Biography
He was born on June 9, 1850 to Elizabeth Pamela Goodrich and Charles Stillman in Brownsville, Texas.
Charles Stillman had significant business interests which James acquired in 1872. He expanded those to control of sixteen Texas banks and a significant land holdings in the Rio Grande Valley, particularly Corpus Christi and Kerrville, Texas.
Along with William Averell Harriman, Jacob Henry Schiff and William Rockefeller he controlled the most important Texas railroads (including the Texas and Pacific Railway, the Southern Pacific Railroad, the International-Great Northern Railroad, the Union Pacific Southern Railway, the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway, and the Mexican National Railroad).
In 1876 Stillman supported Porfirio Díaz's overthrow of the government of Mexico by the Revolution of Tuxtepec.
He was chairman of the board of directors of the National City Bank and retired in 1908.
He died on March 15, 1918 at his home on 9 East 72nd Street in Manhattan, New York. His funeral was at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, New York.
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