shofour.html

The Oregonian, Portland, OR., February 27, 1931, page 1
Includes portrait

SAM HILL DEAD
Fame Won In Building Highways.
SON WITH FATHER AT END
"Great Builder, Dreamer," Queen Marie's Tribute.
BODY WILL LIE IN STATE
Columbia Highway Among Greatest Interests; Road to Alaska His Hope for Future.

Samuel Hill, an international figure who walked with kings and princes and who believed that the building of highways would make the Pacific northwest the center of the cultured world, died at 6:35 o'clock last night at St. Vincent's Hospital.
Mr. Hill's death followed an 18 days' illness and a life of almost 74 years. February 9, when en route to make an address on good roads before the state legislature at Salem, Mr. Hill was taken ill with intestinal influenza and was immediately placed under physician's care at St. Vincent's.
His failure to rally prompted Mr. Hill's son, James N. Hill of Washington, D.C., to fly from Chicago to his father's bedside. Yesterday afternoon, when physicians announced a sudden change for the worse, the members of the family realized that death was near.
Those present at Mr. Hill's passing were his son, James N. Hill; Edgar N. Hill, a cousin, of Seattle, and W.F. Turner, president of the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway, friend of many years and an associate in the United Railways of which Mr. Hill was a director.

Body in State Today

The body will lie in state at Finley's mortuary today from 3 to 4 P.M. at which time his many Portland friends may pay their last respects to the man who foresaw such greatness for the west which he had adopted. Funeral and cremation will be held in Seattle, after which an urn, with his ashes, will be taken to Maryhill, the lonely castle which Mr. Hill had built on the high, brown banks of the upper Columbia.
Mr. Hill, who Queen Marie had called "a great builder and dreamer," had a remarkable diversity of interests. His activities as capitalist and railroad builder took him far afield. He was an inveterate traveler, and when in continental Europe he consorted with king and queens.
His death marks the passing of the greatest highway builder of the Pacific coast, Portlanders remembering him best for his active interest in the Columbia highway. It was Samuel Hill who set Samuel Lancaster to Europe for study that the Columbia highway might be engineered along the lines of the most beautiful of continental highways. Mr. Hill was also a leader in the pioneering of the Pacific highway and that the time of his death was working to obtain an extension of the Pacific highway into Alaska.
A native of Deep River, Randolph County, N.C., where he was born May 13, 1857, Samuel Hill spent the major part of his life in the west. He was known by his friends and by the reading public as Sam Hill, as his famous father-in-law, James J. Hill, was known as Jim Hill. The North Carolinan graduated from Harvard in 1879. But the year before he also had received the master of arts degree from Harverford college.
Years afterward, when Sam Hill's name was known from St. Petersburg to Astoria, Penn college, one of Iowa's best-known schools, conferred the honorary degree of doctor of laws upon the great road builder.
Out of Harvard a year Mr. Hill was admitted to the bar. At that time that business was booming in the Great Lakes country. Mr. Hill decided to make Minneapolis his home. He began his long, active career as an associate counsel for the St. Paul & Northern Pacific railway and the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway, serving these lines from 1880 to 1888. Soon after reaching the upper Mississippi Valley metropolis the young lawyer became associated with the famous empire builder, J.J. Hill. They were not related.
It was during the years that Sam Hill was acting as attorney for the railroads named that he courted Mary Hill, daughter of the great railroad master. The North Carolinan the and the beautiful daughter of his employer were married September 6, 1888. Their children are Mary Mendenhall and James Nathan. It was an honor of his wife that Hill named the castle he built on the north bank of the upper Columbia river Maryhill. But the name is said to have been suggested by Ambassador Jusserand, who long represented France at Washington.
Queen Marie of Rumania, as the guest of Sam Hill, dedicated the now lonely castle some 25 miles east of The Dalles but on the Washington side. It was perhaps the greatest day of Mr. Hill's life when the Queen visited his estate amid the sand dunes of the Columbia. It was a wonderfully beautiful day in November, 1926, when her Majesty, with Princess Ileana and Prince Nicolas, arrived at the tiny station of Maryhill in a special train. Distinguished men representing the Rumanian government and the American state department were in the party, along with prominent citizens of Washington and Oregon.

Queen Honored at Banquet

After the ceremonies were over at the castle the party came to Portland, leaving the train just after crossing the river and coming to this city over the Columbia River highway. Mr. Hill, who had been very active in promoting the construction of this scenic road, pointed out the spots of note along the route. That night members of the party were guests of the late Eric V. Hauser at the Multnomah hotel, where he gave a banquet in honor of the queen. Later all attended the horse show at the Pacific International.
Four years before Mr. Hill was host for the national tour of Marshal Joffre, hero of the first battle of the Marne. The two became fast friends during the war and when the Marshal and Madame Joffre came this way homeward bound from the orient Sam Hill escorted them in his private railroad car on a grand tour. The party spent a day in Portland.
Long before this Mr. Hill had arranged to entertain the crown prince of Belgium, now king, on a western tour. The American built a beautiful residence in Seattle to entertain the royal visitor, but just before the prince was to start his tour the king died. The visit was never made.
Mr. Hill was a personal friend of the rulers of many European nations, and he also knew statesman, capitalists and leaders in the fine arts in both the orient and occident. He also was a friend of many great men in this nation. From 1900 to 1906 he was an overseer of Harvard university and since 1888 had been vice-president of the Minneapolis Athenaeum library.
In the business world he had at different times been president of the Eastern Railway of Minneapolis; St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba railway and Montana Central railway; Minneapolis Trust company, Minneapolis Union railway, Seattle Gas & Electric company, United States Trust company of Seattle, Home Telephone & Telegraph company of Portland. He also served as a director of the Great Northern railway and of the Northern Steamship company.
In 1916 and he went to Siberia at the invitation of the Russian government to straighten out the railroaded tangle that was holding up the transportation of war munitions of across the Siberian wastes. He soon had the railroad operating on time and the traffic congestion at Vladivostok was remedied in a short while.
Other nations of Europe consulted Mr. Hill on railroad matters during the great conflict. He received numerous honors from those governments, including the decorations of officer of the Legion of Honor from France, Commander of the Crown from Belgium, medals of thanks from France and Rumania, and was made a member of the very exclusive Queen's Body Guard of Rumania. The Japanese government decorated him with the Order of the Sacred Treasure.
For his work and promoting the "Peace Portal," in honor of 100 years of peace between the United States and Canada, the dominion government and the American senate gave Mr. Hill special votes of thanks. He was a member of the exclusive clubs in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, New York and Washington.