Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-05-30
James J. Hill Passes Away
After Making Heroic
Battle for Life
UNCONSCIOUS FOR
LAST TWELVE HOURS
History Is Like Romance
of Fiction; Developed
Whole Northwest

st. Paul, Mimi, May 20. James ].
Hill, railroad builder, capitalist and
most widely known figure Of the north
west, died at his Summit avenue resi-
dence at $3.50 o'clock this morning as
the result Of an infection due to bowel
trouble.
Mr.. Hill was unconscious for nearly
twelve hours before he died. DR.. Her
man M. Biggs OF New York and DR..
Stanley Seager of the Mayo staff, to-
gether with members OF the immediate
Hill family. were at the bedside when
the end came.
Mr. Hills personal secretary, NJ. 4.
Brown, made the announcement OF his
distinguished employers demise TO
waiting newspaper correspondents at
the Hill residence. His statement was
made verbally, with the intimatlon
that a written bulletin might be issued
later.
Questioned regarding a date for OBJ
sequies, Mr.. Brown said that no ar.
rangements had been discussed. The
secretary appeared greatly affected
and declined to talk further than to
make the bare announcement OF the
death.
James J. Hill discovered "the bread
basket of the world" in the great
northwest; he led in it's development
from a wilderness into what now com
prises six wealthy states dotted with
40O, 900 farms; and he blazed trail
for transportation which reached
eventually from Buffalo to Asia. with
total mileage cf rail and steamship
facilities that aeariy girdle the
earth.
That but roughly spans the story OF
his achievement.
Near Guelap, in Ontario. where
James Jerome Hill was born In 1883,
the son of an Irish Canadian farmer
who died when the boy was Is, there
stands a tree stump labeled: The
last tree chopped by James J. Hill"
1t marked the lads resolution to go
to the United States. He had been
prompted by an odd incident Accord
ing to the story that il told, 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 it pail of
water The stranger was pleased with
the lads thoughtfulness, and as he
drove of he tossed him 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 oppor-
tunities in the states. He resolved to
investigate for himself. 1t was the
next morning that he chopped his last
tree.
As mere routsabout lad Of 18, he
toured from Maine to Minnesota.
When in 1855, he disembarked from
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 Dubuque ST.
Paul Packet Co., he found 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
little capital with which he launched
his own firm of Hill, Griss & 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 fiat
bottomed 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 its first experiment in railroad
building. Eighty miles had been laid
to St. Cloud, 316 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 and
ended in that same indefinite spot
This venture ran up debt of $780,
600, 900 and collapsed, with its only as
sets being "a few streaks Of rust and
right Of way"
Hill had had sufficient success in the
region to be seized with a consuming
desire to purchase the defunct prop
erty. After five years of financial
dickering, including the sale of all his
other interests which netted a fortune
of 500 1000, he and syndicate OF
three others-Sir Donald A. Smith,
George Stephen, and Norman w. Kit
son-obtained the object of this de-
sire.
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
extension of the road from it's Dakota
and Minnesota homestead to the Pa
cific ocean. He was confronted by
Continued on page 81
Z 4 ts \ y v I