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Who was Jim Hill ?

05 Jan 10 - 05:36 PM (#2804303)
Subject: BS: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: GUEST,Guest

In a version of the song "HALLELUJAH, I'M A BUM" it mentins Jim Hill.

e.g.

I like Jim Hill, He;s a good friend of mine<>


05 Jan 10 - 05:49 PM (#2804312)
Subject: RE: BS: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: catspaw49

He's a friend of mine................


Sorry...Had to be said...........


Spaw


05 Jan 10 - 05:50 PM (#2804313)
Subject: RE: BS: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

Joe Hill, the union organizer and IWW martyr?


05 Jan 10 - 06:15 PM (#2804335)
Subject: RE: BS: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: Jack Campin

We hate him. He's a poof.


05 Jan 10 - 06:36 PM (#2804346)
Subject: RE: BS: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: The Sandman

him jill,me tonto,he was the lone ranger


05 Jan 10 - 06:50 PM (#2804363)
Subject: RE: BS: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: Stower

"GUEST,Guest", I'm going to assume your enquiry is genuine, and on that basis I'm sorry your enquiry has not, so far, been met with the information you're after. Please either sign in under a consistent name as a guest or, better still, sign up as a Mudcat member.

There is plenty of info about Joe Hill on the web, which I won't repeat here. But if you put "joe hill iww" into Google, you'll find plenty to interest you. "iww", by the way, is for the Industrial Workers of the World, which JH worked for, and whose members were and are known as Wobblies.


05 Jan 10 - 06:58 PM (#2804370)
Subject: RE: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: Jeri

It was in the BS section, and I had the options of deleting it or un-BSing it. It was about a song, after all.

I'd love to see the lyrics to GUEST,guest's version, since the ones in the DT here and here don't mention ANYONE named 'Hill'.


05 Jan 10 - 06:58 PM (#2804372)
Subject: RE: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: Don Firth

Here you go:   James J. Hill, railroad tycoon. Instrumental in building railroads across the continent, sometimes called "The Empire Builder."

Not universally loved by a lot of people, especially tramps and hobos. Managed to earn a mention in a number of songs.

Don Firth


05 Jan 10 - 06:58 PM (#2804373)
Subject: RE: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: The Sandman

jim hill ,nothing to do with joe hill,jim hill was the guy who owned the railway line.
i like jim hill hes a good friend of mine thats why i go hiking down the old main line,


05 Jan 10 - 07:00 PM (#2804375)
Subject: RE: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: John on the Sunset Coast

Jim Hill is a sports anchor in Los Angeles, but I don't think they've sung songs about him.


05 Jan 10 - 07:14 PM (#2804391)
Subject: RE: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: Jack Campin

Another contender: James Hill, fiddler of Dundee and Gateshead .


05 Jan 10 - 09:43 PM (#2804472)
Subject: RE: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: Don Firth

GSS, the way I learned the line was

I like Jim Hill, he's a good friend of mine,
That's why I'm walkin' down Jim Hill's main line.

That pins it down even tighter.

Don Firth


05 Jan 10 - 11:21 PM (#2804500)
Subject: RE: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: Mark Ross

Jim Hill was the robber baron who built the Great Northern Railroad, and opened up much of the Northern Great Plains and the Pacific Northwest to settlement. As the hobo folklore had it, he said, "The boomers(traveling workers)built this railroad, they can ride any time they want." Regardless of whether or not that is true, the GN was always more tolerant of the Travelling Nation, and to this day that tradition still holds on the Highline.

Mark Ross


06 Jan 10 - 07:29 PM (#2805319)
Subject: RE: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego

I want it noted that he was described as Canadian-American. We don't want ALL the blame to fall on our side of the 49th parallel! He was from the generation of "robber barons," so-called because there was no income tax and no restraint on their monopolistic practices back then. A lot of good stuff got built by such "bad" people. Unfortunately, a lot of good people paid the price for this progress.


06 Jan 10 - 08:44 PM (#2805373)
Subject: RE: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: GUEST,Guest

Thank a lot, it is the railroad guy. I suspected he had something to do with the railroad.
    Please note that anonymous posting is no longer allowed at Mudcat. Use a consistent name [in the 'from' box] when you post, or your messages risk being deleted. "Guest,guest" is not an acceptable posting name. It has already been used.
    Thanks.
    -Joe Offer-


07 Jan 10 - 12:06 PM (#2805795)
Subject: RE: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: Art Thieme

Mark Ross gets it right pretty much all of the time whenever he answers queries of a railroading and hoboing nature. BillD is right on too.

Art


07 Jan 10 - 03:42 PM (#2805972)
Subject: RE: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: GUEST

Great info Don and Mark.


07 Jan 10 - 03:54 PM (#2805982)
Subject: RE: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: Rasener

This is Jimmy "The Chin" Hill http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWmSjsAHd0g&feature=related

Only one other bloke I know with a chin like that.


12 Mar 21 - 11:41 PM (#4097405)
Subject: RE: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: GUEST,Grey Fedora

Jim hill was the president of the Great Northern railroad. Hence the verse "I'm riding Jim Hill's main line."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Hill


13 Mar 21 - 12:23 PM (#4097477)
Subject: RE: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: GUEST

read about the disastrous results of US railway mania inJonathan Raban's excellent book 'Bad Land' about Eastern Montana & the disaster which befell it through the gangsters who ran the railways, with Government connivance.


13 Mar 21 - 02:42 PM (#4097495)
Subject: RE: Who was Jim Hill ?
From: Jon Bartlett

Jim Hill represented one side of the epic struggle between the Canadian Pacific and the US Great Northern, as to who was going around the turn of the 19/20th centuries to capture the mining wealth of southern British Columbia. Oddly, the head of the CP was an American and Jim Hill of GN was a Canadian.

When the Great Northern ran a line up to Midway BC and thence westward, the struggle broke out in earnest, and the CP created the Kettle Valley Line to challenge GN. The GN (through their subsidiary the VV &E - Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern) line eventually ran through the Similkameen Valley from Chopaka, Keremeos, Hedley, and Princeton, ending Princeton's effective isolation. Local boosters called for the renaming of the Similkameen "the Jimhillkameen".

Jon Bartlett