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James Hill Biography

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HILL, James J (Erome) (1838–1916). An American railway promoter. Воrn near Guelph, Ontario, of Scotch-Irish descent, he early left his father's farm for a business career in Minnesota. In 1870 he formed the Red River Transportation Company, which was the first to open communication between St. Paul and Winnipeg. Eight years afterward he helped to form the syndicate which under another name ultimately built the Canadian Pacific Railway. He secured control of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad and, having reorganized it under the name of the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba, was its general manager in 1879–81, vice president in 1881–82, and president from 1882 to 1890, when it became a part of the Great Northern System. The main line of the Great Northern—extending from Lake Superior to Puget Sound, with northern and southern branches and a direct steamship connection with China and Japan—was built, with Hill as principal promoter, between 1888 and 1893. Of this road, or rather system of roads, he was president (1889–1907) and chairman of the board of directors (1907–12). He was also president of the original and the reorganized Northern Securities Company (see Northern Securities Case), and a director in a number of railroad and other corporations; and he served as vice president of the New York Chamber of Commerce. He gave $500,000 towards the establishment of a Roman Catholic theological seminary in St. Paul, Minn. In 1910 he published Highways of Progress. His collection of paintings of the modern French school is considered important.