre of grant to forward its progress
from the Minnesota boundary to the
sea. VWWOU3
In this light, Hills plan was widely
deemed pure folly, but he pressed It
to conclusion by building and populat-
ing as he built. For several years he
laid rails westward at the rate or a
mile day, and at cost OF $4,000
a mile, and as he went he left trail
of embryonic farms by the railside
Turned Empire Builder.
with the line to Puget Sound once
laid, he turned Empire Builder. He
introduced the live stock industry into
vast areas of bunch-grass plains, and
developed them by importing blooded
stock: he sent demonstration trains
through the country with men VINO
showed the people how to raise more
wheat to the acre. He made an outlet
for the grain by establishing a cheap
rate by rail and steamship to Bunalo
where he built great elevators; in fact
for upwards of 20 years he left moth
ing in his power undone to develop
the country where he had staked out
his claim as the great common car
rier.
But at the Pacific tide.water ne was
Continued on PAGE f1ve)