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Trish: Walter talked James J. into getting the first car the family had in 1905, but managed to wreck it by 1907.
He got married in 1908, and he was put in charge of the Northcote farm in 1910, so I'll go with that...
Time line - Walter got married in 1908, his wife is in the car. He wrecked the first car by 1907...(wonder what it was???)
So my guess-timate on the car at 1906-1908 wasn't too far off. I'll do a little research on the early Packard's to see if
I can determine an exact year.
Searching information on Minnesota license plates - the plate has to be a multi-year 1912 plate which had dark letters on
a silver background. The plates were good for three years so was valid 1912-1913-1914. All the earlier plates had dark
background colors.
But is it a Packard? The radiator emblem was always Packard written at a slant. Everything else is very similar to
a Model 30 Runabout.
I will agree with a 1910-1911 Packard Model 30 Runabout. The only thing is the radiator emblem. Did Hill have
a Vanity emblem made? Money was no issue. I can't find a close match to that emblem shape.
Windshield, top, headlights removed.
I was wondering if it might be an emblem for a fraternal order or auto club or ???? Front fender on the Hill car
seems a little flatter but that could have been a running change or model year change...
Walter loved speed, it is said his interests were tilted away from farming toward race cars. I' trying to identify the steamer
but they all look alike. I counted around 50 horses though.
This looks like it might be a source - I contacted the library as I couldn't get any access to the Motor Vehicle and
Driver License Registration Records, 1909-1921 Register of motor vehicles (1909-1914, with indexes), automobile
license applications (1921), chauffeur’s record (1909-1911), and motorcycle registration record (1909-ca. 1913).
MNHS call number: See the finding aid in the library (Secretary of State: Motor Vehicle Division).
There is so much I could find out if the Gale Library wasn't 300 miles away. Keep scanning folks!
Bernie: my Great Uncle George Hugill played base ball with Walter and said he would chase rabbits in a white
Stuz Bearcat. But that was 60 years later so maybe it was a Packard
Does anybody know if early Minnesota license registrations exist for these years?
Maybe this might help? https://libguides.mnhs.org/transport/automobiles
Probably a 1912 model - later than I first thought.1912, not much if any difference. 60 HP but Hill had a mechanic who could make it
Bernie Streed: My Great Uncle George Hugill was a contemporary friend of Walter Hill. What a character. During a
winter storm he started telling me stories of how they would chase rabbits across plowed frozen fields with a white
Stuz Bearcat convertible. He also told me he would order hand made oak barrels from Italy. Then he would stock the
milking barns with long horn steers. They would lock horns in the narrow milking stalls. The barns were state of the art
for the day, built with tile walls and sloping floors so manure could be flushed down trenches in the floor into the river
below. Basically the bored millionaire would roll these oak barrels down the center of the barn agitating the long horn
steers so they would kick the barrels to pieces. He and George would do this for hours till the barrels were gone. The
whole farm was meant to get James J Hill's playboy youngest son out of St Paul to reform him.
Trish: Walter Hill was a goer, or "someone vibrant for life." He hunted from his car, raced his draft horses in the streets of St. Vincent, and drank mightily. Before the fall harvest, he used to attach a hay-rack to the back of his car and go to Bronson, Minn., searching for labor. Men eager for jobs climbed onto the hay-rack and Hill drove them home in his usual manner. By the time he got back to the farm, there would be only one man left - the rest had jumped out along the way in fear for their lives.
Bernie: lol I can believe that. I know my Grandpa Bernhard Streed drove one of the steam tractors. He said he started in the dark of morning and made one swath to the Red River and back before sunset.
Keith Finney: I believe it was Byron or Marva that told me that he would go into Canada up by Tolstoi and get hired men. He would drive fast across the rough prairie and some would fall off on the way. Thus the illegal aliens that worked on the farm
Georgine Cleem Whalen: Thank you Trish for this wonderful information on Walter Hill and some of his escapades I see in one of the links that he passed in 1944 in the West which would have been during the time my Grandpa was working for him on the ranch he owned there in 1932. It became the Bishop Ranch in the 40's and I still remember them letting us swim in the pool as my mother worked for doc Bishop. It is not there anymore but they do have a street named Bishop place where this ranch set. I was wondering if Walter returned to Minnesota after my Grandpa Borgeson went to work for the shipyards along with his sons.
Trish this is how we 'Borgeson' family ended up in California. James Hill bought a horse ranch for Walter and my Grandpa Eric Borgeson went with him to work this ranch and property in 1932. The rest of the story is amazing how the whole family (13) left Mn. in a Franklin car and went west
I do not remember the name. I only remember after it became Bishop Ranch. I think my Mother said it was a horse ranch and her dad (Eric Borgeson) worked for Walter Hill and came to California in 1932. He sent for my grandma later and that's another wonderful story and they lived in the old red house there in Midway City, Ca. When my parents went to California in about 1942 sometime I was still the baby. We stayed at the old red house in the middle of a field just behind where the Hill place would have been. Shortly after my grandparents bought a place in Anaheim (this is where I lose track of Walter Hill about 1943/44) and my parents stayed at the old red house which was then bought my Hap Post who my dad worked for. We lived there till I was in high school when the property was sold by the Post Brothers. I digress here, the horse ranch that Walter Hill bought would be off Bolsa in Midway City, maybe considered Westminster at that time. I do remember this property as I got older. Walter Hill brought my grandpa a big old green rocking chair that is still in the family that all of us remember him rocking away in. Grandpa did change jobs at this time and I always wondered what happened to Walter Hill.
