Henry Morrison Flagler

Henry Morrison Flagler was born in Hopewell, New York on January 2, 1830, the son of a struggling Presbyterian minister. Morrison was the name of his mother's first husband  (Hugh Morrison) who had died. Henry left school after the eighth grade to go work for the Harkness family in Ohio. There he began work with his half-brother, Dan Harkness. 

Penniless he worked hard and learned all aspects of the mercantile business.  He was quickly promoted to manager when Dan Harkness moved to a larger store in Bellevue, Ohio. After five years, he bought out a partner in one of the Harkness operations with money he had saved and moved to Bellevue. 

In Bellevue he courted and married his step-uncle's second daughter, Mary Harkness, November 9, 1853. Henry Falgler and Mary had two daughters, Jennie Louise and Carrie. Carrie died at age three.

The company expanded into the grain and distillery businesses, and was sold after making considerable money. One of the grain brokers he shipped grain to was John D. Rockefeller. 

In 1862, Flagler and Barney York formed a salt producing company that boomed because of demand brought on by the Civil War. He sold his interest in the grain business to his half brother and moved to Saginaw, Michigan. When the Civil War ended in 1865, so did the huge demand for salt. The Flagler and York Salt Company went bankrupt a year later, and Flagler retained a $50,000 debt. 

Instead of returning to Bellevue, the Flaglers moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he re-entered the grain business and renewed his connections with John D. Rockefeller. Handsome profits from the grain business allowed him pay off his debt and to have sufficient money to invest in a new adventure. 

In 1868 at age 37, he joined with John Rockefeller and Samuel Andrews to form the Rockefeller, Andrews and Flagler Oil Refinery the RAF Refinery. 

Under Flagler's guidance, Standard Oil began buying out almost all the smaller refineries, and became a monopoly.  Also, in 1870, Flagler's first and only son, Harry Harness Flagler, was born. By 1884, Standard Oil moved its headquarters to New York City, and was considered the largest and richest industrial company in the world. Both Flagler and Rockefeller moved to New York City in 1887.

Henry Flagler's wife Mary had been diagnosed with tuberculosis. Her doctor recommended she avoid the harsh New York winters and seek a warmer climate during the colder months. Florida was chosen for the winter of 1878 and the Flagler's set out for Jacksonville, Florida. After a few weeks Henry, Mary and Harry returned to New York City.  Mary died in New York at age 48, on May 18, 1881. Young Harry was 10 years old.  Two years later on June 5, 1883, Flagler married one of his first wife's nurses, Ida Alice Shourds in the winter they went to Florida, but this time to St. Augustine, Florida. Things appeared to be different now, as Flagler became interested in Florida. He reduced his workload with Standard Oil and at age 53 he turned to a new vocation. 

In St. Augustine he built two hotels, the Ponce de Leon and the Alcazar, and purchased the third from a competitor, renaming it the Cordova. To make his hotels more accessible, he purchased and rebuilt a short-line railroad company and this is how he entered the railroad business. He also built in St. Augustine several churches, a hospital, waterworks, electric and sewer utilities, and a winter home for the family. 

It was 1885 when he purchased a short-line railroad between Jacksonville and St. Augustine, the forerunner of the Florida East Coast Railway (F.E.C Rwy.). This proved to be a turning point in Flagler's life and Florida's history. 

He started extending his railroad lines to the south, first to Ormond Beach and then to Palm Beach, Florida in 1893. To support the Flagler System, he purchased existing, or built new railroads. He also built schools, hospitals, hotels, churches, fire stations, city halls, courthouses and utilities. 

The Flagler System denotes all of the Flagler entities, e.g. the Florida East Coast Railway (F.E.C. Rwy.), the entire system of hotels, the land holding companies, the Peninsular & Occidental (P&O) Steam Ship Company and all other subsidiaries. The overseas railroad is correctly titled the Key West Extension, Flagler System. 

In 1897, Flagler's second wife Ida Alice, was committed to an insane asylum in New York. Insanity was not grounds for divorce in either New York or Florida. Flagler convinced the Florida Legislature to change its law in 1901 and he married his third wife, Mary Lily Kenan, whom he had known for about eight years. As a wedding present he built the Palm Beach mansion named Whitehall. Florida later repealed this change in the divorce law. 

Henry Flagler slipped quietly from this world at his ocean cottage Nautalis on May 20, 1913, in Palm Beach, Florida. His body was sent to St. Augustine on May 23 where he was laid to rest along side of his first wife Mary Harkness in the Memorial Presbyterian Church mausoleum built for his daughter Jennie Louise. His pallbearers were mostly his Florida associates. John D. Rockefellow did not attend the funeral.
      

Flagler invested during his lifetime about one third of Florida's total evaluation. In total his hotel chain housed about 40,000 guests. The entire Atlantic sea coast of Florida was opened by Henry Morrison Flagler.  He was a great man and instrumental in building Volusia County.

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