James J. Hill

A bow-and-arrow accident in childhood took the sight in his right eye, and it shaped more of his life than his schooling did. He had nine years of that, part of it at Rockwood Academy on free tuition from the headmaster, and it ended in 1852 when his father died. He clerked in Kentucky long enough to learn bookkeeping, then crossed into the United States for good and settled in St. Paul at 18, keeping books for a steamboat company. When the Civil War came he tried to join the First Minnesota and the surgeon turned him away for the eye. So he stayed home, moved freight for wholesale grocers, and learned exactly what it cost to get a ton of anything from one place to another.

He bought in during the wreckage of the Panic of 1873, studying the bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific for three years before taking it over with Norman Kittson, Donald Smith, George Stephen and John Stewart Kennedy. What grew out of it went west by increments — Minnesota, Wisconsin, across North Dakota into Montana — with Hill riding proposed routes himself on horseback and declining to pay for scenery. The Great Northern reached Seattle on January 7, 1893, built essentially without the federal land grants that financed its rivals and almost alone among transcontinentals in never going bankrupt. He bought into the Mesabi iron range in 1898, shipped Southern cotton to Japan on approval until the Japanese ordered 15,000 tons of American rail, and sold cheap land to German and Scandinavian settlers to give the track something to carry.

The management everyone admired was wage cutting. Beginning in August 1893 the Great Northern took 146,500 dollars a month out of its payroll, and in April 1894 the new American Railway Union struck and stopped the line for 18 days. Hill went to arbitration, the arbitrators were businessmen from St. Paul and Minneapolis, and they found for the workers. The cuts came back. It was the only strike the ARU ever won, and it made Eugene Debs a national figure two months before Pullman. Seven years later Hill and J. P. Morgan bought Northern Pacific stock against Edward Harriman until it touched 1,000 dollars a share and short sellers faced ruin. The truce became the Northern Securities Company, and the Supreme Court ordered it dissolved in 1904.

He died on May 29, 1916 worth about 63 million dollars. His widow took 16 million, each surviving child roughly four, and the tax collector one and a half. The couple were buried beside a lake on their own farm at North Oaks and later moved to Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights. The merger the government blocked happened anyway: Great Northern, Northern Pacific and the Burlington combined in 1970, and what came of that is now part of BNSF. Amtrak still runs a train called the Empire Builder over his route. Plains farmers named a roadside weed Jim Hill mustard, on the theory that it spread from seed leaking out of his boxcars.

James J. Hill's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Red River Transportation Company company
  Steamboats between St. Paul and Winnipeg 1870
• St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway company
  Rebuilt from the bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific, with Hill as general manager 1879
• James J. Hill House building
  36,000 square feet on Summit Avenue, built for 930,000 dollars — now a museum 1891
• Great Northern Railway company
  St. Paul to Seattle, and one of the few transcontinentals never to go bankrupt 1893
• Northern Securities Company company
  The holding company the Supreme Court ordered dissolved in 1904 1901
• Highways of Progress book
  His case for railroads, scientific farming and foreign trade 1910

• 1852 aged ~14 Leaves school at 14 after his father dies By then he was competent in mathematics, surveying and English.
• 1856 aged ~18 Settles in St. Paul at 18 and takes a steamboat bookkeeping job
• 1867 aged ~29 Marries Mary Theresa Mehegan and enters the coal business
• May 1879 aged 40 Takes over the bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific with four partners The reorganized line became the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba, with Hill as general manager.
• January 7, 1893 aged 54 The Great Northern reaches Seattle More than 1,700 miles from St. Paul, and built with almost no federal land grants.
• April 1894 aged 55 The American Railway Union shuts the line down for 18 days Arbitration reversed his wage cuts. It was the ARU's only victory.
• May 1901 aged 62 The Northern Pacific corner drives the stock to 1,000 dollars a share Hill and Morgan bought against Harriman until a panic threatened, then settled.
• 1904 aged ~66 The Supreme Court dissolves Northern Securities as a monopoly
• May 29, 1916 aged 77 Dies at his house on Summit Avenue after falling into a coma

• J. P. Morgan 1837–1913
  Banking titan who stabilized the economy during the Panic of 1907 and shaped modern finance. allied with
• Theodore Roosevelt 1858–1919
  26th President known for progressive reforms, conservation efforts, and assertive foreign policy. prosecuted by
• Eugene V. Debs 1855–1926
  Socialist Party leader who ran for president five times from prison and championed labor rights. beaten by his union
• William Jennings Bryan 1860–1925
  Three-time Democratic nominee and orator who made monetary reform, popular democracy, and moral politics central national issues. opposed
• Cornelius Vanderbilt 1794–1877
  Shipping and railroad magnate whose empire made him one of the wealthiest Americans in history. rival builder
• Andrew Carnegie 1835–1919
  Steel magnate who built one of the largest steel empires in history and later became a major philanthropist. supplied his ore