In 1897, Flagler opened the exclusive Royal Palm Hotel on the north bank of the Miami River where it overlooked Biscayne Bay. "1892-A Year of Crucial Decisions in Florida", This page was last edited on 2 December 2022, at 15:49. In the kerosene industry, Standard Oil replaced the old distribution system with its own vertical system. It soon was doing one tenth of all the petroleum business in the United States. By 1852, Henry had saved enough money to become the one-third-owner of the Harkness & Company alongside his half-brother Dan and Dan's uncle Lamon. Flagler was in a special position to make those deals due to his connections as a grain merchant. Dr. Shelton had attended Flagler's daughter Jennie Benedict when she died from complications after childbirth in 1889. As fate would have it, Henry had been invited to work at a general store by a family . Henry Flagler didn't leave the sanitarium wanting, however, as Alice's estate (to which only her Flagler-hired guardians had direct access) was full of Standard Oil stocks. Over the course of her marriage to Henry Flagler, Ida Alice Shourds is reported to have begun displaying unstable behavior she was rumored to have a temper, and her fondness for lavish parties and attention did not go unnoticed by Gilded Age Society. . "I never had an animus against their size and wealth, never objected to their corporate form. Henry Flagler was seventy-one, whilst his beaming bride was thirty-four. Only his son Harry Harkness Flagler survived of the three children by his first marriage in 1853 to Mary Harkness. In 1878, his wife Mary fell ill, and died on May 18, 1881, at age 47, leaving Henry Flagler with a young son to raise alone. Only his son Harry survived of the three children by his first marriage in 1853 to Mary Harkness. whereas said Henry M. Flagler has recently lost by death a beloved daughter and in affectionate remembrance of her has been desirous of erecting some worthy monument to her Memory and believing that nothing should be more accordant with her known wishes and the tenor of her life on earth than that such Memorial should be a temple devoted to the worship of God and the teaching of that living faith in which she lived and died has erected in the City of St. Augustine a church edifice in loving . Instead, an artificial island was constructed in Biscayne Bay called Flagler Monument Island. Throughout it all, Mary was made to brave her condition without her husband, who had taken to staying at the Buckingham Hotel in New York, completely immersed in the business of Standard Oil. Generally, we are not often able to share specifics about the man himself. This 'FEC' project had been underway since the late 1880s, when Flagler purchased the St. Augustine & Halifax Railroad in Jacksonville. University Press of Florida. Flagler engaged Thomas Hastings and Jean Carrere of the Carrere & Hastings architectural firm to design the hotel. Immediately, she began taking advantage of the fortune she had married into like any budding socialite, she loved gowns, jewelry, and yachts. As Henry's businesses prospered, they moved to New York City. Ida. The family moved as was necessary for Isaac's job, having lived in Virginia and Ohio during Henry's childhood. From there on out, Dr. Anderson was a major supporter and confidant of Henry Flagler, often acting as his business liaison in St. Augustine when Flagler was out of town. He served as a vice president through 1908 and was part of ownership until 1911. (bosses daughter) Mary Harkness (step cousin) 1853. Featuring air conditioning, The Henry Flagler offers accommodations in Layton. During this trip, they went to St. Augustine and the city intrigued Flagler. "[27] Over time foreign competition and new finds abroad eroded his dominance. A deal brokered by Henry Clay Frick exchanged Standard's iron interests for U.S. Steel stock and gave Rockefeller and his son membership on the company's board of directors. Flagler found the city charming, but the hotel facilities and transportation systems inadequate. St. Augustine, Florida Perhaps fortunately for Smith, he couldn't come up with the funds,[45] so Flagler began construction of the 540-room Ponce de Leon Hotel by himself, but spent several times his original estimate. [64], On February 24, 2006, a statue of Flagler was unveiled in Key West near the spot where the Over-Sea Railroad once terminated. We correct them as soon as they come to our knowledge. They had 3 children: Maud Aiken and 2 other children. Flagler's son dropped out of school and failed to follow his father into business, causing a lifelong rift between the two men. Two years after his first wife died in 1881, he married again. Standard Oil had gained an aura of invincibility, always prevailing against competitors, critics, and political enemies. Henry Morrison Flagler was born on January 2, 1830. Henry Morrison Flagler was born on January 2, 1830 in Hopewell, New York, to Reverend and Mrs. Isaac Flagler. In a few years, it seems he embraced the life of a wealthy widower. Flagler went on to build the Memorial Presbyterian Church for Jennie and her baby daughter Margery in St. Augustine. During the early 1880s, Flagler outsourced the care of young Harry to his half-sister Carrie and daughter Jennie Louise. Smith helped train the masons on the mixing and pouring techniques he used on Zorayda. According to Florida historian Thomas Graham in his book The Awakening of St. Augustine, an acquaintance of the businessman once inquired about whether his judgment was sound when he decided to invest in Florida (one can imagine that they may not have been acquaintances for very long afterward). Craze became frenzy when Mary Lily Kenan and Henry Flagler married on August 24th, 1901. However, the boom did not last. Flagler suffered additional family tragedies when his oldest daughter died from complications of childbirth in 1899. He invested with the guidance of Dr. Andrew Anderson, a native of St. Augustine. Henry Morrison Flagler (January 2, 1830 - May 20, 1913) was an American industrialist and a founder of Standard Oil. He was also a key figure in the development of the eastern coast of Florida along the Atlantic Ocean and was founder of what became the Florida East Coast Railway. 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. One day when very old he went on a drunken spree. After two years of institutionalization and much assessment by the courts, Ida Alice Shourds Flagler was legally ruled incurably insane in 1899. He even owned newspapers in Florida. She left the millions she inherited to members of her family and to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In the early 1900s Flagler, affiliated with John D. Rockefeller in the Standard Oil Company, conceived and oversaw the construction of the Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad, paving . Unfortunately, the Key West Extension is viewed as a business failure having "never earned the expected revenue before the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 destroyed it" (Akin 223). When he was a toddler, his two older half-sisters moved to New York to live with family, and Caroline ('Carrie') and Dan were Henry's constant companions. Finally, Dan Harkness (7 perhaps Henry's favorite sibling), was Henry's mother's son from her first husband. Barely any of Ida Alice's personal writings have survived, so there is a major piece of the puzzle missing. "Historical Person Profile: Henry Flagler." In Bellevue he courted and married his step-uncle's (Lamon Harkness) second daughter, Mary Harkness, November 9, 1853. The company expanded into the grain and distillery businesses, and the latter was sold after making considerable money. Within six years, Henry was earning enough money to purchase a showy Victorian house in Bellevue. Birth Name: Henry Flagler Occupation: Entrepreneur Place Of Birth: NY Date Of Birth: January 2, 1830 Date Of Death: May 20, 1913 Cause Of Death: N/A Ethnicity: Unknown Nationality: American Henry Flagler was born on the 2nd of January, 1830. What happened to Henry Flagler's daughter? Henry Flagler passed away May 20, 1913, and the construction of the "Over-Sea" road served as an example of his substantial impact on the state. "Henry M. Flagler's Hotel Ponce de Len.". VisitStAugustine.com. However there were many reports harsh working conditions and forced indebtedness to the company, and malfeasance by labor agents who hired men for the railway. 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 company collapsed when the war undercut commercial demand for salt. After a few short weeks, the family all moved back to New York, much to the detriment of Mary Harkness Flagler's health, which got progressively worse in the coming years. In 1853, young Henry followed suit when Lamon Harkness' middle daughter, Mary, became his first wife. He later joined Daniel in a grain business started with his uncle Lamon in Bellevue, Ohio. Henry M. Flagler, in full Henry Morrison Flagler, (born January 2, 1830, Hopewell, New York, U.S.died May 20, 1913, West Palm Beach, Florida), American financier and partner of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., in establishing the Standard Oil Company. Henry Flagler's most monumental accomplishment was realized only a year before he died. Flagler returned to Bellevue having lost his initial $50,000 investment and an additional $50,000 he had borrowed from his father-in-law and Daniel. He also used labor agencies to bring around 4,000 new immigrants to Florida who contracted to work until their transportation costs had been paid off. An immense engineering effort was required to cut through the wilderness and marsh from St. Augustine to Palm Beach. [citation needed][66], "Henry M. Flagler" redirects here. Henry Morrison Flagler Museum: Very Disappointing - See 1,507 traveler reviews, 1,197 candid photos, and great deals for Palm Beach, FL, at Tripadvisor. Flamingo Visitor Center is 24 miles away. The public and the media in Florida exploded with the scandal of it all. To learn more about the history of those buildings, visit the Alcazar Hotel Historical Place profile or the Casa Monica Hotel Historical Place profile on our website. As success quickly mounted for the young corporation, Flagler began to better provide for his family, moving them to Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. Today, when you ask someone if they know about Henry Flagler, they are likely to answer with a shake of their head and a shrug. One of Flagler's other St. Augustine Hotels, the Casa Monica, was originally built by Franklin W. Smith, who built the Villa Zorayda. [60][61] At 3 p.m. on the day of the funeral, May 23, 1913, every engine on the Florida East Coast Railway stopped wherever it was for ten minutes as a tribute to Flagler.
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