In the wake of disaster, Carl, a father of six, was forced to make a . Unexpected windfall In 1897, Hill grudgingly bought the small Duluth, Superior & Winnipeg Railroad, which came with 10,000 acres of Mesabi Range land. JAMES HILL OBITUARY. But nobody knew how vast those deposits really were. You can catch a glimpse of the Cathedral of Saint Paul on the grounds of the James J. Hill House. Louis W. Hill, Jr. was born in St. Paul on May 19, 1902, the son of the president of the Great Northern Railway and the grandson of its founder, James J. Hill. When he encountered competition from E.H. Harriman's Union Pacific Railway, Hill allied with financier J.P. Morgan, adding the Northern Pacific and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroads to his empire. With this successful venture, he encouraged his partners to think bigger. Having a spur line that went right up into the Mesabi Range was hugely successful for Hill and the Great Northern, said Johnson, the Hill House manager. There are things that set him apart," says Alex Weston, lead researcher and program associate at the James J. Hill House in St. Paul, Minnesota. The houses total cost, including furnishings and other expenses, came to $931,275.01. Throughout these endeavors, Hill had his thumb on the pulse of every process, earning him the reputation of a micromanager with his belief, "It pays to be where the money is being spent." First, Hill turned his personal ownership of the mines over to his railroad, a move that Hills more reverential biographers cite as proof of his honor and generosity. Thus was the foundation laid for the coming empire" ("The Career of James J. Hill," May 30, 1916). Also surviving are 6 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren and 3 great great grandchildren along with several nieces and nephews. North Oaks is a small, unique community located about 20 minutes north of downtown St. Paul. "This is the era when monopoly was not just a board game," says Weston. James J. Hill died in 1916, but his trust would run nearly a century longer. He had also populated the region of the Pacific Northwest with thriving communities, many of them Scandinavian immigrants who had availed themselves of Hill's $10 transportation policy, to help settle the area and expand the region's economic development. On Monday, Hills distant date finally arrived. Hill would acquire other companies, though he faced legal action as the result of violating antitrust laws. Joe was an automobile mechanic and owner of . Critics said that he was building through a country barren of people, which could give his line no tonnage and would mean ruin. It only had 10 employees. So many of Hills decisions cast such a long shadow, said Craig Johnson, manager of the James J. Hill House historic site in St. Paul. Once the main Great Northern line was complete, he began the process of building an empire around it, making the land produce so that his railroad could transport its products to market. Construction began in 1888. Employing multiple systems was critical for creating a solid foundation beneath his railroad, making it immune from the bankruptcies that plagued other lines. As the eldest surviving son, James was compelled to leave school and find work clerking in various small stores in order to support his mother, sister, and younger brother. Settling the West in this manner was partly due to the prospect of quickly ending the Civil War. Unlike the railroad, the trust rarely drew much attention. Phoebe's Heart of Stone. This board contains everything I could find on James J. Hill, his homes, resorts, family and his businesses). His gains came from the Great Northern stock he held. In 1901 Hill added the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad to his collection. General laborers earned as little as $1.75 a day. "He had a comprehensive view of these resources," explains Weston. He had married Mary Theresa Mehegan in 1867 and they had had 10 children. Through his business connections, Hill pulled together investors to purchase the bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific Railroad in Minnesota along the Red River, a highly productive farming area depending upon an unreliable steamboat system. Folks already knew the region had iron ore. ; and Pittsburgh. Freight charges on timber, Washington's most significant product, also significantly undercut the competition: Hill charged 50 cents per hundred pounds of cedar and 40 cents per hundred pounds of fir, compared with 90 cents per hundred pounds charged by the Northern Pacific. Bells and whistles signaled all along the Great Northern line while the engines were cut on every train and steamship. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer quoted historian Clarence Bagley: "In a twinkling, the value of Washington timber holdings had increased by an amount as great as the capital stock of the Great Northern Railway Company" ("Record Shows Seattle's Great Debt To J. J. Hill," May 30, 1916). "Up to the time of the building of his railway to the Puget sound the markets of the Middle West were closed to our lumber because the freight rates were too high. CREATING THE FOUNDATION FOR AN EMPIRE Jan 13, 2017 - The children: Mary Frances Hill Hill (1868-1947), James Norman Hill (1870-1932), Louis Warren Hill (1872-1948), Clara Ann Hill Lindley (1873-1959), Katherine "Katie/Katy" Hill (1875-1876), Charlotte Elizabeth Hill Slade (1877-1923), Ruth Hill Beard (1879-1959), Rachel Hill Bckmann* (1881-1967) *spelt in Norwegian, Gertrude Hill Gavin (1883-1961), Walter Jerome Hill (1885-1944). Hill made his senior debut . Please enable javascript and refresh the page to continue reading local news. Ries vigorously denied wrongdoing. In 1902 the Hills' eldest son, Louis W. Hill, and his wife, Maud Taylor Hill, began construction of their own mansion next door. Still, historians agree that the Hills role on the Iron Range was definitely not a matter of just cashing royalty checks. Theres really no other trust like it. Yet there was another reason, at a time of rising public resentment toward wealthy industrialists and grim conditions at the mines. Since then, the house has been open to the general public for tours, interpretive programs, and special events. In time, Hill had gained control of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and the Burlington railroads. In 1907, James J. Hill (L) began turning over the management of the Great Northern Railway to his son Louis W. Hill. When the house was completed in 1891, it was equipped with the most advanced technologies of the day. Mindy J. Since he'd lost sight in his right eye from a childhood archery accident, he was rejected from service in the Civil War, so he helped form the volunteer corps in Minnesota. Historical Person Search Search Search Results Results James J Hill (1864 - 1937) Try FREE for 14 days Try FREE for 14 days How do we create a person's profile? "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. Upon graduation in 1878, Hill went to Harvard and received a second bachelor's degree in . In 1978, the Archdiocese transferred the mansion to the Minnesota Historical Society, which preserved the building and developed educational activities. Everything worked toward the benefit of the Great Northern Railroad. From Beers Biographies: James J. Hill was born November 10, 1804, on the old farm, and his younger days were spent at school, where he proved himself a good scholar and an eager reader. Ries did not return a request for comment, but the council debated and questioned staff and Houge for nearly four hours before voting down the project. Senator from Minnesota became a key player in a Nazi plot, Program supporting Black mothers through pregnancy adds cultural component to maternal care, With or without court ruling, Minnesota lawmakers seek to restore ex-offender voting rights, D.C. The federal Indian policy, at that time, is why the railroads were so successful. And it didn't take long for the Great Northern to incorporate it as their slogan. Law professor Anita Hill was thrust into the public eye when she was called to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee during the 1991 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. An elaborate ventilation system, which included twenty-two fireplaces, ensured that air moved freely throughout the house. James Hill was born in his family's log house in Rockwood, County of Wellington, Upper Canada (later Ontario) on September 16, 1838. Over the years, the mansion hosted a number of important events. America was becoming increasingly coal-dependent during the 1860s and 1870s, and Hill worked to build up St. Paul's coal industry, learning everything he could about the fuel. Although Hill's physicians drained the abscess, his temperature began to climb and gangrene to spread. James J. Hill, nicknamed the Empire Builder, embodied the archetypal American story of success, rising from poor dock clerk to multimillionaire railroad magnate. His death in 1995 triggered a 20-year countdown that ended April 6 . Condolences to the family may be made atwww.brinsfieldfuneral.com. Hill's railroads were built (or sometimes re-built, as was the case with some sections of Northern Pacific track) upon three principles: low grades to ease the work of hauling, heavy locomotive power, and freight cars with large capacity. Hill undercut this rate significantly, setting the Great Northern prices at $35 for first class and $25 for second. Brinsfield Funeral Home & Crematory, P.A. At the time of his funeral, according to The New York Times, "Every wheel on the three great railroad systems he controlled stopped turning for five minutes at 2 o'clock this afternoon." October 17, 1929 - October 19, 2022. The death of his father when he was 14 meant Hill had to leave school to work while his mother ran an inn. Christmas. The Hills shrewdly included a group of children among the founders, insuring the trust would last a very long time. Going Blood Simple: How Dashiell Hammett Invented Noir Fiction in Butte, America, Montana and the Nez Perce Flight for Freedom, All Aboard the Mid-Century Empire Builder, Kid Curry and the Great Northern Train Robbery, Life During Wartime at the Charter Oak Mine, Cocaine, Camphor, and Snake Oil: Panaceas of the Old West, VIDEO: Camera Captures Lightning Strike Hitting Cow in a Field, VIDEO: Bear Charges and Tackles Bow Hunter. Joe was an automobile mechanic and owner of several gas stations and auto repair shops in the Clinton, MD area for over 70 years. (1838 - 1916) James Jerome Hill. Born to a poor family in what is now Ontario, Hill's father died when he was 14, prompting him to assume adult responsibilities. Brinsfield Funeral Homes and Crematory P.A. He didnt seem to have a large interest in getting land along the railroad, or (investing) in any of the speculation or the business activities along the railroad. Two years later, Hill wrote a $2 million personal check - half the purchase price - for 25,000 acres of logged-off land, which had a small rail line to Hibbing for carrying logs. We strive for accuracy and fairness. Sitting on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River and the city of St. Paul, the 36,500-square-foot, forty-two-room James J. Hill House stands as a monument to the man who built the Great Northern Railway. It remains one of the best examples of Richardsonian Romanesque mansions in the country. Johnson believes that Hills embrace of an iron-ore trust back in 1906 reveals something about a tycoon who was shrewd, aggressive, quick to adapt and always loyal to his adopted home of St. Paul. While he respected those who toiled for him, he was a task master, pushing the men and routinely firing them if their work did not meet his expectations. Although Hill stepped back to allow Louis to take the lead, he didn't officially retire until 1912 at the age of 73, yet he remained busy by starting several banks and frequently speaking at events. Council Member Sara Shah, who along with Council Member Rich Dujmovic voted against denial, warned this decision put the city at risk of a legal challenge. In practical terms, if a teepee wasn't sitting there, it was often offered as a homestead or sold to a speculator, who set down new tracks or sold parcels to immigrants. A childhood accident with a bow and arrow left Hill blind in the right eye, a . During the flurry of activity of the constant expansion, Hill knew many of the names of the men and was known to pick up a tool and fill in while a worker grabbed a cup of coffee. James J. Hill lived the late nineteenth century American dream. He was the chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwest, the northern Great Plains, and Pacific Northwest. (Public Domain) Doing Business on Minnesota's Rivers and Rails But getting the freight revenue required a massive investment in track, machinery, land and manpower. They were married for 49 years and had 10 children. Research genealogy for James J Hill of St Marys, Maryland, United States, as well as other members of the Hill family, on Ancestry. James Hill was married to Connie F. (Hughes) Hill on May 7, 1974 in Harris County, Texas. At the center of the dispute is a 1999 planned development agreement between the North Oaks Company and the city that laid out the completion of the city over three decades. After the success of the St. Paul and Pacific, which was reorganized in 1879 as the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway Company, the Manitoba line headed west, making the most of the potential resources. Two vessels, the Minnesota and the Dakota, carried this freight. Hill's discerning taste in art can be sampled at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Mary Nevitt (born Edelen) was born circa 1781, at birth place, Maryland, to Clement Serrell Edlin or Edelen and Susannah Ann Edlin (born Simpson). Reno - James (Jim) J. Hill Jr, born June 30, 1942 in San Francisco, California, to parents Maxine Johnson and James J. Hill Sr. Jim passed after a long battle with cancer on . Member donations are crucial to the work of our nonprofit newsroom. We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Every season he traveled in his private car examining tracks and noting failings along the rail line, ranging from structural defects to whether a depot was not well-kept. HILL, JAMES J. James J. Hill of Denver, died May 17th. The council majority including Ries, Council members Jim Hara and Tom Watson, listed eight reasons for their denial including issues around parking, lot size and how the proposed Gate Hill neighborhood fits into a larger development agreement between the company and the city. Clement was born in June 1753, in Maryland. Dr. Eric Colleary is a public historian with focuses in histories of American and British theatre and American foodways. Guides lead tours that help you imagine family and servant life in the gilded Age Mansion, the setting of the public and private lives of the Hill family. The Northern Pacific Railroad charged $60 for tickets in first class and $35 for second-class tickets from Seattle to St. Paul. 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