St Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway Company

• American

The StPM&M was the creation of James J Hill. Born in Ontario, Canada, in 1838, Hill immigrated to St Paul, Minnesota, at the age of 17. St Paul was the northern terminus of the riverboat trade on the Mississippi River. Hill quickly found work as an agent for a steamship. After 20 years working in the shipping business on the Mississippi and Red rivers, Hill and three other investors purchased the nearly bankrupt St Paul and Pacific Railroad in 1878, renaming it the St Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway Company the following year. As president of the new company, Hill soon began to "branch out generally" into Minnesota, Dakota, and Manitoba. The generally north-south running routes of Hill's railroad soon dominated the trade of the Red River Valley. The StPM&M began calling itself the "Red River Valley Line." Wheat accounted for 20 percent of the railroad's total freight in the early 1880s. - NPS