Railroad Pioneer. Born in Ontario, Canada, he was the chief railroad executive responsible for establishing the Great Northern Railway lines which served the upper Midwest, the northern Great Plains and Pacific Northwest of America. In 1873, as a steamboat shipping businessman in Minnesota, he saw the need to expand railways to the  western territories. Between 1883 and 1889, he built his Great Northern Railway lines all the way across north America, the Great Plains, the Rockies to Seatle Washington. Under his management, he helped homesteads to immigrants by importing grains, farm equipment, bulding materials and general products which brought industry to Western Amercia. By the time of his death he held the monopoly of the railroad business in the U.S. with the Great Northern Railway having lines in Texas, Colorado, California and Washington at a worth of more than $53 million. He died in St. Paul, Minnesota, at age 77. (bio by: John “J-Cat” Griffith)  Family links:  Parents:  James Hill (1811 – 1852)  Ann Dunbar Hill (1805 – 1876)  Spouse:  Mary Theresa Mehegan Hill (1846 – 1921)*  Children:  Ruth Hill Beard*  James N Hill*  Mary Francis Hill Hill (1868 – 1947)*  James Norman Hill (1870 – 1932)*  Louis Warren Hill (1872 – 1948)*  Clara Anne Hill Lindley (1873 – 1947)*  Katie T. Hill (1875 – 1876)*  Charlotte Hill Slade (1877 – 1923)*  Rachel Hill Boeckmann (1881 – 1967)*  Gertrude Hill Gavin (1883 – 1961)*  Walter Jerome Hill (1885 – 1944)* *Calculated relationship