Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1919-10-28
FLORIDA PAYS TRIBUTE
TO. LATE h. B. PLANT
TODAY ONE HUNDREDTH AN.
: NIVERSARY OF ITS BIRTH
He was to West Coast of Florida
What Flagler Was to the East
Coast

JACKSONVILLE, Oct. 28.-ln
many parts of Florida the commercial
organizations will pay tribute tomor-
row to the memory of Henry B.
Plant on the one hundredth anniver-
sary of his birth. To Mr.. Plant, prob
ably more than to any other one
man, the South, and particularly
Florida, owes the industrial revolu-
ton which brought about it's present
prosperity.
The coming of Henry B. Plant to
the Southern States really marked
the opening of Florida to the people
of America as winter resort. 1t
was in 1854, the year of Mr. Plants
arrival, that he visited Florida for
the sake of his invalid wife, when ac-
cess could only be had by steamboat
by the St. Johns river The mild
climate prolonged Mrs. Plants life
for years, He saw the necessity of
railroads in the State, and it was in
this way that he began buying stock
in various Florida and Georgia rail
roads, although he did not engage
i'll any railroad enterprise as manager
until 1879.
In that year Mr.. Plant purchased
the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad of
Georgia and subsequently reorganiz-
ed the company as the Savannah,
Florida and Western Railway. The
Savannah and Charleston Railway
was next purchased in 1880 and the
story of the completion of the Plant
System, extending to Charleston on
the one side, to Montgomery on the
other, and forming a perfect net
work, would repeat the story of rail-
road development in the entire south
eastern section of the country.
In these enterprises it was the
purpose of Mr.. Plant and his associ-
ates to extend and add to the various
properties, and they believed this
could best be accomplished under
single organization with ample pow
ers. With this object in view, seve-
raj of his associates being residents
of Connecticut, the birthplace of Mr..
Plant, charter was obtained in 1882
from the legislature of that State,
and the Plant Investment Company
organized, Mr.. Plant became presi-
dent and remained so until his death
in 1899.
Among his associates were Henry
NJ. Flagler and Morris K. Jessup, in
addition to a number of prominent
capitalists of Boston, Baltimore and
Connecticut.
In 1885, the company bought the
South Florida Railroad and subse-
quently extended the line north from
Lakeland to a connection with the
Florida and Western Railway
Gainesville division), thus complet-
ing the line from Charleston to
Tampa. Thereafter the company ac-
CURED, in 1887, the Brunswick and
Western Railway and rebuilt it; in
1889 the Alabama Midland Railway,
and in 1892 the Silver Springs,
Ocala and Gulf Railway. Subse-
!quently several other lines were add
de to the system.
Mr.. Plants work of development
in Florida did not end with the es-
Enlistment of better transportation
facilities. He strove to make the
State one worth coming to see, one
worth living in; and so he built beau
tiful hotels, and for them created
beautiful environment.
His son, the late Morton F. Plant,
inherited the task of carrying on all
the Plant enterprises. The Plant
group of railroad and steamship lines
in time became known by other
names and the new combinations I'M
dertook still more extensive activi-