Henry B. Plant: The King of Florida

[Metro Jacksonville]

Henry B. Plant: The King of Florida



Jacksonville and much of Florida owes a lot of gratitude to this railroad tycoon, whose 19th century infrastructure investments have paved the way for a 21st century Florida.


Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2015-jul-henry-b-plant-the-king-of-florida

[Adam White]

Great article.

[For_F-L-O-R-I-D-A]

I encourage everyone to go visit the Plant Museum. It is really something to behold. Everyone from Babe Ruth,to Thomas Edison, and Teddy Roosevelt stayed there.

The two grand old cities of Florida, Tampa and Jacksonville, forever linked.


(If you look on those old railroad maps, Orlando doesn't even show up for several more decades)

[urbanlibertarian]

Sweet.  Keep the history stuff coming.

[thelakelander]

Plant was pretty instrumental in jump starting urban growth in both cities. Here's the population of both between 1850 and 1930. Plant's first investment in Jax was streetcars in 1879. A year later, he extended his railroad to Jax (basically where the CSX building sits today). In 1883, his railroad reaches Tampa.

Tampa

1850 - 974
1870 - 796
1880 - 720 (Plant's railroad reaches Tampa in late 1883. Vicente Martinez Ybor moves his cigar operations to Tampa from Key West. Cigars shipped to US market by Plant's railroad.)
1890 - 5,532
1900 - 15,839
1910 - 37,782
1920 - 51,608 (Tampa annexes West Tampa, the other cigar manufacturing suburb, in 1925)
1930 - 101,161


Jacksonville

1850 - 1,045
1860 - 2,118
1870 - 6,912 (Plant establishes the Jacksonville Street Railway Company in 1879)
1880 - 7,650 (Plant's railroad is extended from Waycross to Jacksonville in 1881. Jax's populations increases 125% in the years between Plant's railroad arrival and Flagler extending the FEC across the river)
1890 - 17,201 (Flagler extends the FEC across the St. Johns in 1890)
1900 - 28,429
1910 - 57,699
1920 - 91,558
1930 - 129,549

[thelakelander]

So you're saying Plant was insignificant to the late 19th century growth of Jax and Tampa?

[thelakelander]

Interesting, considering Jax grew along his streetcar lines and his rail and steamboat lines bringing tourist to the state. My guess is, if not for the setbacks like Yellow Fever, Jax would have been larger thanit was by 1900.

[thelakelander]

So you're saying Plant was insignificant to the late 19th century growth of Jax and Tampa?

sure at least as far as Jax is concerned.  Notice the disproportionate numbers comparatively.  between 80 and 90, for example, tampa grows 700%.

In Jax it barely doubles.

Between 1880 and 1890, Jax grew 125%, outgrowing Tampa in absolute numbers! That's higher than the 103% during the rebuilding after the Great Fire (1900 - 1910). That's pretty insane growth, especially when you factor in the deaths and bad press of the yellow fever outbreak that decade. The only decade since then that we've "grown" higher than that percentage is when the city merged with the county. 1960 to 1970, due to consolidation, the official city population grew 163%. Without a doubt, Plant's investments in Jax were significant in the 19th century and they keep on paying dividends for the city's economy today.

[Redbaron616]

Imagine, no mention of massive taxpayer subsidies. The old guys could learn a few things from corporations today who perpetually look to government at all levels to shovel money into their pockets. They did it the hard way back then. How silly, when there are taxpayers everywhere you look, just waiting to be fleeced by the next corporation!

Rest in Peace, Mr. Plant. You earned it the old fashioned way.

[acme54321]

Imagine, no mention of massive taxpayer subsidies. The old guys could learn a few things from corporations today who perpetually look to government at all levels to shovel money into their pockets. They did it the hard way back then. How silly, when there are taxpayers everywhere you look, just waiting to be fleeced by the next corporation!

Rest in Peace, Mr. Plant. You earned it the old fashioned way.

You should do a little Google search on "railroad land grants"

[thelakelander]

Both Henry Plant and Henry Flagler definitely took advantage of railroad land grants to expand their holdings.

[fieldafm]

In addition to railroad land grants (IE, millions of acres of free land), Plant also benefitted from the use of prison labor (leased from the State for pennies on the dollar, you can search to learn about the deplorable conditions of prison labor during this time) to construct various stretches of his railroad lines... and also benefitted greatly from payments from the federal government during the Spanish-American War (various Plant companies obtained exclusive rights to transport US troops by ship and rail as well as providing and constructing quarters for said troops).

Plant wisely took advantage of Florida's debt problems as well as the perilous financial conditions of many short line railroads in assembling/building his rail/shipping empire in Florida.

[Adam White]

So the evidence is in - Plant did indeed earn his fortune "the old fashioned way!"

[thelakelander]

Lol, how did they get to town? Delta? JetBlue?

[thelakelander]

BTW, the same yellow fever epidemic also devastated Tampa. We're not so unique in some aspects of our history.