Artist: Othmar J. Hoffler (1893–1954)
James Jerome Hill
HILL, JAMES JEROME (1838–1916), inducted 1937
Self-made man and railroad executive James J. Hill was born in Upper Canada (now Ontario) in 1838. As a teenager, he held his first jobs in Kentucky and Minnesota, settling in St. Paul to handle freight transfers for a grocer. The entrepreneurial Hill then launched coal, steamboat, and banking ventures and began buying bankrupt businesses to rebuild and resell them. In 1879, he partnered with several men to form the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway Company, serving as manager and later president. He purchased companies and located their plants along his railroad lines. In 1893, Hill completed the first privately financed transcontinental railroad, the Great Northern Railway, traveling on horseback to plan the route himself. During the Great Depression, he took over the Northern Pacific as well. As the great railroad empire builder, James Hill helped develop and finance agriculture in the Northwest.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 109