The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1913-05-23

flashed the news of the death of
Henry M.Flagler, the whole State VI
Florida was grieved.
Mr.. Flagler's death was not uneX-
pected for he had been in poor health
for three months or more.
He has been steadily grow
ing weaker during the last ten days,
and for week or more he has been
totally deaf and unable to take any
nourishment.
Early in the season he was moved
from his winter home at st. Angus
tine to a residence at Palm Beach,
and it was while supposedly recuper-
ating that he attempted to descend a
stairway, when he fell, breaking a
hip. Since this accident, about six
weeks ago, he has been confined to
his bed continuously, and while all the
medical skill that could be secured at
tended him, he has suffered intensely.
The body will be buried in mau-
soleum at st. Augustine in the yard
of the Fagler Memorial Church
which he gave to the Presbyterians.
Henry NJ. Flagler was born in Ca
nandaigua, N. Y, in 1890. His edu-
cation was obtained from the public
schools of the country at that early
date Little is known of his early
boyhood, and nothing is said of him
in encyclopedias of men of renown,
until his appearance as a clerk in an
obscure country store, in Orleans
county, Michigan.
Ambition for greater achievements
and a shrewd discerning eye for the
big possibilities around him, took him
to Saginaw, Mich, where for sew
eral years he conducted large salt
works. Petroleum was beginning to
attract attention in the commercial
world, and he left salt manufacture
to become one of the pioneers in the
business which was to revolutiOnize
world ideas of gigantic corporation
enterprise in after years.
Cleveland, o., was then the center
most promising for oil control, and
Henry M. Flagler there formed the
company of Rockefeller, Andrews
and Flagler," the parent of the now
world famous Standard Oil Company
into which the original company OF
Rockefeller, Andrews and Flagler was
changed, and while for many years he
has not been known intimately as one
of the Standard Oil factors, he never
ceased to be one of the important
heads of the great corporation, OF
which that other old tinancier, Johr
D. Rockefeller, is the acknowledged
head.
Seeing that the petroleum industry
was organized so as to take care OF
itself and those owning it; Mr.. Flag
Ter turned his attention to another
great possibility, Florida.
Making his first visit to Florida il
1885, Mr.. Flagler became at once i'm
pressed with the climate, the pOsSi
bilities for development into grea
winter resort country; and the tota
lack of pioneering activities down tht
great East Coast. st. Augustine wa!
connected with Jacksonville and thu
rest of the world, by a railroad; be
vond that there was no communica
ton except by coast steamers, or tn,
sand roads which at that time wer
all the State had.
On st. Augustine he bent his frs
effort. Buying the short railroad, h
began the erection of the greatest re
sort hotel the world had, at that time
This was followed by two others il
rapid succession in the Ancient City
and still the cry was for more room
and opportunity to get down the Eas
Coast whence came stories of won
, derful growth of tropic luXurianc,
game, and fish and fowl in uncount
ed multitudes, a climate such as eX
isted nowhere else and millions Q
acres of the fairest lands and mos
fertile soil capable of producing
. luxury of wealth and food for the ne
+ ton.
q He heard these stories. He mad
:. trips of exploration himself, and /
determined to open up this country
: the world.
Pushing down the coast by degree
with thousands of foreign lahore
: brought from the great cities of Il
l, North, he rushed the work. Gradir
Il was a minimum item, crossing bayol
l. and inlets was easy for there was Il
e limited supply of the finest timbe
growing all along the right of wa
/ 1t was simply a question of time AZ
e money, and he had both.
;, When the line reached a promisil
:. spot on the coast, Mr.. Flagler tax
. out a town, built hotels and house
y, laid his rails to that point, and /
q vited the people in. DaytOna W
# soon crowded. Palm Beach was n
~ long in seeing multitudes OF I
A. wealthy from the world c0re doN
# and marvel at the country, the {
~ ~ mate. and the wonderful man W
was doing this wonderful wu
a Homes sprang up along the III
r,- Hamlets grew into villages and vii
il; ges into towns, backed up by a ru
& population bringing the worlds ei
n liest vegetables to the railroad !
nd shipment to tables in the feNl
st North.
ad Down the coast ran the rails, =
j. Miami was reached. "HIere, at las
~ said the world, "he must stop" 81
= yond is miles of swamp impenetra
sand keys and stretches Of wa
running far inland, and Wilden
into which because of its unlea't
, ness, men dare not 60"
For years the road ended at Mia
and that city sprang like the Cree
goddess full armed from the font
,ts Jove. Beautiful for situation
les Joy of the whole EARTH Here foe
ay the wealthy of the world for the Y
nd ters. Here grew up thoise magl
90 cent hostelries that today have
He equal in the country.
lli But five hundred miles down,
ge the tip most end of the land, G
e5s separated from the mainland by m
be- of water, and tropic storms and
of ricanes sweeping the palm trees
lad earth in all the intervening dista
Ilay Key West, The farthest 81
e