The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-01-22
FIAAGLER, SO TO-DAY,
BEGAN CAREER AS CLERK
IN A COUNTRY STORE


Henry M. FN1agler, who made a for
tune out of oil and used a large part
of it to construct the remarkable
"over-seas'' railroad from the Florida
mainland to Key West, was born in
Canandaigua, N. z, elghty-three
years ago to-day, JAN 22, 1880 He
began his business career as a clerk In
a country store in Orleans county,
Mich, earning five dollars week. He
laid the foundation of his fortune
when he settled at Saginaw, Mich.
and entered the salt industry. The
money he made from salt enabled him
to engage in the more profitable pc
troleum business. He was one of the
pioneers in the Cleveland oil indus
try. The canny and thrifty John D.
Rockefeller was early his business RI
val, but they soon joined forces I'M
der the firm name of Rockefeller, An
drews & F1agler, the parent concern
of the Standard Oil Company. From
the first Flagler was prominently
identified with the oil trust, and no
small part of its successes and its
sins are to be laid at his door.
With the tentacles of the octopus
of petroleum working smoothly.
drawing in money while its stockhOld-
ers slept, Mr.. Flagler turned his at
tention to Florida a country Of
fering vast opportunities for an am
bilious young man. In that sum-
merland he built hotels and acquired
railroads and constructed other lines
of steel, until with the completion of
the Key West railroad last year his
Florida investments were estimated at
5o,O00,000. The ocean railroad"
from Miami to Key West, one of the
engineering marvels of the world,
alone cost over twenty millions. For
a hundred miles gigantic arches and
spans of steel and concrete stretch
over little islets and open water,
magnificent monument to Henry M
F1ag1er, who dreamed of the impos-
sibIe and made it a reality.
Lawyer, EpiscopaIian clergyman,
Unitarian minister, and newspaper
editor, summarizes the career com
menced half century ago to-day by
Charles Ferguson, now editorial writ
er for the Hearst newspapers. Born
in New York on Jan %, 1863, Mr..
Ferguson was educated at the Uni.
versity of Michigan and in 1884 was
admitted to the bar and hung out his
shingle in Buffalo. After a, few
years as a barrister he turned to the
| church. and was minister of Protest
ant Episcopal churches in Cedar Rap.
ids, Ariz. Gradually his religious
views became more liberal, and in
1904 he left the Anglican church to
become pastor of All Souls Unitarian
| Church in Kansas City. Five years
ago he left the ministry to its fate
and established his pulpit in a, Hearst
| editorial sanctum. He is the author
of THE Religion of Democracy and
many other books. ~
| Gal1atin, Mo. lies a considerable dis
| lance from salt water, but 1t has long
been the home of Joshua. W. Alexan-
der, the chairman of the House Com
mittee on Merchant Marine and Fish
cries, which has lately been investi-
eating the so-ca1led ocean Transport
tation trust. Congressman Alexan-
der is a native of Cincinnati where
he was born sixty-one years ago to-
day. He removed to Missouri as a.
youth, and there imbibed that ''show-
me- spirit that promises to. make
| things lively for the wicked steamship
octopus. Just why ocean liners and
fishes should be handled by the same
committee, with a scion from the in
terror at the head of it, is one of those
mysteries of government that prob
ably come under the head of ''practi-
| cal politics"