| TRAVELS OF DURSMIRG VOLUME IV THE ROGUES OF ST. AUGUSTINE AND OTHER SOCIAL MISFITS Chapter 7 |
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Chapter 7 ON A ROLL
THE FLAGLER YEARS
Twenty years after the confederate forces capitulated, Henry Morrison Flagler (1830-1913), a co-founder of Standard Oil
Company came to the poor little isolated city of St. Augustine with two very important assets.
Flagler had incredible wealth and also happened to own a railroad.
He wanted to put his money to work and also get people to ride his railroad, so his next move was to build a resort village.
Flagler, John D. Rockefeller and William Rockefeller were partners in a small Cleveland oil refinery that grew to become
the Standard Oil Company of Ohio and the partners all became multi-millionaires by the 1880s.
St. Augustine with a very moderate climate and the most beautiful hard packed sand beaches in the world didn’t have
much downside at this point and time, so it was ripe for exploitation and development.
Henry Flagler saw an opportunity on his visit in the winter of 1883-1884 and he took it.
Flagler was impressed with what he saw of the old city and the potential it held for development.
Starting in 1885 Henry Flagler put his fortune and industrialist expertise to work in a big way.
Some of the innovations brought to St. Augustine by Flagler included; running water system, a sewage system, asphalt
roads and electricity.
The electrical system, the first in the State of Florida was designed by Thomas Edison.
The list of construction that Flagler completed in St. Augustine between 1885 and 1914 is awesome and his money put
the place on the map and made it easily accessible for the first time in its three hundred plus year history.
Well, Henry Flagler soon found out that St. Augustine had been born and bred “a stagnant little suck hole” when he went
to the city government to have the streets cleaned so that his hotel guests wouldn't think that they were entering a
garbage dump after they stepped off the train.
The complacent town fathers not only wanted their food provided they wanted to be spoon fed also.
Disgusted and disgruntled Henry Flagler had enough of St. Augustine and moved on.
With that Flagler headed south with his money and his railroad and went on to make West Palm Beach into a magnificent
resort area and he didn’t stop there he continued on all the way down to Miami and then onto Key West with his Florida
East Coast Railroad, constructing elegant luxury hotels along the way. This chain became known as the “Flagler System
Hotels”.
In St. Augustine’s entire history, Henry Flagler definitely was the most positive thing that ever happened.
To Key West; Flagler was on a real roll when he undertook his next project he called; “The Railroad that went to sea”.
This Key West extension was begun in 1904 and completed in 1912 costing tens of millions of dollars and with a loss of
more than 700 lives.
Old and aging Henry Flagler must have felt that the end was in sight because it was here on his “Railroad that went to
sea” that he pushed his project to the proverbial limits lavishly squandering millions and spilling the blood of 700 of his
workers lives in the process.
Flagler rode his private railroad car named “Rambler” on the inauguration trip all the way to Key West in 1912 and was
nearly blind at the time…a year later he died.
(Recommended reading on this subject is; LAST TRAIN TO PARADISE by Les Staniford and also more on Flagler in
Appendix 2 of this volume.)
No one person has ever impacted St. Augustine like Henry Flagler did with his affluent wealth backed with decisive and
shrewd business savvy leadership.
Henry Flagler was a stand-alone one of a kind social misfit in everything he ever did and an unrivaled leader in his
exceptional innovation.
However, the fishing industry, trawler building, farming and a small tourist trade eventually swelled the city’s population to
14,734 by 1960 when the cities fortunes took a definite turn for the worst.
go to chapter 8
THE FLAGLER YEARS
Twenty years after the confederate forces capitulated, Henry Morrison Flagler (1830-1913), a co-founder of Standard Oil
Company came to the poor little isolated city of St. Augustine with two very important assets.
Flagler had incredible wealth and also happened to own a railroad.
He wanted to put his money to work and also get people to ride his railroad, so his next move was to build a resort village.
Flagler, John D. Rockefeller and William Rockefeller were partners in a small Cleveland oil refinery that grew to become
the Standard Oil Company of Ohio and the partners all became multi-millionaires by the 1880s.
St. Augustine with a very moderate climate and the most beautiful hard packed sand beaches in the world didn’t have
much downside at this point and time, so it was ripe for exploitation and development.
Henry Flagler saw an opportunity on his visit in the winter of 1883-1884 and he took it.
Flagler was impressed with what he saw of the old city and the potential it held for development.
Starting in 1885 Henry Flagler put his fortune and industrialist expertise to work in a big way.
Some of the innovations brought to St. Augustine by Flagler included; running water system, a sewage system, asphalt
roads and electricity.
The electrical system, the first in the State of Florida was designed by Thomas Edison.
The list of construction that Flagler completed in St. Augustine between 1885 and 1914 is awesome and his money put
the place on the map and made it easily accessible for the first time in its three hundred plus year history.
Well, Henry Flagler soon found out that St. Augustine had been born and bred “a stagnant little suck hole” when he went
to the city government to have the streets cleaned so that his hotel guests wouldn't think that they were entering a
garbage dump after they stepped off the train.
The complacent town fathers not only wanted their food provided they wanted to be spoon fed also.
Disgusted and disgruntled Henry Flagler had enough of St. Augustine and moved on.
With that Flagler headed south with his money and his railroad and went on to make West Palm Beach into a magnificent
resort area and he didn’t stop there he continued on all the way down to Miami and then onto Key West with his Florida
East Coast Railroad, constructing elegant luxury hotels along the way. This chain became known as the “Flagler System
Hotels”.
In St. Augustine’s entire history, Henry Flagler definitely was the most positive thing that ever happened.
To Key West; Flagler was on a real roll when he undertook his next project he called; “The Railroad that went to sea”.
This Key West extension was begun in 1904 and completed in 1912 costing tens of millions of dollars and with a loss of
more than 700 lives.
Old and aging Henry Flagler must have felt that the end was in sight because it was here on his “Railroad that went to
sea” that he pushed his project to the proverbial limits lavishly squandering millions and spilling the blood of 700 of his
workers lives in the process.
Flagler rode his private railroad car named “Rambler” on the inauguration trip all the way to Key West in 1912 and was
nearly blind at the time…a year later he died.
(Recommended reading on this subject is; LAST TRAIN TO PARADISE by Les Staniford and also more on Flagler in
Appendix 2 of this volume.)
No one person has ever impacted St. Augustine like Henry Flagler did with his affluent wealth backed with decisive and
shrewd business savvy leadership.
Henry Flagler was a stand-alone one of a kind social misfit in everything he ever did and an unrivaled leader in his
exceptional innovation.
However, the fishing industry, trawler building, farming and a small tourist trade eventually swelled the city’s population to
14,734 by 1960 when the cities fortunes took a definite turn for the worst.
go to chapter 8
Henry Flagler, the man that put quite little St.
Augustine on the map with his hotels and
connected it to the rest of the world with his
railroad.
This man impacted St. Augustine more than any
other person in the entire history of the “Oldest
City” and he left his name and mark of
constructive accomplishments across the entire
state of Florida like none other.
Augustine on the map with his hotels and
connected it to the rest of the world with his
railroad.
This man impacted St. Augustine more than any
other person in the entire history of the “Oldest
City” and he left his name and mark of
constructive accomplishments across the entire
state of Florida like none other.