Born September 16, 1838

Wellington, Ontario, Canada

Died May 29, 1916

St. Paul, Minnesota

Railroad builder, financier, and founder of the Great Northern Railway

James J. Hill. (Archive Photos, Inc. Reproduced by permission.)

Hill was "the railroad-building genius who opened up the great northwestern wilderness."

Obituary, World's Work, July 16, 1916, p. 243.

James J. Hill was a powerful business tycoon who established an extensive railroad empire that connected rail lines, farms, mines, and communities into a lucrative network of trade. His first rail network, the Saint Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railway, linked wheat producers throughout the thriving northern states and gave Hill the economic clout to pursue his dream: the creation of his own transcontinental rail line. In 1889 that dream was realized with the Great Northern Railway, which stretched from Minneapolis across the northernmost parts of the United States to Seattle, a prime port on the Pacific Ocean. The Great...