Sublime

A year later, in partnership with Wellington and George Blanchard, he proudly formed the firm of James J. Hill Company. He negotiated an exclusive arrangement as forwarding agent for the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad whereby his firm would transfer produce from riverboats to this firm’s rails that pointed westward to Minneapolis and up the Minnes

everyone around the Saint Paul levees came to know “Jim” Hill, his name usually rendered as one word, “Jimhill,” a man who always seemed up on anything and everything that went on.

Indeed, his knowledge of the railroad, in even the most minute detail, quickly became a matter of legend. For example, while standing on a Dakota rail siding one day, he spotted an engine numbered 94. From that recognition, Hill astounded the engineer by walking up and addressing him by name—Roberts—and noting that the engine had just been in for r

Year by year, Hill and his railroad organizations assembled an elaborate system of agricultural research and promotion.

Jim Hill now focused nearly his entire attention on organizing the Pacific Extension.

JAMES J. Hill ranks among the great organizers and managers of the American West. Born in Canada in 1838, Hill moved nearly two decades later to the Twin Cities, where he quickly exhibited the tireless energy and foresight that characterized his entire career. By his early forties he had helped organize major new transportation systems in Canada an

Finally, through some combination of convincing, cajolery, and perhaps promises, the associates persuaded him to stand aside and allow Hill—who was already handling supply and other matters—to take over the supervision of construction. Assigning the direct work to a favorite contractor, David Robbins, Hill now entered one of the most dynamic phases

Jim Hill wasted little time, after gaining full control of the Saint Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba, in sending Farley packing. Hill showed little sensitivity to the old man’s ego, to his greed, or to his clear ability to retaliate. When Farley confronted Hill in the spring of 1879 with the impossible demand that he be made a director of the new c

The epic battle of American railroad history began in 1901 and centered on control of the strategic Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad (the “Q”). Once Hill and Morgan had consolidated the NP with the GN under Hill’s effective tutelage, it made more sense than ever to forge a connecting link between the Twin Cities–Duluth termini of the two ra