1821, graduated at West Point in 1842, and served through the Mexican War. In 1859 he became president of the military institute at Charlotte, Va. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the Confederate service, and was made colonel of the 1st North Carolina volunteers. He rose to the rank of major-general, and remained in-the service until the surrender of Johnston's army. After the close of the war he returned to Charlotte, N. C., and became the publisher of Field and Farm and, later, of The Land We Love. General Hill was the author of Elements of Algebra, The Crucifixion of Christ and Consideration of the Sermon on the Mount. He died at Charlotte, N. C., Sept. 24, 1889.
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| JAMES JEROME HILL |
Hill, James Jerome. In 1856 there arrived in St. Paul, Minn., then a frontier village, an 18-year-old boy from Canada. Born in Guelph, Ontario, Sept. 16, 1838, of well-to-do Scotch-Irish parents, James J. Hill was to have been educated for the medical profession. A lover of nature and books, he was thought unfitted for a business career. His father's death gave to the United States the man who was to win the nickname of Colossus of Roads.
Here briefly are the steps in his education for his great work as a railroad empire builder. Notice how each step grew out of the other:
FROM CLERK TO RAILROAD PRESIDENT
1. Nine years (1856-1865) as clerk for a Mississippi Steamboat Company, during which he studied the transportation and fuel situation.
2. Became agent (1865) of a Steamboat line.
3. Went (1867) into the general transportation and fuel business.
4. Began his railroad experience as station agent of the only railroad then entering St. Paul.
5. Formed a fuel and warehousing firm.
6. Organized (1870) Red River Transportation Company, to carry on trade between U.S. and Manitoba.
7. Established (1872) first regular through transportation service between St. Paul and Winnipeg (then Ft. Gary).
BEGINNING OF THE RAILROAD EMPIRE
8. With three associates bought (1878) defaulted bonds of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company which had built some lines in Minnesota, and owed nearly $33,000,000. Almost no one except Mr. Hill believed in its future. He did, because he believed in the future of the country. After acquiring its bonds he joined the fragments of the road into something like a system and connected it with the Canadian Government line to Winnipeg.
9. Organized (1879) St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad Company to take over all these properties and build on them as a foundation. The system grew rapidly with the country.
THE GREAT NORTHERN SYSTEM
10. Mr. Hill saw early that the line must ultimately reach the Coast and, without a pause, conceived, financed and built, in spite of all difficulties, the magnificent system now called the Great Northern. Very few, at the time, appreciated the immense resources of the country through which it passes. The system was made independent in its eastern connections by the establishment of a steamship company on the lakes and on the west by the establishment of a steamship line to the Orient. By subsequent extensions and connections, the Great Northern System has grown to 7,800 miles. It has never passed a dividend and its credit has always stood high in the most disastrous times.
THE MAN BEHIND IT ALL
The motive power behind it all was James J. Hill. His great principles of management—and notice that they all are principles that apply to any line of business—are: economy of operation, low grades and easy curves, powerful engines and cars of large capacity; adjustment of traffic so as to reduce the haul of empty cars to the minimum. He has made a special study of scientific agriculture and, through numerous addresses and by practical work on the farms of the Northwest, has led the movement for better methods. His Highways of Progress deals profoundly with national development. He is a tireless reader, a generous giver for educational purposes and although nominally withdrawn from active business life, his touch is felt by all his great enterprises. He was made an LL.D. by Yale in 1910.
Hills′boro, Texas, county-seat of Hill County, is located in a fine agricultural section. Among its industries are the machine-shops of the M. K. and T., a cotton-mill and compress, a cotton-seed oil mill, tannery, grain-elevator, flour-mill, ice-factory etc. The city has ten churches, an admirable public school system, a twenty thousand dollar high school and a fine courthouse. Hillsboro has pure artesian water and an electric light plant, and owns its waterworks and sewerage system. It has the service of four railroads and a population of 6,115.
Hill′is, Newell Dwight, the pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, was born in 1858 in Iowa. He is the author of a number of religious and social writings, including The Investment of Influence; The Influence of Christ in Modern Life; Success Through Self-Help and Building a Working Faith.
Himalaya (hĭ-mā′lā̇yȧ), from two Sanskrit words, meaning snow-abode, in the southern and central parts of Asia, are not a single range, but a system, of parallel ranges some 1,500 miles long. The mountains of the southern range are among the loftiest in the world, many of them exceeding 20,000 feet in height. One, Mt. Everest (29,002), is the highest measured mountain in the world. Among the others are Mt. Godwin-Austen (28,250), Kunchinjinga (28,156), Dhwalagiri (26,826) and Nanda-Devi (25,700). They form the southern slope. There are other peaks, whose height has not been ascertained, that are believed
