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Henry Flagler's Great Influence on Florida and its Tourism

Introduction

Henry Flagler is the main reason for Florida to be known as a tourist city. Henry Flagler, who was considered the “brain” Rockefeller “Standard Oil,” better known perhaps as the creator of the “American Riviera” in Florida (Standiford, pp. 101 - 123). He turned the coast of Florida in a place of entertainment for the rich and he became one of the richest and most famous Americans.

In his career began Flagler was not in wealth and luxury. He was a son of a poor Presbyterian minister, he was 14 years old when he went to the Erie Canal to seek fortune, but he caught her only many years later. Arriving in Ohio, he began working in the shop of “LG Harkness,” where he used to get $ 5 a month (Sammons, pp. 10 - 26). Seven years later he became a senior salesman with a salary of $ 400 per year. At age 23, Flagler married the daughter of the owner, Mary Harkness (Wright, pp. 92 - 101).

In 1850, Flagler started his own trading and grain alcohol in Bellevue (Ohio). When Civil War started, he was already rich enough to form a military service. For those Flagler made a catastrophic mistake, as he invested $ 50 thousand in the salt works at Michigan. The company is burned, and Flagler completely ruined. He was on the premises and denies them all over, barely able to feed about his wife and children. A year after the Civil War with the Flagler family moved to Cleveland to find more money. There he found something which he could not even dreamt of.

Rockefeller at that time has just started the oil business, and Flagler had a lot of ideas on how to take control of the industry. Soon he became the first counselor, and confidant Rockefeller. In Cleveland, they settled in the neighborhood, on Euclid Avenue, went to a church in the morning and walked together to the office (Wright, pp. 92 - 101). Flagler used to say that “the best friendship based on the business than a business founded on friendship.” Together through backroom deals with the railroad magnates and ruthlessly suppressing competition, they completed the dominance of the “Standard Oil” in the new oil industry (Bramson, pp. 80 - 91). Later, testifying in Congress, Rockefeller acknowledged that the idea of building a “Standard Oil” belonged to Flagler. “It's a pity that this is when I was not thinking” said Rockefeller (Wright, pp. 92 - 101).

In 1876, he already has 6 million dollars, and that was the first time when Flagler went to Florida. His 23 year old wife was ill after the first birth (the birth of their son Henry), and Flagler as a caring husband took her on vacation in St. Augustine, where they spent two weeks. He pointed out that the land is cheap in Florida, the climate is fine, but the conditions are worthless. It was the when he got an ...