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James Jerome Hill (1838-1916) was one of the most powerful railroad tycoons of the Gilded
Age in the late 19th century and early 20th century. He was born in Canada and was forced
to discontinue his education when his father died in 1852 in order to find work to support his
family. He volunteered for the Union Army in 1861 but was turned away due to being blinded
in the right eye as a boy in an archery accident, but he was reportedly a very good rifle shot
using his left eye. By 1865 started his own shipping business in St. Paul, Minnesota, and
began working with the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad and began trading in coal and formed the
steamboat shipping firm Red River Transportation Company in 1872.
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