The medal's obverse bears portrait of Hill facing three-quarters left. Around, MEMORIAL / JAMES JEROME HILL
The reverse bears oak wreath around inscription, SEPTEMBER 16TH / 1838 / MAY 29TH / 1916 / "ONE OF THE / WORLD'S GREATEST / BUILDERS"
James Jerome Hill (1838-1916) was born in Ontario. Blind in one eye due to a childhood bow and arrow accident, forced to leave school due to the death of his father, he amoved to Kentucky where he learned bookkeeping while working as a clerk. He started working for himself in the 1860's and gathered a lot of experience in the area of shipping and fuel supply. In 1870 he started a steam boat company and by 1879 he had navigated it into a highly profitable local monopoly. In the same year, a big bet Hill and his business partners had made three years earlier came to fruition when the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway Company formed from the assets of the bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, with Hill as the general manager.
From here on Hill relentlessy expanded his railroad empire, through construction and acquisition. He personally surveyed the track for his own transcontinental railway, which was the only private transcontinental company to turn a profit. At the time of his death, his networth was an estimated $53 million, $2.5 billion in today's dollars.
The circular medal measures 76.3mm in diameter and was struck in bronze by the Whitehead-Hoag Company of Newark, New Jersey. Neither mintage nor artist are reported.