HENRY MORRISON FLAGLER Biography - Bussiness people and enterpreneurs

 
 

Biography » bussiness people and enterpreneurs » henry morrison flagler

HENRY MORRISON FLAGLER

Henry Morrison Flagler was born on January 2, 1830 in Hopewell, New York to                     
Reverend Isaac and Elizabeth Caldwell Harkness Flagler. At the age of 14, after                 
completing the eighth grade in 1844, Flagler decided to move to Bellevue, Ohio                 
where he found work in the grain store of L.G. Harkness and Company at a salary                 
of $5 per month plus room and board. By 1849, Flagler was promoted to sales                     
staff of the company at a salary of $400 per month.                                             
                                                                                               
Flagler became a partner in the newly organized D. M. Harkness and Company with                 
his half-brother, Dan Harkness in 1852. The following year, on November 9, he                   
married Mary Harkness. On March18, 1855, their first child, Jennie Louise, was                 
born. Jennie Louise lived until 1889, when at the age of 34, she died following                 
complications from child birth. A second child, Carrie, was born on June 18,                   
1858. She died three years later. On December 2, 1870, the Flaglers' only son,                 
Harry Harkness Flagler, was born.                                                               
                                                                                               
Flagler founded the Flagler and York Salt Company, a salt mining and production                 
business in Saginaw, Michigan in 1862 with his brother-in-law Barney York. By                   
1865, the end of the Civil War caused a drop in the demand for salt and the                     
Flagler and York Salt Company collapsed. Heavily in debt, Flagler returned to                   
Bellevue, Ohio. He had lost his initial $50,000 investment and an additional $50,000           
he had borrowed from his father-in-law and Dan Harkness.                                       
                                                                                               
The next year Flagler reentered the grain business as a commission merchant.                   
Flagler had become acquainted with John D. Rockefeller, who worked as a                         
commission agent with Hewitt and Tuttle for the Harkness Grain Company. By the                 
mid 1860s,Cleveland had become the center of the oil refining industry in                       
America and Rockefeller left the grain business to start his own oil refinery.                 
In 1867, Rockefeller, needing capital for his new venture, approached Flagler.                 
Flagler obtained $100,000 from a relative on the condition that Flagler be made                 
a partner. A Rockefeller, Andrews and Flagler partnership was formed with                       
Flagler in control of Harkness' interest.                                                       
                                                                                               
On January 10, 1870, the Rockefeller, Andrews and Flagler partnership emerged as               
a joint-stock corporation named Standard Oil and by 1872, Standard Oil led the                 
American oil refining industry, producing 10,000 barrels per day. Five years                   
later Standard Oil moved its headquarters to New York City, and the Flaglers                   
moved to their new home at 509 Fifth Avenue in New York City.                                   
                                                                                               
By 1878, Flagler's wife, who had always struggled with health problems, was very               
ill. On advice from Mary's physician, she and Flagler visited Jacksonville,                     
Florida for the winter. Mary's illness grew worse, however, and she died on May                 
18, 1881 at age 47. Two years after Mary's death, Flagler married Ida Alice                     
Shourds. Soon after their wedding, the couple traveled to St. Augustine, Florida               
where they found the city charming, but the hotel facilities and transportation                 
systems inadequate. Flagler recognized Florida's potential to attract out-of-state             
visitors. Though Flagler remained on the Board of Directors of Standard Oil, he                 
gave up his day-to-day involvement in the corporation in order to pursue his                   
interests in Florida. He returned to St. Augustine in 1885 and began                           
construction on the 540-roomHotel Ponce de Leon. Realizing the need for a sound                 
transportation system to support his hotel ventures, Flagler purchased the                     
Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax Railroad, the first railroad in what would               
eventually become the Florida East Coast Railway.                                               
                                                                                               
The Hotel Ponce de Leon opened January 10, 1888 and was an instant success. Two                 
years later, Flagler expanded his Florida holdings. He built a railroad bridge                 
across the St. Johns River to gain access to the southern half of the state and                 
purchased the Hotel Ormond, just north of Daytona. His personal dedication to                   
the state of Florida was demonstrated when he began construction on his private                 
residence, Kirkside, in St. Augustine.                                                         
                                                                                               
Flagler completed the 1150-room Royal Poinciana Hotel on the shores of Lake                     
Worth in Palm Beach and extended his railroad to West Palm Beach by 1894. The                   
Royal Poinciana Hotel was at the time the largest wooden structure in the world.               
Two years later, Flagler built the Palm Beach Inn (renamed The Breakers in 1901)               
overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Palm Beach.                                                   
                                                                                               
Flagler originally intended for West Palm Beach to be the terminus of his                       
railroad system, but during 1894 and 1895, severe freezes hit the area, causing                 
Flagler to rethink this original decision. Sixty miles south, the town today                   
known as Miami was reportedly unharmed by the freeze. To further convince                       
Flagler to continue the railroad to Miami, he was offered land from private                     
landowners, the Florida East Coast Canal and Transportation Company, and the                   
Boston and Florida Atlantic Coast Land Company, in exchange for laying rail                     
tracks.                                                                                         
                                                                                               
Flagler's railroad, renamed the Florida East Coast Railway in 1895, reached                     
Biscayne Bay by 1896.Flagler dredged a channel, built streets, instituted the                   
first water and power systems, and financed the town's first newspaper, the                     
Metropolis. When the town incorporated in 1896, its citizens wanted to honor the               
man responsible for its growth by naming it "Flagler." He declined the honor,                   
persuading them to use an old Indian name, "Miami." In 1897, Flagler opened the                 
exclusive Royal Palm Hotel in Miami.                                                           
                                                                                               
Flagler's second wife, Ida Alice, had been institutionalized for mental illness                 
since 1895. In 1901, the Florida Legislature passed a bill that made incurable                 
insanity grounds for divorce, opening the way for Flagler to remarry. On August                 
24, 1901, Flagler married Mary Lily Kenan and the couple soon moved into their                 
Palm Beach estate, Whitehall. Built as a wedding present to Mary Lily in 1902 by               
architects John Carrere and Thomas Hastings, Whitehall was a 60,000 square foot,               
55-room winter retreat that established the Palm Beach season for the wealthy of               
America's Gilded Age.                                                                           
                                                                                               
By 1905, Flagler decided that his Florida East Coast Railway should be extended                 
from Biscayne Bay to Key West, a point 128 miles past the end of the Florida                   
peninsula. At the time, Key West was Florida's most populated city and it was                   
also the United States' closest deep water port to the canal that the U.S.                     
government proposed to build in Panama. Flagler wanted to take advantage of                     
additional trade with Cuba and Latin America as well as the increased trade with               
the west that the Panama Canal would bring. In 1912, the Florida Over-Sea                       
Railroad was completed to Key West.                                                             
                                                                                               
                                                                                               
In 1913, Flagler fell down a flight of stairs at Whitehall. He never recovered                 
from the fall and died of his injuries on May 20 at 83 years of age. He was                     
buried in St. Augustine alongside his daughter, Jennie Louise and first wife,                   
Mary Harkness.