And it began with Hills hunger to build a rail line across northern Minnesota in the 1890s, to haul grain more directly from the Red River Valley to Lake Superior. (Pioneer Press file photo: Joe Odin). 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. But he isnt front and center.. Juche, a Korean-influenced dinner spot, takes its place. Many speculators, who had sold Northern Pacific "short" in the anticipation of a drop in the railroad's price, faced ruin. The Hills shrewdly included a group of children among the founders, insuring the trust would last a very long time. It is still active, and if you add the Hibbing Taconite Pit to it, it stretches for five miles now, Brunfelt said. It was at this point that Hill went from general manager to the official president of StPM&M, and thereafter decided to expand the rail lines. Both opponents wanted the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroads to add to their flourishing businesses. He never really explained that the (railroads) major stockholders were the founding partners and their families so it really didnt cause them any harm financially., (But it did allow Hill in 1907 to testify, somewhat disingenuously, that he hadnt made the value of a postage stamp, directly or indirectly, out of the transaction. A truer account came in 1912, when Hill told a congressional committee that the land hed bought for $4 million would yield $750 million in iron ore.). He was one of the key figures in moving the ore from the mines to the docks, she said. So the trust came with an expiration date: it would terminate 20 years after the last original founder had died. In 1995, Burlington Northern merged with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to become the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. Over the next two decades, he worked relentlessly to push the line north to Canada and then west across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Schonberger, Howard. By all accounts, Hill was a hands-on, detail-obsessed manager. Mary Hill died in 1922 and was buried next to her husband by the shore of Pleasant Lake (North Oaks, Minnesota) on their North Oaks farm. 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 When there was not enough industry in the areas Hill was building, Hill brought the industry in, often by buying out a company and placing plants along his railroad lines. Contents 1 Life 1.1 Family Roots 1.2 Marriage 1.3 Death 2 Work The Great Northern was the first transcontinental built without public money and just a few land grants, and was one of the few transcontinental railroads not to go bankrupt. From 1937 to 1951, Mr. Hill served in the Minnesota House of Representatives. A Canadian himself of Scotch-Irish Protestant ancestry, he brought in many men with the same background into high management. Some mines were already operating, and Hills sons were excited by the potential. Over 400 workers labored on the project. He imported grains from Russia and sold this to farmers. Hill saved money by repeatedly cutting wages, made possible by a time of deflation when prices were falling generally. During this period, Hill began to work for himself for the first time. Hill pursued a broad range of other business interests: coal and iron ore mining, Great Lakes and Pacific Ocean shipping, banking and finance, agriculture, and milling. To that end, Hill was a major figure in the effort launched by J.P. Morgan to float the Anglo-French Bond drive of 1915, which allowed the Allies to purchase much-needed foodstuffs and other supplies. The Hill Family In 1867, Mary Theresa Mehegan, the daughter of Irish immigrants, wed James Jerome Hill, a Canadian immigrant who went on to achieve incredible success. In 1995, Burlington Northern merged with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to become the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. Therefore, Hill turned to his confidant and esteemed financer J.P Morgan. [10], The Great Northern energetically promoted settlement along its lines in North Dakota and Montana, especially by Germans and Scandinavians from Europe. J. Hill, a wildly successful railroad tycoon known appropriately as the "Empire Builder", the 36,000-square-foot property at 240 Summit Avenue spans three lots and touts arguably the most . 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. He went on to become a prominent businessman in St. Paul, a state legislator for 14 years, and a philanthropist who helped disburse some of the familys fortune. Its a tale of high finance and amazing fortune, befitting St. Pauls larger-than-life railroad baron. The result was restoration of the workers' wages to pre-depression levels. 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. In 1958, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.[29]. 651-297-2555 Home; Our Practice; Services; What to expect. He had nine years of formal schooling. Its last trading day was April 6, 2015. Constantly updated. J. J. Hill Dead In St. Paul Home At The Age of 77. "A Gilded Age Businessman in Politics: James J. Hill, the Northwest, and the American Presidency, 1884-1912,", This page was last edited on 15 December 2022, at 06:08. On 16 September 1838, James J. Hill was born to Anne Dunbar Hill and James Hill. "[7] Hill got what he wanted, and in January 1893 his Great Northern Railway, running from St. Paul, Minnesota to Seattle, Washington a distance of more than 1,700 miles (2,700km) was completed. In rare moments away from work, Hill devoted himself to amassing an impressive collection of French landscape painting showcased in the two-story art gallery of his Summit Avenue mansion. Because of vandals or curious admirers both graves were later moved to Resurrection Cemetery in St. Paul for safer keeping. At nine, he started receiving formal education.His father could not afford to pay his school fees, but a benevolent head master at the Rockwood Academy let him receive free education. Between 1883 and 1889, Hill built his railroads across Minnesota, into Wisconsin, and across North Dakota to Montana. During the Panic of 1873, St. At the peak of his success he met with the disapproval of President Theodore Roosevelt for his railway monopoly. A bust of Hill is located on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, Washington. He loved reading and also took to poetry. Jameson discovered the pass 1889 and it shortened the Great Northern's route by almost one hundred miles. In 1891, after three years of building, construction was completed on a new Hill family home on Summit Avenue in St. Paul. Avenue in the Library in his 70th year, was born on 25 September 1956 at little Falls N! IMPORTANT PRIVACY NOTICE & DISCLAIMER: YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO USE CAUTION WHEN DISTRIBUTING PRIVATE INFORMATION. His pains turned unbearable and his health deteriorated. The 14-story building cost $14 million to construct. Between 1856 and 1859 he prospered in a series of wood and coal merchandising partnerships. Ownership of the Iron Range mines will now pass to energy company Conoco-Phillips. It was obtained by the Minnesota Historical Society in 1978 and today is operated as a museum and gallery. Most people didnt know anything about it, unless they were investors themselves and worked for investment companies. Husband of Mary T Hill and Mary Theresa Hill He began his career in transportation in 1856 as a 17-year-old clerk on the St. Paul levee. As a child he encountered a serious accident, where he was struck by an arrow in his right eye that blinded his eye forever. The center, which opened in 1921 . As with his business dealings, Hill supervised the construction and design himself, hiring and firing several architects in the process. The Hill foundations that exist today, none of them have the Hill name on them, McCormack said. By the time of his death in 1916, James J. Hill was worth more than $53 million (equal to more than $1,319,813,456 today). A truce had to be called between the warring teams following which Hill and Morgan joined hands to stabilise the share market. His first job in St. Paul was with a steamboat company, where he worked as a bookkeeper. A New Mexico man is charged with killing and decapitating a 51-year-old man at a local park Sunday then kicking the severed head around, according to a report . 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. In this way, he continued the relationship developed by his grandfather, James J. Hill, between St. Paul and Japan. He also took strong measures to economizein just one year, Hill cut the railway's expense of carrying a ton of freight by 13%. The trust never did any mining itself; it only collected royalties. James J. Hill, in full James Jerome Hill, (born September 16, 1838, near Guelph, Ontario, Canadadied May 29, 1916, St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.), American financier and railroad builder who helped expand rail networks in the northwestern United States. ) Hill, James Norman Hill, Louis W. Hill, Clara Anne Lindley (born Hill), Katherine Theresa Hill, Charlotte Elizabeth Slade (born Hill), Sep 16 1838 - Eramosa Township, Ontario, Canada, Mary Elizabeth Hill, Alexander Samuel Dunbar Hill. For decades, much of Minnesota's Mesabi Range was. But unlike his legendary Great Northern Railway, which was wrestled into being by Hills iron will, his iron ore holdings were something of an accident. It is currently situated in front of More Hall, which is adjacent to the former on campus nuclear reactor building. Northern Pacific stock was forced up to $1,000 per share. 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