My father used to use the expression. I asked him about it once and he said Sam Hill was Jim Hill's younger brother. Of course this led to a second question, to which the answer was that in Missoula MT, where he grew up, the most hated man was Jim Hill, owner of the Northern Pacific RR, which ran through Missoula on its way from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest. Think of some of the Granger songs from around 1890 and you have an idea. . . Dad was born in 1909.