"What we want," Hill is quoted as saying, "is the best possible line, shortest distance, lowest grades, and least curvature we can build. Hill's leadership became a case study in the successful management of a capital-intensive business during the economic downturn. He also built the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway. Concomitantly, the resulting trade in munitions with England and France carried the United States from a depression in 1914 to boom years in 1915 and 1916. He also bought out bankrupt businesses, built them up again, and then resold themoften gaining a substantial profit. Hill's father died when the boy was 14, so Jim Hill began clerking in local shops before setting off to seek his fortune. He was named a founder of the Trust at age 4. Because of vandals and curious admirers, both graves were later moved to Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights for safer keeping. In 1929, the Great Northern Railway named its flagship passenger train the Empire Builder in his honor. As the Hill-Morgan alliance formed the Northern Securities Company, Theodore Roosevelt became president and turned his energies against the great trusts that were monopolizing trade. He was well-known for his blunt, direct manner, and many commented on his occasional flashes of humor. 240 Summit Ave. They had ten children: By early 1916 Hill began pouring more attention into philanthropy, donating thousands of dollars to various institutions as he privately struggled with a variety of increasingly painful ailments. Born in southern Ontario on September 16, 1838, to Irish immigrant parents, young Hill suffered a bow and arrow injury at age nine and lost sight in his right eye for the rest of his life. Instead, it's for his lesser-known role as an iron ore magnate. [25] Hill had seen the devastation done downtown by the Great Chicago Fire. [email protected] The StP&P in particular was caught in an almost hopeless legal muddle. American railroad promoter and financier (18381916), The Northern Pacific and the "short squeeze" of 1901, The Hill Lines survive the trust-busting era, Claire Strom, "Among Friends: The Power of Ethnicity in the Great Northern Railway Corporation,", Don L. Hofsommer, "Ore Docks and Trains: The Great Northern Railway and the Mesabi Range,", Frank Leonard, "Railroading a Renegade: Great Northern Ousts John Hendry in Vancouver,", Webvideo:James J. Hill and the Building of the Stone Arch Bridge, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, James J. Hill and the Building of His Railroad Empire, Harry Elmer Barnes: The World War of 19141918, Great Northern Lofts - Condo and Loft Directory, "James Hill legacy a wealth of information", "James J. Hill; An Inventory of His Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society", Northern Pacific Railway Corporate Records, Mary Theresa Mehegan Hill in MNopedia, the Minnesota Encyclopedia, James J. Hill in MNopedia, the Minnesota Encyclopedia, The Destruction of a Wealth and Jobs Creator by Parasitical-Elites, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_J._Hill&oldid=1127524764, 19th-century American railroad executives, 20th-century American railroad executives, Pre-Confederation Canadian businesspeople, Canadian people of Ulster-Scottish descent, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad people, Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada), Businesspeople from Saint Paul, Minnesota, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the Encyclopedia Americana with a Wikisource reference, Wikipedia articles incorporating citation to the NSRW, Wikipedia articles incorporating citation to the NSRW with an wstitle parameter, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Mary Francis Hill Hill (18691947), who married, Clara Anne Hill Lindley (18731947), who married, Katherine Theresa Hill (18751876) (died in infancy), Charlotte Elizabeth Hill Slade (18771923), who married, Rachel Hill Boeckmann (18811967), who married. Its last trading day was April 6, 2015. For James Hill it was a golden opportunity. His philanthropy included generous gifts to colleges and universities, and prompt responses to victims of disasters, such as the sinking of the Titanic, the Hinckley fire, and the San Francisco earthquake. Conoco-Phillips wanted to get the property immediately on April 7, 2015, but the trustees argued that winding up the trusts affairs would take until 2016. The key to the Great Northern line was Hill's use of the previously unmapped Marias Pass. Born into an impoverished family, he reshaped his own destiny with sheer dedication and foresight. Therefore, Hill turned to his confidant and esteemed financer J.P Morgan. With these friendly relations established, Hill managed to secure the industrializing Japanese order for 15,000 tons of rails against competition from England and Belgium. The introduced crop weed in Western US wheat-growing areas Sisymbrium altissimum also has a common name "Jim Hill Mustard", after the belief by farmers that it was spread from contaminated seed leaking out of railway stock along the railroads he controlled. We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Hill avoided this by investing a large portion of the railroad's profit back into the railroad itselfand charged those investments to operating expense. Quietly, Harriman began buying stock in Northern Pacific with the intention of gaining control of Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy. Both opponents wanted the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroads to add to their flourishing businesses. Built at a cost of $930,000 and with 36,000 square feet (3,300m2), the James J. Hill House was among the city's largest. Map | Directions and Parking. [3] By 1879 he had a local monopoly by merging with Norman Kittson. The reading room at the James J. Hill Center is seen from the second-floor balcony inside the nearly 100-year-old building on Thursday. [6] He wanted people to settle along his rail lines, so he sold homesteads to immigrants while transporting them to their new homes using his rail lines. He fell in love with a waitress, Mary Theresa Mehegan, at Merchants Hotel, where he often dined. Then Harriman quickly began buying stock in Northern Pacific with the aim of eventually gaining control over it. He knew that the multiplying profits would soon find its way under the Federal Governments scanner, and so he used his profits wisely. By 1860, he was working for wholesale grocers, for whom he handled freight transfers, especially dealing with railroads and steamboats. Those iron ore holdings had grown so lucrative that Hill wanted to avoid the charge of earning too much money, according to an authorized company history, The Great Northern Railway.. Ownership of the Iron Range mines will now pass to energy company Conoco-Phillips. An enthusiastic conservationist, Hill was invited by President Theodore Roosevelt to a governors' conference on conservation of natural resources, and later appointed to a lands commission. During the late 1880s,he aimed to build a rail route through the Rockies to the Pacific. J. J. Hill Dead In St. Paul Home At The Age of 77. Drawing on his experience in the development of Minnesota's Iron Range, Hill was, during 19111912, in close contact with Gaspard Farrer of Baring Brothers & Company of London regarding the formation of the Brazilian Iron Ore Company to tap that nation's rich mineral deposits. To promote settlement and revenue for his rail business, Hill experimented with agriculture and worked to hybridize Russian wheat for Dakota soil and weather conditions. It was designed by James Brodie, who also built the Hill's house on Summit Avenue. He gradually began working for himself. It was a notable victory for the young labor organizer Eugene Debs (and occurred a few years before the more famous Pullman strike in Chicago) and marked a significant change in workers' rights. In order to generate business for his railroad, Hill encouraged European immigrants to settle along his line, often paying for Russian and Scandinavian settlers to travel from Europe. During his lifetime, Hill referenced it a number of times, to show that he wasnt a robber baron, that he was a little altruistic, that he was doing it for the stockholders of the Great Northern Railway, McCormack said. Richter thinks that James Hill's story is an important one not only because of his success, but also because of the odds his success was won against. The Democratic Party's continued enchantment with the populist William Jennings Bryan led Hill to support Republican presidential candidates William McKinley (1896 and 1900), Theodore Roosevelt (1904), William Howard Taft (1908 and 1912). His condition deteriorated quickly in mid-May, but even with the help of many respected doctors he was beyond saving. The result was restoration of the workers' wages to pre-depression levels. We do not care enough for Rocky Mountains scenery to spend a large sum of money developing it." Because of the size of this region and the economic dominance exerted by the Hill lines, Hill became known during his lifetime as "The Empire Builder". At Hills insistence, the case was tried in St. Paul at the Federal Courts Building (now Landmark Center). At the peak of his success he met with the disapproval of President Theodore Roosevelt for his railway monopoly. Hill was represented by, among others, the law firm headed by Frank B. Kellogg. In 1856 at seventeen, James Hill found work as a clerk in Minnesota, for a firm of shipping agents who traded and worked with steamboats. The key to the Great Northern line was Hill's use of the previously unmapped Marias Pass first discovered by Santiago Jameson. In 1958, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.[29]. Copyright Privacy Information Policy Ticketing Policy, James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest, Harriman vs. Hill: Wall Street's Great Railroad War, James J. Hill and the Opening of the Northwest. When he was looking for the best path for one of his tracks to take, he went on horseback and scouted it personally. Louis Hill Jr. was the last surviving founder of the Great Northern Iron Ore Trust. The men and women of the Las Cruces Fire Department strive to provide prevention, response and recovery services to residents, businesses, and visitors so they can experience a safe community and receive compassionate care in their time of need. This incident however did not cause much hindrance in his future career. With 1901 and the start of the new century, James Hill now had control of both the Great Northern Railway, and the Northern Pacific (which he had obtained with the help of his friend J. P. Morgan, when that railroad went bankrupt in the depression of the mid-1890s). The school, which was all-male, consolidated in 1971 with the all-female Archbishop Murray School to form Hill-Murray School in Maplewood, Minnesota. After the first punishing year of World War I, the Allied Powers desperately needed financial support to continue the war effort. The Hill family has shared some of that wealth with St. Paul and the region, through foundations that continue to this day. James is 18 degrees from Margaret Atwood, 19 degrees from Jim Carrey, 20 degrees from Elsie Knott, 21 degrees from Gordon Lightfoot, 23 degrees from Alton Parker, 19 degrees from Beatrice Tillman, 17 degrees from Jenny Trout, 20 degrees from Justin Trudeau, 23 degrees from Edwin Boyd, 18 degrees from Barbara Hanley, 27 degrees from Fanny Rosenfeld and 20 degrees from Cathryn Hondros on our single family tree. St. Paul, MN 55102 Northwest Area Foundation is Louis and Maud Hills foundation, Jerome is Jerome Hills, and Grotto is Louis Hill Juniors.. Mary Theresa Mehegan was born in New York City on July 1, 1846. During the winter months when the Mississippi River was frozen and steamboats could not run, Hill started bidding on other contracts and won several. Part of Hill's success during the depression also was due to repeatedly cutting his employees' wages, although this was during a time of deflation when prices were falling generally. On November 1, 1901, Hill, Morgan, and Harriman announced the formation of the Northern Securities Company, a holding company formed to control the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, and the Burlington lines. (Canadian-American railroad executive, Businessman) James Jerome Hill, a Canadian-American railroad executive and the greatest pioneer in the field of transcontinental railroads, was a visionary who transcended the dreams of a common man and went on to become 'The Empire Builder.'. The case was carried to the US Supreme Court, and Northern Securities was declared to be in restraint of trade in a 5-4 decision in March 1904. 4241 Jutland Dr #202, San Diego, CA 92117. The Hill Library has developed numerous online programs and now serves millions of small business owners worldwide. [1] He was forced to leave school in 1852 due to the death of his father. With 1901 and the start of the new century, James Hill now had control of both the Great Northern Railway, and the Northern Pacific (which he had obtained with the help of his friend J. P. Morgan, when that railroad went bankrupt in the depression of the mid-1890s). 291 Pins 5y J Collection by Jessie Cochran Rachel Hill J Hill Mary Frances Gilded Age House On A Hill Downstairs Historical Sites Matilda Minnesota After his fathers death, his mother found it difficult to provide for her children by the means of only running a small inn. In honour of his legacy, his heirs founded the James J. Hill Reference Library, which provides practical business information to businesses in the entire nation. Give me Swedes, snuff and whiskey, and I'll build a railroad through hell. His particular talents for English and mathematics would be critical later in his life. His first job in St. Paul was with a steamboat company, where he worked as a bookkeeper. Folks already knew the region had iron ore. Admission includes self-guided access to holiday-themed exhibits and a 60-minute guided tour highlighting holiday stories and memories from both the Hill family and their staff. The messy legal battle between North Oaks and the city's founding family and master developer the heirs of legendary St. Paul railroad magnate James J. Hill is finally over. Hill saved money by repeatedly cutting wages, made possible by a time of deflation when prices were falling generally. Las Cruces Police Department. But he isnt front and center.. [11] This "Dakota Boom" peaked in 1882 as 42,000 immigrants, largely from northern Europe, poured into the Red River Valley running through the region. When he was looking for the best path for one of his tracks to take, he went on horseback and scouted it personally. Hill's historic home is located next to the Cathedral, largely due to the special relationship Hill's wife, a practicing Catholic, had with the Diocese. Upon completion of the Summit Avenue residence, Hill had the family's old house, which he had constructed in 1878, razed. He also took strong measures to economizein just one year, Hill cut the railway's expense of carrying a ton of freight by 13%. Leave a message for others who see this profile. 651-297-2555 The result was chaos on Wall Street. He was within 40,000 shares of control when Hill learned of Harriman's activities and quickly contacted J. P. Morgan, who was on vacation in Europe at the time. Hill died in St. Paul on May 29, 1916. The threat of a real economic panic loomed. [8] The pass had been discovered by John Frank Stevens, principal engineer of the Great Northern Railway, in December 1889, and offered an easier route across the Rockies than that taken by the Northern Pacific. - Eramosa Township, Ontario, Canada, May 29 1916 - Saint Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota, USA. 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