James Hill Autumn The River Analysis

High above the broad valley of the Mississippi reposes an expansive and indestructible mansion. The view it possesses is extraordinary. In autumn the valley blazes with gilded trees, swept with scarlet. The winter’s display is scarcely less lovely, for the valley’s forest is wrapped in the finest lace, while in the spring and summer, it alive with song. Along the brim of the valley lies Summit Avenue, lined with a collection of the stateliest homes in the Mid-west. But the grandest of them all is the wide, Romanesque style mansion. The owner of this manor was an “Empire Builder” of the American sort; James J. Hill, Emperor of the northern railroads.
In a remote settlement of Ontario, James Hill was born in a sturdy cabin to Irish parents,
Therefore, he continued to make his way up in the transportation business, working for steamboat and railroad companies. One winter, he spent his nights guarding the ice-locked steamboats and reading as he had done in his youth. Archbishop Ireland stated that young Hill “wasted in foolish frolics neither his money nor his time.” St. Paul continued to fascinate him, for the town was like rough, wild beauty attempting to put on polished airs and blend with her sisters, New York and
constructed their lines, adding branches where they saw profitable traffic and encouraging hundreds of thousands of immigrants to settle along them. By January of 1893 the lines of the Great Northern, as it was now known reached Seattle. Hill had often declared that “what we want is the best possible line, shortest distance, lowest grades and the least curvature.” Solidly, the lines were well-built stretching 1,816 miles between Seattle and St. Paul, 115 miles less than there largest competitor, the Northern Pacific. The few steep grades were so “concentrated that the use of extra engines could be economically confined to short stretches.” The Great Northern Railroad Company remained the most prosperous railroad of its size, flourishing while the others floundered. James Jerome Hill was successful because he was logical and driven. Similar to Rockefeller and Carnegie he thrived during business and money upsets as he deemed them excellent opportunities for other talented individuals to revive things. It was often observed that Hill “did not wait for opportunities – he made them.” The self-made Irish billionaire was the Empire Builder of the modern