James J. Hill (1838–1916) railroad builder

Hill was born in Ontario and moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, at age 16 after the death of his father. He found work with a steamboat line and soon became a partner in the company. After several other ventures in transportation, he bought, along with two partners, the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad. The line became the basis for the Great Northern Railway Company that would earn him the name “Empire Builder.”

Hill envisaged this railroad as reaching the West Coast and set about building the line through the northern tier of states. From Minnesota, he reached Montana by 1887 and Seattle in 1893. The railroad was notable for being built without any federal government assistance, and, unlike many of the earlier RAILROADS, it suffered no financial scandals or setbacks. The completed line ran from Lake Superior to the Pacific. While a masterful piece of engineering, the line competed with the Northern Pacific Railroad, which had been bankrupted in the Panic of 1893. Hill helped reorganize the line, but the courts would not allow a merger between the two rivals. The Northern Pacific was taken over by interests led by J. P. Morgan, a Hill ally. The two again joined forces to attempt to purchase the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy line serving Chicago, in an attempt to prevent E. H. HARRIMAN from buying the line. The battle spilled over to the stock market, causing the Panic of 1901.

As a result, Morgan, Harriman, and Hill established the Northern Securities Company to act as a HOLDING COMPANY for the Great Northern and Northern Pacific. But the company was held in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act in a Supreme Court decision, the United States v. Northern Securities Co., in 1904. Hill retired as president of the Great Northern in 1907. He also helped construct the Canadian Pacific Railroad and was the author of Highways and Progress, published in 1910. He financed and built a library named after him in St. Paul. Unlike many other railroad tycoons of the 19th century, Hill’s reputation was built upon the soundness of his ideas, lack of government assistance, and the absence of financial scandal surrounding his operations.

See also MORGAN, JOHN PIERPONT.

Further reading

• Malone, Michael P. James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996. 
• Martin, Albro. James J. Hill and the Opening of the Northwest. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.