What is James J Hill known for?
Hill, in full James Jerome Hill, (born September 16, 1838, near Guelph, Ontario, Canada—died May 29, 1916, St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.), American financier and railroad builder who helped expand rail networks in the northwestern United States.
How did James Hill bring people to the Northwest?
Perhaps more than any other American, Hill helped to transform the American northwest by opening it to widespread settlement, farming, and commercial development. In the process, he became one of the wealthiest men of the Gilded Age, amassing a fortune estimated at $63 million.
What did the Great Northern Railroad do?
The Great Northern was to be a true transcontinental railroad. Beginning in St. Paul and crossing the Mississippi River over the Stone Arch Bridge at Minneapolis, the line extended westward through North Dakota and Montana.
How was the Great Northern Railroad built?
It developed out of a struggling Minnesota railroad, the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (SP&P), which Hill and three associates purchased in 1878. Hill was a Minnesota coal and freight merchant who knew the north country well and believed he could build the decaying SP&P into a great railroad.
How did James J Hill spend his money?
Because of the money Hill regularly gave to libraries and schools his heirs used part of his fortune to endow the Hill Reference Library in St. Paul, Minnesota.
What happened to the Great Northern railroad?
The Great Northern Railway (reporting mark GN) was an American Class I railroad. In 1970, the Great Northern Railway merged with three other railroads to form the Burlington Northern Railroad, which merged in 1996 with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway.
How did James J Hill donate his money?
Unlike many of the now-famous railroad tycoons, Hill held great interest in the communities which were located along his lines and he donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to public interests like schools and libraries.
Why was JJ Hill a robber baron?
Hill founded the Great Northern Railroad, which by 1893 connected St. Paul, Minnesota, to Washington’s Puget Sound. Hill also acquired a reputation as a “robber baron,” and the Supreme Court ruled in 1904 that his railroad system was an illegal monopoly.
Why was the Great Northern railroad so successful?
The Great Northern’s route was the northernmost transcontinental railroad route in the U.S. The Great Northern was the only successfully built privately funded transcontinental railroad in U.S. history. No federal subsidies were used during its construction, unlike all other transcontinental railroads.
When did James J Hill create the Great Northern Railway?
James Hill’s Railroad Empire. The Great Northern Railway was formed in 1889 when Hill created the company to control or lease a number of other railroads which included the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway and Montana Central Railroad.
Who was James J Hill and what did he do?
James J. Hill was a railroad executive who came from an impoverished childhood to found his own company in 1866. He would eventually helm the Great Northern Railway Company, which was responsible for huge railroad expansions in the U.S. Northwest.
Why did James J Hill buy the St Paul and Pacific Railroad?
Hill had perfect timing in buying the St. Paul & Pacific. Two great harvest seasons followed his purchase which brought more business to the railroad. A great increase in immigrants from Norway and Sweden enabled Hill to sell homesteads from the Minnesota Land Grant for $2.50 to $5 an acre.
Why was the Great Northern Railroad mismanaged?
The railroad had received subsidies but those were not sufficient to overcome the railroads mismanagement, or perhaps it was mismanaged because of the availability of the subsidies. Hill and his group completed the St. Paul and Pacific line, which only extended into Minnesota, and they ran it profitably.