James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest (The Oklahoma Western Biographies Book 12)

The SP&S proved to be the superb line that Jim Hill had promised; in fact, it was the best road he had ever built.

The two sons both went to Yale. Partly as a result of their sporadic preparation, each had troubles there, but they eventually did graduate. Observers often commented that the two sons failed to blossom because their father could never wean them—or anyone else, for that matter—from his own close control.

Few regional railroads could match it either for solidity of capitalization and infrastructure or for excellence of management.

As the new railroad, destined to become one of the world’s greatest, took shape during the next several months, the rising dominance of James J. Hill became readily apparent.

As always, he read incessantly.

Ever the pragmatist as well as the tough competitor, Hill also eventually presaged another future characteristic when he abruptly changed course and parleyed with his chief competitors to bring peace to the area coal industry by joining together in a market-sharing consortium.

At the time of his marriage, he had figured that once he had amassed $100,000—a modest, little fortune in those days—he would retire and devote himself to a life of study, philanthropy, and fatherhood. But like other ambitiously driven entrepreneurs of his time, he soon abandoned that dream. Eleven years later, at the time he entered the world of r

In completing the railroad, he had demonstrated his toughness, his stamina, his unflinching ability to discipline and to fire people, his competence in controlling large work forces, his quickness in mastering the intricate details of finance—in other words, he had proven his mettle.

As speculators sold off other stocks to rush toward the NP stock, its meteoric rise began to disrupt the stability of the entire market. Genuine panic and bedlam occurred on Thursday as the cornered “shorts” bid up the vanishing stock in a final effort to save themselves. In a spectacular surge, the few shares of remaining NP common passed 300, 700