Albro martin biography of william hill
Thorough, yet readable account of James Hill and his slow but steady rise to wealth and influence through hard work and excellent character.!
ALBRO MARTIN.
James J. Hill and the Opening of the Northwest
Paul, Minnesota, when he was 18. After learning the ropes as a freight agent, helping transport all of the new material to settlers and a little of their "winter wheat" back East, he set up on his own as a local merchant, bought some steamships and ran a warehousing business.
Hill's big break came in 1879, when he wrangled some capitalists, including Donald Smith and George Stephen of Canada, chiefs of the First Bank of Montreal, to buy up the bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, and agreed to complete its lines within a year to the Canadian border.
In 1889 he decided to take his renamed "Great Northern" railroad all the way to the Pacific Coast, which he accomp