James Jerome Hill (1838-1916)

• American railway promoter and financier
• born near Rockwood, Ontario
• began his business career in 1856 in St. Paul, Minnesota
• involved in the organization of a river steamboat line in Winnipeg, and the formation of a company to supply coal to the railroads
• in 1878 purchased, with his associates, the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad. He amalgamated a several smaller lines into an integrated railway system extending north to Canada and west to Seattle
• in 1890 Hill consolidated all of his railway holdings into the Great Northern Railway Company
• also played an important part in the organization and funding of the Canadian Pacific Railway
• his many operations in the stock market, mining, and banking led him to become known as the Empire Builder
• books:
  • The empire-builder : a biographical novel of the life of James J. Hill (1928) by Oscar M. Sullivan
  • The story of the Great Northern Railway Company--and James J. Hill (1939) by Duncan J. Kerr
  • James J. Hill and Mary T. Hill, an unfinished chronicle by their daughter (1948) by Clara Hill Lindley
  • James J. Hill, a great life in brief (1955) by Stewart Hall Holbrook
  • James J. Hill and the opening of the Northwest (1976) by Albro Martin

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