When Fort Benton, Montana wouldn't give James J. Hill a good right of way through town, he built around it, cutting them off from the world and contributing greatly to other towns along the way. The earlier transcontinental lines had been given millions of acres of federal land; Hill laid rail first, then populated his own empire. He carried immigrants to any stop on his line for $10 if they would settle where they got off, providing whole rail cars to families for not much more. He setup breeding farms for cattle and seed farms for grain, and gave the improvements to his western customers, as well as setting up agriculture demonstrations to train farmers already on the land. Bringing them their equipment and carrying back their produce made it worthwhile. Once he had lines into Chicago and Saint Louis he sent agents to the Orient, New England, and Europe, sending cotton goods from the south and New England as well as Minnesota wheat to the Orient, his European agents recruited immigrants from Britain and Scandinavia with pictures of western farming. He was called the Empire Builder, Amtrak honors his contribution by continuing to call their Portland/Seattle to Chicago route just that.
In the Salem witchcraft trials, a number of the accused were hanged, on this day one was weighted down with stones. The great land rush into Oklahoma occurred on this day, not one of America's prouder moments, although Oklahoma observes it as a state holiday. Steinway, founded earlier in the year, sold its first piano on this day; General Motors is founded on this day, but it's a holding company and won't produce a car until the first division is acquire two weeks later.
1692 - Giles Corey, age 80, is brought before the Court of Oyer and Terminer investigating witchcraft in Salem Village, Massachusetts, but refuses to answer any questions regarding the charges against him. He was taken to a field near the Salem Meetinghouse, bound, a board was placed across his body, and heavy stones were piled on top. The increasing weight killed him on the 19th.
1853 - Steinway & Sons, founded on 5 March by German immigrant Henry Engelhard Steinway and three of his sons, sold its first pianoforte to a New York family for $500. Before coming to New York and changing his name, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg had built 482 instruments, the first from the new company bore number 483.
1893 - With shots fired in the air at precisely noon, 100,000 settlers dashed from Kansas over the Oklahoma border to stake their claims to 42,000 homestead parcels of 160 acres each. The Cherokee Strip, stretching 226 miles along the south edge of Oklahoma and 58 miles from north to south, was the last land rush in the US. The six million acres had belonged to the Cherokee who leased it out for grazing, when Congress banned grazing the Cherokee sold.
1908 - William C. Durant, the largest auto manufacturer in the US with his Buick Motor Company, incorporated General Motors Company as a New Jersey corporation. He brought Buick into the new company in October, added Olds in November, and Oakland (later Pontiac) and Cadillac in 1909.
1975 - The 65th Triennial General Convention of the Episcopal Church, meeting at Minneapolis, Minnesota, officially approved ordination of women to the priesthood.
Fete de Saint Cornely, Brittany - According to pious tradition, Cornely (Cornelius) was a pope banished from Rome with two oxen and came to Carnac on the Breton coast with soldiers in pursuit. He looked back and saw the ranks of soldiers coming over the crest of a hill and turned them to stone, forming the megalithic Alignement de Carnac. A church was built on the spot, and domesticated horned animals (goats, oxen) are blessed at midnight in that church. Cornelius is the patron of Carnac and horned animals. Archeologists maintain that the Alignement de Carnac is over 5,000 years old, Cornelius died in 253.
Independence Day, Mexico - "Mexicanos, Viva México!" A priest at Dolores named Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla preempted a revolution already underway by Mexican-born Spaniards, calling the Indians and Mestizos to revolt on this day in 1810.
1838 - James Jerome Hill, US rail developer, financier - Born at Rockwood, Ontario, Canada, father's early death limited early education, later had full scholarship at Rockwood Academy from headmaster. Lost an eye to an archery accident, ended medical ambition. At 18 went to St Paul, Minnesota to trap furs, missed the start of the season, went to work for steamboat company instead. Enlisted in US Civil War, rejected because of lost eye, organized the First Minnesota Volunteers, pursued trading and warehousing sidelines through war. Agent for St Paul and Pacific RR starting 1866, convinced the company to switch from wood to coal, organized Hill, Griggs and Co to provide it. Formed the Red River Transportation Co to carry goods into Canada, after panic in 1873 bought the St Paul out of receivership with partners. He called it St Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba and quickly (over a mile a day) extended north to Canada in 1879. Picked up 2 million acres in land grant, sold it mostly to Scandinavan immigrants. Helped plan the Canadian Pacific rail line to Vancouver, sold his CPR stock in 1882 to start a competing line south of the border. Without federal land grants but with 8,000 men and 3300 horse teams he reached Minot, North Dakota in 1886, Great Falls, Montana in 1887, personally surveying the route. He organized the Great Northern in 1890 including his original track. The Great Northern reached Everett, Washington in 1893. Another panic that year put several railroads in receivership, Hill was blocked in a purchase of the Northern Pacific, he arranged for J. P. Morgan to buy most of it, and operated both lines as the Great Northern until antitrust action split it again. In 1901 Hill and Morgan bought the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy after a messy battle with the Union Pacific's E. H. Harriman. In 1905 The Great Northern and Northern Pacific jointly built the Spokane, Portland, and Seattle, again bringing Hill head to head with Harriman. Retired as president in favor of his son Louis in 1907,went to office daily until 1916 when an infection weakened him and put him in a coma. He died at St Paul on 29 May 1916, every engine on his lines stopped for five minutes at the time of his funeral.
Love is like playing piano. First you must learn to play by the rules,
then you must forget the rules and play from your heart!
- Anonymous
Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech
and assembly. Men feared witches and burned women. It is the function
of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.
- Justice Louis Brandeis
A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car, but
if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Not houses finely roofed or the stones of walls well builded, nay nor
canals and dockyards make the city, but men able to use their opportunity.
- Alcaeus
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