‘Once I built a railroad'

J.J. Hill and the Great Northern

- ROD MOLZAHN

In the late 1860s, Jim Hill was a $75 a month freight clerk for a warehouse along the Mississippi River at St. Paul, Minnesota.

William Kahlow, 1890 settler in the Okanogan Valley, knew Jim Hill as the fastest receiving clerk on the Mississippi. The job involved directing the wharfmen unloading freight from the riverboats to the proper space in the warehouse for each consignee.

Kahlow recalled competitions between Jim Hill and other freight clerks. Jim Hill always won. “If they bet on Jim Hill they didn’t lose their wagers.” Jim Hill had lost an eye to a childhood accident but that didn’t slow down his work or his ambitions.

It was during those years that freight clerk Jim Hill met Mississippi riverboat captain Alexander Griggs. The two men formed a friendship that would last as long as their lives.

Hill knew how to move freight and Griggs knew riverboats. Captain Griggs thought there was money to be made hauling freight on the Red River of Minnesota.

In 1872 he convinced his friend, Jim Hill, to invest with him to build a riverboat to ply the Red River. The Selkirk cost $22,000 to build but paid for itself in the first year of operation.

That changed Jim Hill’s life. No longer a freight clerk, he added a middle initial to his name and became James J. Hill, shipping magnate.

He soon concluded that the future of shipping was not in riverboats but in railroads.

In 1873, Hill took his substantial profits from the Red River Transportation Co. and bought a controlling interest in the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad.

There was a national financial panic and the railroad was in trouble. Hill paid 25 cents a share for the stock. He immediately began expanding his line west to reach more towns and more population.

Hill demanded much from his crews. He expected a mile and a half of new track each day.