Henry Flagler

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 Atlantic coast of Florida and founder of what became the Florida East Coast Railway. He is known as the father of both Miami and Palm Beach, Florida.

Upbringing and education

Henry Morrison Flagler was born in Hopewell, New York, the son of Isaac Flagler, a Presbyterian minister, and Elizabeth Caldwell Morrison Harkness Flagler. Henry had a step-brother: future tycoon Stephen V. Harkness, who had become Elizabeth's stepson when she married David Harkness of Milan, Ohio; and a half-brother, Daniel M. Harkness, Elizabeth's own son with David. Widowed by David's death, Elizabeth had brought her family back to upstate New York and there married Isaac Flagler.

Henry Flagler received an eighth-grade education before Daniel convinced him to leave school at 14 to work at Daniel's uncle's store, Lamon G. Harkness and Company, in Republic, Ohio, at a salary of US$5 per month plus room and board. By 1849, Flagler was promoted to the sales staff at a salary of $400 per month. He later joined Daniel in a grain business started with Lamon in Bellevue, Ohio. In 1862, Flagler and his brother-in-law Barney York founded the Flagler and York Salt Company, a salt mining and production business in Saginaw, Michigan. He found that salt mining required a fair bit of technical knowledge and struggled in the industry during the war. The company collapsed when the American Civil War undercut demand for salt, and Flagler returned to Bellevue having lost his initial $50,000 investment and an additional $50,000 he borrowed from his father-in-law and Daniel. Flagler felt he had learned a valuable lesson: invest in a business only after thorough investigation.

Dixie Flagler

The Dixie Flagler was a streamlined passenger train operated by the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) between Chicago, Illinois and Miami, Florida. It began in 1939 as the Henry M. Flagler, a regional service between Miami and Jacksonville, Florida; the FEC renamed it and extended it to Chicago a year later. As an overnight streamliner it was part of the every-third-day pool shared by the City of Miami and South Wind. It was renamed Dixieland in 1954 and discontinued altogether in 1957.

History

The train began as the Henry M. Flagler, a daily streamliner between Jacksonville and Miami. This service began on December 3, 1939, using a set of equipment built by the Budd Company. With the introduction of two new overnight all-coach streamliners on cooperating railroads, the Henry M. Flagler equipment was placed in service on a rotating once every three days overnight schedule between Chicago and Miami as the Dixie Flagler beginning December 17, 1940. Together with its counterparts the South Wind and City of Miami, the trains offered daily service between Chicago and the east coast of Florida. Originally intended as a winter-season-only service, the public response was strong enough that the trains were placed into permanent year-round service by the summer of 1941.