James J Hill, Young Empire Builder by Mildred Cpmfort, hardback, former Library Book, Bobbs Merril Company 1968. Childhood of Famous Americans Series. Illustrated by William K. Plummer. 200 pages.
James J. Hill, nicknamed the Empire Builder, embodied the archetypal American story of success, rising from poor dock clerk to multimillionaire railroad magnate. In time, Hill had gained control of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and the Burlington railroads. James J. Hill was perhaps more significant to the framing of the empire of the Pacific Northwest than any other individual. His decisions about rail routes and station stops had the power to turn fledging communities into robust cities -- and to cause other hopeful towns to die a bornin'. Settlers cultivated land along the margins of the tracks he laid, later shipping the products of their farms to distant markets via the trains. Hill's impact on the economic development of the Midwestern and Pacific Northwestern regions of the United States is difficult to overstate.