Flagler made a significant contribution to Florida’s economy through tourism and agriculture. She documented the company's espionage, price wars, heavy-handed marketing tactics, and courtroom evasions. The committee ultimately discovered the previously unknown scope of Standard Oil's business interests. Flagler bought and combined the railroads to form the Florida East Coast Railway. Flagler and Rockefeller then decided to issue certificates against oil stored in Standard Oil's pipelines. "[65], Miami's main east-west street is named Flagler Street and is the main shopping street in Downtown Miami. [citation needed], In 1912, the Florida Overseas Railroad was completed to Key West. We correct them as soon as they come to our knowledge. He used convict leasing — "a method undertaken by the Southern States to replace the economic setup of slavery"[51] — to modernize the existing railroads, allowing them to accommodate heavier loads and more traffic.[52]. In 1882, Flagler and Rockefeller's lawyers created an innovative form of corporation to centralize their holdings, giving birth to the Standard Oil Trust. "The successful completion of the Key West Extension added to Flagler's legacy to the point that today the name Henry M. Flagler is the single greatest name in the history of Florida." Though the refunds issued amounted to no more than fifteen cents on the dollar, they put Standard Oil in position to undercut other oil refineries. Henry explained: "We worked night and day, making good oil as cheaply as possible and selling it for all we could get. Flagler dredged a channel, built streets, instituted the first water and power systems, and financed the city's first newspaper, The Metropolis. Henry Morrison Flagler Biography Henry Morrison Flagler was born on January 2, 1830 in Hopewell, New York, to Reverend and Mrs. Isaac Flagler. Birthplace: Hopewell, N.Y. After modest success in the grain business, in 1865 he joined John D. Rockefeller in the oil business in a firm called Rockefeller, Andrews … capitalist, philanthropist Born: 1/2/1830 Birthplace: Hopewell, N.Y. After modest success in the grain business, in 1865 he joined John D. Rockefeller in the oil business in a firm called Rockefeller, Andrews and Flagler (became Standard Oil in 1870). 1830 Henry Morrison Flagler is born in Hopewell, New York. by Les Standiford | Aug 5, 2003. It was Flagler's idea to use the rebate system to strengthen the firm's position against competitors and the transporting enterprises alike. Standard Oil grew to become one of the largest shippers of oil and kerosene in the country. Also, convict leasing did exist and took a long time to end in Florida. From 1880 to 1914, more than 22 million people had migrated to the United States. At last in 1911, the Supreme Court of the United States found Standard Oil Company of New Jersey in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Smith would not sell, but he planted the seed of St. Augustine's and Florida's future in Flagler's mind. Henry Morrison Flagler was born on January 2, 1830, in Hopewell, New York. Along the way, Flagler built addi… During this time he worked to pay back his stepbrother Stephen Harkness. Scroll below and check more details … He was also a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida and founder of what became the Florida East Coast Railway, much of which he built through convict leasing. [27] The "trust" was a corporation of corporations, and the entity's size and wealth drew much attention. But in the aftermath of that battle, in 1879 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania indicted Flagler and Rockefeller on charges of monopolizing the oil trade, starting an avalanche of similar court proceedings in other states and making a national issue of Standard Oil's business practices. At the age of 14, after completing the eighth grade, Flagler moved to Bellevue, Ohio where he found work with his cousins in the grain store of L.G. He opened up service to Jacksonville, then Daytona. [4] He was of paternal German descent from the Palatinate region. [13] The cartel received preferential treatment as a high-volume shipper, which included not just steep rebates of up to 50% for their product but also rebates for the shipment of competing products. Let's check, How Rich is Henry Flagler in 2020-2021? [28], Its vast American empire included 20,000 domestic wells, 4,000 miles of pipeline, 5,000 tank cars, and over 100,000 employees. Solomon had eleven children including Isaac, Henry's father. She outlived him by 17 years, dying at the age of 82, and claiming, till the day she died, that her next husband would be a Russian czar. Henry Morrison Flagler Biography Henry Morrison Flagler was born on January 2, 1830 in Hopewell, New York, to Reverend and Mrs. Isaac Flagler. [66], On February 24, 2006, a statue of Flagler was unveiled in Key West near the spot where the Over-Sea Railroad once terminated. Henry Flagler Books Showing 1-6 of 6 Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean (Paperback) [2] He is known as the father of Miami and Palm Beach, Florida. The immigrant ancestor was Zacharra Flegler who first settled in Walworth, England and then left for America arriving in New York in 1710 eventually settling in Dutchess County. [3] The Royal Poinciana Hotel was at the time the largest wooden structure in the world. It was due largely to the efforts of Henry M. Flagler and John D. Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. [57] Built in 1902 as a wedding present to Mary Lily, Whitehall (now the Flagler Museum) was a 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m²) winter retreat that established the Palm Beach "season" of about 8–12 weeks, for the wealthy of America's Gilded Age. A federal statute outlawed peonage, but in practice, it overlapped with convict labor. He was responsible for building the Florida East Coast Railway from Daytona to Key West. For many of the competitors, Flagler and Rockefeller had merely to show them the books so they could see what they were up against and make them a decent offer. He never recovered and died in Palm Beach of his injuries on May 20 at 83 years of age. Who was Henry Flagler? Henry Morrison Flagler is best known for his development of Florida’s east coast. Last one. [citation needed], Flagler and Rockefeller began a publicity campaign to put the company and themselves in a better light. Rockefeller worked in association with chemist and inventor Samuel Andrews. The company collapsed when the war undercut commercial demand for salt. Mary Lily's Story Mary Lily Flagler. In 1885, Standard Oil moved its corporate headquarters to New York City to the iconic 26 Broadway location. The National Petroleum Exchange opened in Manhattan in late 1882 to facilitate the oil futures trading. At the age of 14, after completing the eighth grade, Flagler moved to Bellevue, Ohio where he found work with his cousins in the grain store of L.G. Stephen was born in Ontario. JUMP TO : Henry Flagler’s biography , facts , family , personal life , zodiac , videos and related celebs . $5.33. Henry Flagler estimated Net Worth, Biography, Age, Height, Dating, Relationship Records, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below.He was the founder of Standard Oil, of which William Merriam Burton was President from 1918-1927. In 1897, Flagler opened the exclusive Royal Palm Hotel on the north bank of the Miami River where it overlooked Biscayne Bay. [19]This subsidiary, the Empire Transportation Company, which Joseph D. Potts created in 1865 and also ran, owned other assets including a small fleet of ships on the Great Lakes. He recruited Henry Flagler to join him, and the youth went to Ohio at age 14, where he started work in 1844 at a salary of US$5 per month plus room and board. I do not believe any one else would develop it if I do not...but I do hope to live long enough to prove I am a good business man by getting a dividend on my investment."[58]. Timeline. The railroads running along the state's East Coast were not compatible. Through this business, Flagler became acquainted with John D. Rockefeller, who worked as a commission agent with Hewitt and Tuttle for the Harkness Grain Company. Philanthropist, Businessman. Mary Harkness Flagler was the sweet, unpretentious first wife of Henry. Keys, L. (2015) Hotel Ponce de Leon: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Flagler’s Gilded Age Palace.Gainesville, FL. 4.6 out of 5 stars 688. Sources cited. Rather than try to influence the price of crude oil directly, Standard Oil had been exercising indirect control by altering oil storage charges to suit market conditions. If Smith could raise $50,000, Flagler would invest $150,000 and they would build a hotel together. [18] The railroad, seeing Standard's incursion into the transportation and pipeline fields, struck back and formed a subsidiary to buy and build oil refineries and pipelines. Mendez, Jesus. After the American Civil War, Flagler moved with his family to … Flagler had some success in the grain business. Though Flagler and Rockefeller had long maintained a policy of active silence with the press, they decided to make themselves more accessible and responded with conciliatory comments such as "capital and labor are both wild forces which require intelligent legislation to hold them in restriction. The convict lease system in Florida was especially violent. Henry Morrison Flagler was born on January 2, 1830 in Hopewell, New York, to Reverend and Mrs. Isaac Flagler. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Two years later, Flagler built the Palm Beach Inn (renamed The Breakers in 1901), overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Palm Beach. University Press of Florida. Sources cited. [9] The partnership eventually grew into the Standard Oil Corporation. [citation needed], "Henry M. Flagler" redirects here. He later joined Daniel in a grain business started with his uncle Lamon in Bellevue, Ohio. [20][21] Standard countered and held back its shipments and, with the help of other railroads, started a price war that dramatically reduced freight payments and caused labor unrest as well. Flagler. For example, he was only 14 when he first left and started on the journey that would take up his whole business life, and take him across America leaving his mark on history. He became known as the Father of Miami, Florida. [36] Although her work prompted a huge backlash against the company, Tarbell claims to have been surprised at its magnitude. He also built the Alcazar Hotel as an overflow hotel for the Ponce de Leon Hotel. In 1887, Congress created the Interstate Commerce Commission, which was tasked with enforcing equal rates for all railroad freight, but by then Standard depended more on pipeline transport. Henry Morrison Flagler is best known as a Business. For example, he was only 14 when he first left and started on the journey that would take up his whole business life, and take him across America leaving his mark on history. "[41] Not only did Flagler and Rockefeller's Standard Oil company become well known in Ohio, they expanded to other states, as well as gained additional capital in purchasing smaller oil refining companies across the nation. [27] The public and the press were immediately suspicious of this new legal entity, and other businesses seized upon the idea and emulated it, further inflaming public sentiment. Henry Flagler’s Biography & Career Henry Morrison Flagler is the son of Presbyterian minister Isaac Flagler and his wife, Elizabeth Caldwell Harkness. He invested with the guidance of Dr. Andrew Anderson, a native of St. Augustine. After Mary died Henry married her nurse-caregiver, Ida Alice Shourds. [67] After Flagler's death, she married an old friend, Robert Worth Bingham, who used an inheritance from her to buy the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper. Son of the late Henry M. Flagler, but never interested himself in his father's railroad and development projects in Florida, nor in the Standard Oil Co. through his mother, the former Mary Harkness. Flagler bought and combined the railroads to form the Florida East Coast Railway. The state provided incentive in the form of 3,840 acres (15.5 km2) for every mile (1.6 km) of track constructed.[53]. Over thirty years, Flagler had invested about $50 million in railroad, home and hotel construction and had made donations to suffering farmers after the freeze in 1894. Charlotte was born in 1868. Rogers, in particular, became one of Flagler and Rockefeller's key men in the formation of the Standard Oil Trust. O ur Henry, was born to Reverend and Mrs. Isaac Flagler in Hopewell, New York on the 2nd January 1830, and really had quite a life and a desire to prove himself from a very early age. Active in the development of that corporation, he served as director of Standard Oil of New Jersey until 1911. Standard Oil had gained an aura of invincibility, always prevailing against competitors, critics, and political enemies. Whitehall, Palm Beach, is open to the public as the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum; his private railcar No. For the train, see, sfnp error: no target: CITEREFKlepper1996 (, sfn error: no target: CITEREFChernow1998 (, sfn error: no target: CITEREFRockefeller1984 (, Martin, p. 56, quoting Edwin Lefevre, in "Flagler and Florida" from, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "Perspective | How slave labor built the state of Florida — decades after the Civil War", "Madoff scandal stuns Palm Beach Jewish community", "292: Colonel Joseph D. Potts Leader in the Pennsylvania on LiveAuctioneers", "The Story of Convict Leasing in Florida", "Statutes & Constitution :View Statutes : Online Sunshine", "How slave labor built the state of Florida — decades after the Civil War", https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002738212&view=1up&seq=609, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_Flagler&oldid=1006939179, 19th-century American railroad executives, American businesspeople in the oil industry, American railroad executives of the 20th century, Infobox person using certain parameters when dead, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2017, Articles with dead external links from June 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. To further convince Flagler to continue the railroad to Miami, he was offered land in exchange for laying rail tracks from private landowners, the Florida East Coast Canal and Transportation Company, and the Boston and Florida Atlantic Coast Land Company. Read it now. She had brought two sons to the marriage with Flagler from her previous marriage to the widower Dr. David Harkness of Milan, Ohio. His next project was the Ponce de Leon Hotel, now part of Flagler College. But they had never played fair, and that ruined their greatness for me." It kept oil prices low to stave off competitors, made its products affordable to the average household, and, to increase market penetration, sometimes sold below cost if necessary. Free shipping. Early life and education Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Flagler Biography Start here to learn about early Florida, when Henry Flagler's railroads and luxury hotels established tourism and agriculture as the foundation of Florida's economy. This project sparked Flagler's interest in creating a new "American Riviera." There were many mouths to feed and not enough jobs especially in the Northeast, the primary immigration point. That year he reportedly gave her more than $1 million in jewelry. Henry Flagler, Builder of Florida Paperback Sandra Wallus Sammons. $6.58. It soon was doing one tenth of all the petroleum business in the United States. [31] Robert Nobel had established his own refining enterprise in the abundant and cheaper Russian oil fields, including the region's first pipeline and the world's first oil tanker. Flagler believed that he had learned a valuable lesson: invest in a business only after thorough investigation. Chains, hounds, whips, sweat boxes, stringing up by the thumbs — these were part of everyday existence in convict camps. He also dredged Miami harbour and established steamship lines to Key West and Nassau. Together David and Elizabeth had a son Daniel M. Harkness before his death. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Flagler and Rockefeller saw themselves as the industry's saviors, "an angel of mercy" absorbing the weak and making the industry as a whole stronger, more efficient, and more competitive. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. The attraction was physical: handsome Bob, voluptuous Mary Lily. As a result, Flagler and Rockefeller and their associates owned dozens of separate corporations, each of which operated in just one state; the management of the whole enterprise was rather unwieldy. Henry Flagler (1830-1913) was a self-made millionaire and industrialist who co-founded the Standard Oil Company. It had become the richest, biggest, most feared business in the world, seemingly immune to the boom and bust of the business cycle, consistently racking up profits year after year. Over the years, he continued to convert old tracks and build new ones, extending service south. "Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, Flagler, like many white industrialists across the South, leased African American convict labor from the state. The railroads were fighting fiercely for traffic and, in an attempt to create a cartel to control freight rates, formed the South Improvement Company in collusion with Standard and other oil men outside the main oil centers. [35], Upon his ascent to the presidency, Theodore Roosevelt initiated dozens of suits under the Sherman Antitrust Act and coaxed reforms out of Congress. A major New York refiner, Charles Pratt and Company, headed by Charles Pratt and Henry H. Rogers, led the opposition to this plan, and railroads soon backed off. Henry Morrison Flagler. When convict labor proved insufficient to solve the South’s labor shortages, industrialists used another system of forced labor that targeted African Americans: debt peonage. [61] In the 1900's Florida's population was just 528,000 so with the demand for laborers across the south and the shortage of jobs in the north, workers needing jobs were drawn to the south. In 1877, Flagler and his family moved to New York City, which was becoming the center of commerce in the U.S.. I wish I had the brains to think of it. Flagler and Rockefeller eventually prevailed and the railroad sold all its oil interests to Standard. Cleveland became very well known for oil refining, as, "More and more crude oil was shipped from the oil regions to Cleveland for the refining process because of transportation facilities and the aggressiveness of the refiners there. Keys, L. (2015) Hotel Ponce de Leon: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Flagler’s Gilded Age Palace. In the kerosene industry, Standard Oil replaced the old distribution system with its own vertical system. At the age of 14, after completing the eighth grade, Flagler moved to Bellevue, Ohio where he found work with his cousins in the grain store of L.G. Henry Morrison Flagler Biography. Nine trustees, including Rockefeller, ran the 41 companies in the trust. [11], By 1869, there was three times more kerosene refining capacity than needed to supply the market, and the capacity remained in excess for many years. University Press of Florida. $11.83. [citation needed], In 1862, Flagler and his brother-in-law Barney Hamlin York (1833–1884) founded the Flagler and York Salt Company, a salt mining and production business in Saginaw, Michigan. Free shipping. "I never had an animus against their size and wealth, never objected to their corporate form. "[29] Over time foreign competition and new finds abroad eroded his dominance. [34] More threatening to Standard's power was the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, originally used to control unions, but later central to the breakup of the Standard Oil trust. Control of the Flagler fortune largely passed into the hands of Mary Lily Kenan's family of sisters and brother, who survived into the 1960s. He masterminded the plan that transformed Standard Oil into the most successful monopoly of the nineteenth century. He is known as the father of Miami and Palm Beach, Florida. I was willing that they should combine and grow as big and wealthy as they could, but only by legitimate means. Gainesville, FL. [56], On August 24, 1901, 10 days after his divorce, Flagler married Mary Lily at her family's plantation, Liberty Hall, and the couple soon moved into their new Palm Beach estate, Whitehall, a 55-room beaux arts home designed by the New York-based firm of Carrère and Hastings, which also had designed the New York Public Library and the Pan-American Exposition. [citation needed], One of the most effective attacks on Flagler and Rockefeller and their firm was the 1905 publication of The History of the Standard Oil Company, by Ida Tarbell, a leading muckraker. Standard Oil also had the highest capitalization, totaling $26,000,000 (equivalent to $740 million in 2019). Henry Morrison Flagler was born on January 2, 1830 in Hopewell, New York, United States.. Henry Morrison Flagler is one of the successful Business. The attraction was physical: handsome Bob, voluptuous Mary Lily. Southern employers found that Northern workers often came for the winter months to escape the cold of the north and then would leave during the blistering summer months. Only his son Harry survived of the three children by his first marriage in 1853 to Mary Harkness. [citation needed], When looking back at Flagler's life, after Flagler's death, George W. Perkins, of J.P. Morgan & Co., reflected, "But that any man could have the genius to see of what this wilderness of waterless sand and underbrush was capable and then have the nerve to build a railroad here, is more marvelous than similar development anywhere else in the world.