HILL, JAMES

(JEROME), (18381916), American railroad developer and financier; b. near Guelph, Ontario, Canada. His early educational opportunities were limited, and he entered busine life at the age of 15, settling in St. Paul, Minn., and working as clerk and agent in the Mi i ippi River steamboat busine from 1856 to 1868. In 1870 he established the Red River Transportation Company, doing busine between St. Paul and Winnipeg. ‘The purchase in 1878, in company with others. of the defaulted bonds of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company, marked hi busine , in| entrance into the railroad which he became one of the most powerful and remarkable figures on the ‘American continent. He concentrated all his tremend ous energy on the development and perfecting of the great system that, by a series of consolidations, became the Great Northern Company, which not only included a railroad to the Pacific Coast, but also embraced a line of steamers running to China and Japan. He was also a great factor in the building of the Canadian Pacific. ‘The country owes him a debt of gratitude for his contribution to the development and prosperity of the Northwest. He resigned from the presidency of the system in 1907 to become chairman of the board of directors, which office he relinquished in 1912. Apart from his busine interests, he took a keen and active interest in art, literature and civic betterment.