The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1936-12-11

ONTANA owes much to Fred
erick Billings, for whom the
M city of Billings was named.
NA His work as the financial
genius who resuscitated the
fragile and failing Northern Pacific
railroad of the seventies, had a large
part to do with the development, not
only of this state, but of the entire
northwest. Under his directing efforts
the road was pushed from eastern Da-
kota into Montana, across the Yellow
stone and the Rockies to give Butte a
which it could obtain equipment need
ed in mine development and over
which it could ship ore and metal. The
fertile Bitter Root and Deer Lodge
valleys were opened and the lumber
industry in western Montana saw the
start Of its prosperity with the arrival
line. to the Pacific coast the Treasure
state was given transportation facii-
ties which saw the real start of all of
its various industries.
The livestock industry, including cat
tie and sheep, was the first in Mon
tana to benefit by the advent of the
Northern Pacific railroad. Before it
reached the borders of the state, mar
kets were reached only by long and
expensive drives to the end of the line.
With it's arrival in Miles City, all that
was changed. Markets were easy to
reach. The number of cattle and sheep
upon the prairies doubled and trebled
in a remarkably short time. Settlers
flocked in. AS the road reached Bill
lings, then Bozeman, the advancement
of the state progressed at an astonish-
ing rate.
Salt Lake to Butte Only Line
Before the Northern Pacific came
into the state, the only railway Mon
tana had was the Utah & Northern,
which ran from Salt Lake City to
Butte. 1t was later known as the Ore
gon Short Line and is a part of the
ing the Northern Pacific came the
Great Northern, built by James J. Hill.
The Great Northern did for northern
Montana what the Northern Pacific did
for the southern part of the state. Hill
overcame great difficulties in building
his road. Little of it tapped such i'm:
mediately productive territory as did
the Northern Pacific, nor had it the
benefit of government land grants as
the Northern Pacific did.
Without the land grants and the
hand of Frederick Billings at its helm,
it is quite probable that the Northern
Pacific would not have reached Mon
the development of the state would
have been delayed accordingly.
Billings became interested in the
Northern Pacific in 1869. He was its
president from 1879 to 1881. It was
largely due to his efforts that the
Northern Pacific wa reorganized and
given new life after the collapse of
1873. He had, in 1869, purchased a one
twelfth interest in the property from
Hiram Walbridge. In 1870 he was elect
ed to the directorate, in which body
he retained membership until 1889.
In 1879 he was elected president of
the system, but resigned two years
later when a controlling interest in
the road passed to the Willard group.
AS chairman Of the land committee,
he organized the land department of
the road of which he was managing
director until the reorganization of the
company in 1875. In 1871 he had a part
in locating the crossing of Red river
and, in the following year, the terminus
on Puget sound.
In 1873 Billings was one of a COM
mittee formed for the purpose of en-