Meant to say Hill was aligned with J.P. Morgan; Rockefeller was backing
Harriman. In effect you had three major financial forces shaping upper midwest
railroad strategy: Hill/Morgan; Perkins/Forbes & Harriman/Rockefeller. Along
the edges were Rock, Milw & C&NW interests as well as Santa Fe & SP well to the
south. All publicly held, they needed to satisfy stockholders in an era when
companies were bought & sold much more readily than today - it was the golden
age of the rail barons. A good laymen's summary of the era is the American
Heritage series volume "The Railroaders". Some roads were acquired by 'x' not
so much because it was a good match but to fend off a rival. Fortunately the
Hill/Perkins match was the optimuum one, forcing C&NW to flirt with their own
Pacific extension (beyond Lander, WY) and the Milw to actually build one.
Recall too even the Rock got as far as Sioux Falls and of course like the Q,
got to Colorado.
--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, "Gerald Edgar" <vje68@...> wrote:
>
> I have in my RR library 4 primary bios of Hill inc. a 2 vol one that is
> considered definitive. No mention that Hill felt the CB&Q was a less than
> desirable partner. Bear in mind too this was a two-way street at the time.
> Hill had Rockefeller interests backing him and the Q had Forbes & other
> Boston money. Lurking elsewhere were the UP & Harriman interests et al. All
> were jockeying for position just as were the Eastern roads. Per Overton's
> books, the Q looked into acquiring GN. It was all a question of how best to
> benefit stockholders; buy or sell and if so at what cost/price?
> This might be a good topic for a future Lexington group meeting.
> Gerald
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