Railroads Established--Engineering Progress--Steel, Iron
Steamships--Horse Railroad--Kerosene Oil in Use 1830--Sewing
Machines--Agricultural Implements 1831-51--Sanitary
Progress--Philanthropic and Christian Progress--Higher
Education--Medical Progress--Humane Care of the
Insane--Sailors’ and Seamen’s Home--World’s Fairs--Religious
Reciprocity--Arbitration--Numerous Inventions and Discoveries--Henry
B. Plant in War and in Peace--Testimonial Presented to Mr. and Mrs.
Plant on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of their Wedding.....279-306
PLANT GENEALOGY.....307-337
INDEX.....339-344
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
The author takes pleasure in acknowledging his indebtedness to many of
the Southern Express and “Plant System” officials for their prompt and
valuable assistance in the preparation of a biography of their able and
esteemed President. Chief among those to whom thanks are due may be
mentioned Messrs. A. P. C. Ryan, M. J. O’ Brien, D. F. Jack, B. W.
Wrenn, and G. H. Tilley. The last named furnished not only much material
in manuscript and print, but many valuable suggestions as to their use.
The letter of Ex-Governor Bullock of Georgia, published in the volume
reveals the noble nature which penned it, far more eloquently than any
words which can be written here, and is alike honorable to its
distinguished subject and its eminent author.
Acknowledgment is due also to the papers from which extracts have been
taken.
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THE LIFE OF HENRY BRADLEY PLANT.
CHAPTER I.
The Plant Family--Birth of Henry Bradley Plant--Mr. Plant’s
Parents--Ancestors Came from England in 1639--David Plant Occupied
Many Positions of Honor and Trust--A. P. Plant’s Successful
Business Career--H. B. Plant on his Mother’s Side is Descended from
Joseph Frisbee, a Major in Washington’s Army--Reverend Levi
Frisbee, Father of Professor Levi Frisbee of Harvard
College--Connection with Sir William Pepperell, Bart.--The
Historian of the Frisbee Family--Richard of the Second Generation
Went from Virginia to Connecticut, and Settled at Branford,
1644--Sketch of Oliver Libby Frisbee, Historian of his
Family--Senator Hoar’s Relations to the Frisbee Family--Frisbee
Patriotism and Services to their Country--They Were Good
Church-Going People, Mostly of the Puritan Belief--Probability that
the Frisbees Came from Wales.
Henry Bradley Plant was born October 27, 1819, at Branford, Connecticut.
His paternal great-grandfather was attached to Washington’s army as a
private, when Washington was at Newburg, and he was one of the guard of
the unfortunate Major André at the time of his execution. His
great-grandfather on his grandmother Plant’s side was a major in General
Washington’s army at the same time.
Mr. Plant’s father was Anderson Plant and his mother was Betsey Bradley.
They were married December 23, 1818, and were of good old Puritan
ancestry who came from England about two hundred and sixty years ago.
According to a genealogical table at the end of this volume, it will be
seen that John Plant was in Hartford, Connecticut, in the year
1639,--some give the date three years earlier,--and his son, John Plant,
is granted a tract of land at Branford in 1667. These people possessed
the characteristics that distinguished their race. They loved freedom,
were thrifty, energetic, self-reliant, patriotic, and devoutly
religious. Many of them were officers, and most of them members in the
Congregational Church, which was the only church in the town for the
first hundred years of its history.
Some of them occupied positions of honor and responsibility in the State
and country.
David Plant was born at Stratford, prepared for college at the Cheshire
Academy, graduated at Yale College in 1804, studied law at the
Litchfield Law School, and was a classmate of John C. Calhoun. In 1819
and 1820, he was Speaker of the House of Representatives, and in 1821
was elected to the State Senate and twice re-elected. He was
Lieutenant-Governor of the State from 1823 to 1827, and from 1827 to
1829 he was a member of the United States Congress. In politics he was a
staunch Whig. He was an influential man in the political circles of his
day in the State of Connecticut, and Calhoun, when Secretary of State,
offered him any position within his gift; but he refused to hold office
under the dominant party.
Another successful man of the Plant family was A. P. Plant, son of
Ebenezer and Lydia (Neal) Plant, born at Southington in the year 1816.
Early in life he began to earn his own living, and by industry, economy,
and business tact he became in time the head of a large manufacturing
establishment. He settled in that part of the town known as the
“Corner,” a part which rapidly increased in population and soon grew
into a prosperous village. It bears the name of Plantsville in honor of
A. P. Plant and his brother E. H. Plant. His biographer says: “He made a
profession of religion in 1833; and from that time was an influential
member of the Baptist Church. In 1850, he was elected a deacon of the
church in Southington, and held the office until 1872, when he
transferred his relations to the new enterprise started in his own
village. To this church he gave liberally, and left it a legacy in his
will.” He is described as a most faithful and consistent Christian, an
esteemed officer in the church, and a firm believer in the presence of
the Holy Spirit in the heart of the Christian.
Henry Bradley Plant, on his grandmother’s side, is a direct descendant
of Joseph Frisbee, a major in Washington’s army. The Frisbees were a
numerous family, and many of them occupied positions of honor and
influence in the history of the country. One of them writing to Mr.
Plant says:
“I suppose you have often wondered what has become of my history of the
Frisbee family. I have been diligently at work on it since you heard
from me. It has grown from a very small beginning to be quite an affair,
namely, from looking up my ancestors so that I could join the hereditary
societies of the United States, to writing a history of over one
thousand of the lineal descendants of Edward Frisbee, the first settler.
I find them a noble race, worthy of history. I have also looked up my
maternal ancestors and can trace them back to 1497, thirteen
generations, among them Sir William Pepperell.”
The fitness of the writer, Oliver L. Frisbee, for his task of searching
the records of his long line of progenitors may be gathered from another
paragraph in the same letter where he says: “My Alma Mater, Bates
College, gave me the degree of Master of Arts, last Commencement, for
eminent success in business and proficiency in the studies of genealogy,
heraldry, and colonial history.”
The following sketch, with some slight corrections, is taken from a
carefully prepared account, by the same writer, of the descendants of
Richard Frisbee, the first-named ancestor of this family.
“Richard Frisbee came from England to Virginia, in 1619, when he was
twenty-four years old. In 1642, the Governor of Virginia ordered all
those who would not join the Church of England to leave the Colony, and
hundreds went to Eastern Virginia, now the State of Maryland. Among
these refugees were Richard Frisbee and his two sons, James and William.
They purchased plantations in Cecil County and resided on Kent Island,
the northern part of Chesapeake Bay.
“At first the Governor of Virginia claimed this island; later, Lord
Baltimore and afterwards, William Penn. The latter wrote to James
Frisbee, from London, in 1681, instructing him to pay no tax to Lord
Baltimore. James Frisbee was a member of the House of Representatives of
Maryland, and held other important positions in the State. In addressing
a petition to His Majesty, in 1688, he, with others, began their
petition thus: ‘We the undersigned Englishmen though born in America,’
etc. James went back to England, the land of his birth, in his old age.
“Richard, son of Richard the emigrant, came from Virginia to
Connecticut, and settled at Branford in 1644, when his brothers went to
Maryland. His son John had several children, among them Edward and
Joseph. The former was the ancestor of Major Philip Frisbee, of Albany
County, New York. He was in the War of the Revolution, and his grandsons
belonged to the Sons of the American Revolution, of the State of New
York. President Edward S. Frisbee of Wells College, in New York State,
is his descendant. The latter, Joseph, your ancestor [referring to Mr.
Plant], married September 14, 1712, had a son Joseph who married Sarah
Bishop, August 25, 1742. Their son Joseph married Sarah Rogers, March
11, 1773. Their eldest child, Sarah, born May 15, 1774, was your
grandmother.
“The name Joseph has been in our branch of the family a long time. My
father’s name was Joseph. I had a brother Joseph, and my son born this
summer is also named Joseph.
“The youngest child of the first Edward was Ebenezer, my ancestor,
brother to John, your ancestor. He had two sons, Ebenezer and Elisha.
The latter was the father of the Rev. Levi Frisbee who settled at
Ipswich, Massachusetts, and was the father of Professor Levi Frisbee of
Harvard College, who died in 1820, one of the most talented men that
ever passed through that institution. Senator Hoar was named for him,
George Frisbie Hoar. Ebenezer’s son James, born in 1722, was lieutenant
with Captain Paul Jones, and was killed one hundred and fifteen years
ago to-day, September 23d, in the engagement between the _Bonne Homme
Richard_ and _Serapis_ in the English Channel. This was my
great-grandfather and by right of descent from him I joined the Sons of
the American Revolution. His son Darius (born in 1769), my grandfather,
settled in Kittery, Maine, and married Dorothy Gerrish, a
great-granddaughter of Colonel William Pepperell, a well-known merchant
and the father of Sir William Pepperell, Bart., the hero of Louisburg.
Dorothy Gerrish was also related to some of the most distinguished
colonial families in New England.”
The subjoined letters from John B. Frisbee and Senator Hoar will be of
interest in this connection.
“LAKEWOOD, N. J., December 16, 1894.
“MY DEAR MR. PLANT:
“This tardy reply to your favor of the 6th inst. is occasioned by
illness since its receipt, and which prompted my coming to this
place to recruit. I am now rapidly recovering from quite a severe
attack of grippe, and hope to be able to leave for Mexico this
week.
“Referring to the subject of your letter, I can only give you
meagre information. My great-grandfather, Philip Frisbie, was a
major in the New York Militia and served under Washington, and I
have no doubt was closely related to the Joseph Frisbie you
mention.
“I have a first cousin, Mrs. Farman, the wife of Judge Farman,
formerly United States Consul-General in Egypt, who has devoted
much time and research in obtaining an accurate history of our
family. Recently, she went to Europe for the purpose of educating
her children in the French and German languages.
“I have written to her, requesting her to advise you directly in
regard to the information you desire, hence I feel assured that you
will in due time receive a letter from her upon the subject.
“Since we last met I have visited New York several times, and upon
each occasion you have been absent from the city, thus depriving me
of the coveted pleasure of paying my respects to Mrs. Plant and
your good self; with best regards to both, I remain,
“Yours very sincerely,
“JOHN B. FRISBIE.”
“UNITED STATES SENATE.,
“WASHINGTON, D. C., January 26, 1895.
“MY DEAR SIR:
“I know very little about the Frisbie family in this country. I
have no relatives of that name. I was myself named for a very
intimate friend of my father, Prof. Levi Frisbie, who was an
eminent scholar in his time, a graduate at Harvard in 1802, and
afterwards filled two professorships there. His writings, as I dare
say you know, were collected with a brief memoir and are
occasionally to be found in bookstores. He was son of the Rev. Levi
Frisbie, of Ipswich, who delivered several addresses that have been
published. Prof. Frisbie wrote some articles for the _North
American Review_ which you will find referred to in Cushing’s lists
of the articles. Dr. Holmes wrote me some years ago an account of
Prof. Frisbie’s personal appearance, which I suppose I can find
when I am at home in Worcester, if you desire. Prof. Frisbie was
nearly blind and instructed his classes and pursued his studies
without being able to read
“I am faithfully yours,
“GEO. F. Hoar.[1]
“To O. L. FRISBIE,
“Portsmouth, N. H.”
The Frisbee family was patriotic and promptly responded to the call
of freedom and independence. There were thirty-five of them from
Connecticut in the War of the Revolution. Eleven of them spelled
their names Frisbee; seventeen, Frisbie; and seven, Frisby. They
continued in the service of their country from the Lexington alarm,
April 19, 1776, until the disbanding of the army, by Washington,
on the Hudson in 1783. A regiment marched from Connecticut towns,
in 1775, to the relief of Boston. John Frisbee, son of Titus
Ebenezer, represented Branford in the Legislature from 1690 to
1692. O. L. Frisbee writes to Mr. Plant: “Your ancestor was a good
churchman. From him, there is a long list of Frisbees in the
records of the church of Branford. In 1700, the annals of Branford
say that among the families prominently identified with the church,
town, and business from 1700 to 1800, the Frisbees, Bands, and
Plants head a long list in the order in which I have written their
names. This religious element seems to have been with the Frisbees.
Rev. Levi Frisbee, father of Professor Levi of Harvard College, was
a very pious man.
“He was invited to deliver an oration on Washington at his death.
My grandfather was a very pious man; he founded a church at
Kittery, Maine. My father, Joseph Frisbee, was a deacon in the
church. He and Caleb Frisbee were in the regiment from Branford. I
found Noah and Edward Frisbee were members of the company that
marched to the relief of Fort William Henry, August, 1757, from
Connecticut. I found your ancestor Joseph Foote Frisbee was in the
Revolutionary War. He lived to be ninety-eight years of age. About
1700, Samuel Baker and Samuel Frisbee, Jr., bought land for a
wharf at Dutch House Point, from Joseph Foote at Branford. Joseph
Foote Frisbee might have been named for this man.
“In the church records of Branford there is a great deal about
Joseph Frisbee, in connection with the church from 1743 to 1746. I
find all the Frisbees good church (Congregational) people, from the
first Edward who settled at Branford, July 7, 1644. He and his wife
Abigail joined the Congregational church soon after settling in
Branford. I should say the Frisbees were good fighters in war, and
good church and law-abiding people, with Puritanic principles that
helped to build the nation.”
In a history of the Wolcotts of Connecticut, it is stated that John
Frisbee and Abigail Culpepper, his wife, came from Wales. This may
be correct, although in the genealogical sketch already given it is
stated that the first of the family, Richard Frisbee, came from
England to Virginia in 1619, but the same sketch says that in 1642
the Governor of Virginia ordered all who would not join the Church
of England to leave the Colony, and that hundreds went to Eastern
Virginia, now called Maryland, and that among them was Richard
Frisbee, who with his sons settled in Cecil County, living on Kent
Island, the northern part of Chesapeake Bay. Now it is quite
common, in the early accounts of immigration to America, to
describe the people as English, or as coming from England, when in
fact they were Scotch or Irish. But coming from any of the British
Islands they were often called English. This would be more likely
to be the case with those coming from Wales, which is,
geographically speaking, a part of the island of Great Britain. Be
this as it may, it is not of great importance. The spirit of
dissent from the Established Church was just as strong in England
as in Wales. The name Frisbee or Frisby, as its terminal denotes,
is of English origin, but it is quite possible that the family came
from one of the border countries.
Whether this family came from Wales or England may be only a matter
of historic accuracy and personal interest; certain it is the
Frisbees are a people who have done honor to their country both in
war and in peace. They bore a prominent part in the victorious
struggle for the freedom and independence of the American Colonies.
They have been the promoters of education, peace, piety, and “the
righteousness that exalteth a nation.” We have given this account
of this people, for four reasons. First, because the historian of
the family, with a commendable pride, has collected and preserved
the family record of his people, from which the material for this
brief notice was placed at our disposal. Secondly, because the
family histories of the people who have combined to form the
American nation are only beginning to receive a slight part of the
attention which they justly merit. Thirdly, because a knowledge of
the numerous and varied races that have formed the nation is
essential to a correct understanding of the American people.
Fourthly, because in the present case, owing to the early death of
Mr. Plant’s father, the widowed mother was especially dear to him,
and is still cherished in his memory with the most tender and
affectionate regard.
Mr. Plant’s connection with Washington’s army during the
Revolutionary War was one of the family traditions, but he was not
the man to accept honors unless he knew they rightly belonged to
him. So after an extensive correspondence, and a thorough
investigation of the military register in several States, and at
the national capital, he received the following communication,
which I have carefully copied from the original.
“Records and Pension Office, War Department, Washington, November
15, 1895. Respectfully returned to Mr. Oliver L. Frisbee, A.M.,
Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It appears from the records of this
office, that Joseph Frisbee was enlisted September 3, 1780, and
served as a private in Lieutenant-Colonel Sherman’s Company (also
designated as Captain Sylvanus Brown’s and Lieutenant Joseph Hait’s
Company), Eighth Connecticut Regiment, Revolutionary War, and was
also discharged October 29, 1780.” On transmitting the above to Mr.
Plant, Mr. O. Frisbee writes from Portsmouth, New Hampshire,
December 24, 1895: “Enclosed please find the record from Washington
of the service of your grandmother’s father, Joseph Frisbee, in the
Revolutionary War. He was born August 17, 1745; married, March 11,
1773, Sarah Rogers; had a daughter Sarah, born May 15, 1774,
married Samuel Plant, February 11, 1795. These records will enable
you and your sons to join in ‘The Sons of the American Revolution.’
“O. L. FRISBEE.”
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CHAPTER II.
Branford, Connecticut, Purchased by the New Haven Colonists from
the Totokett Indians in 1638--First Settlements were Made
1644--First Church of Logs Surrounded by Stockade to Protect from
Indians--Guards at the Gate during Service--Church and Town Records
Preserved at Branford--John Plum the First Town Clerk--Style of the
Second Church Building and Character of its Services--Rev. Timothy
Gillett its Pastor--He Taught an Academy in Addition to his
Pastoral Work--Prominent Families of Branford--Intelligent
Character of the People--De Tocqueville’s High Estimate of this
“Leetle State”--Branford in 1779.
Soon after New Haven was settled, the people negotiated with the Indians
for an additional tract of land, some ten miles in length from north to
south. It extended eight or ten miles east of the Quinnipiac River. The
purchase of this land occurred in December, 1638. It was bought from an
Indian sachem named Sorsheog of Mattabeseck. The territory included the
land on which the town of Branford was built, and its Indian name was
Totokett. It was several years before the purchasers went to live at
Totokett. It was early in the year 1644 when the first settlers located
upon their lands at Branford. By the first of October of that year, the
society was so far organized that their minister could gather them for
regular service. The people soon built him a house and a meeting-house,
or church. This latter stood in the front of the old burying-ground; it
was built of logs and had a thatched roof, and was surrounded by a
cedar-wood stockade twelve feet high. A cedar-wood vase made from the
wood of this stockade is still in the possession of Mrs. Samuel O.
Plant.
During the hours of worship, one or more of the men stood guard near the
entrance of the stockade. All carried firearms to church, or when going
any distance from home. They were not afraid of the Totokett Indians,
but of raiding bands of other Indian tribes who attacked both the whites
and Indians. The fierce Mohawks from the neighborhood of the Hudson were
often the assailants. The first thing that appears on the ancient
records of Branford is the division of lands among the first settlers in
the month of June, 1645. It has been said, and often repeated, that in
1666, when so many people went from Branford to settle at Newark, New
Jersey, they took the records of Branford with them. These in some way
were burned, and thus much valuable history was lost. But such was not
the fact.
The town and church records have always
[Illustration: _Old Homestead of the Plant Family._
_Branford, Connecticut._
_Birthplace of Henry Bradley Plant._]
remained at Branford. They are quite full and in a reasonably good state
of preservation. In a manuscript history of Branford from which the
above account is taken, the name of the first town clerk, John Plum, in
1645, and a list of his successors, are given with the date of their
service. It is interesting to note how much alike are the ways and
customs of this old Puritan town to those of the town of Harlem, built
by the Dutch a little later and now part of New York City. In both
places the history of the town and the history of the church are one.
They are so interwoven that they can hardly be separated. The division
of the meadow-lands is the same; mutual protection from the Indians, and
the manner of defence are also alike. The official appointment, by the
town, of a man to gather in all the cows of the settlers, take them out
to graze in the morning, and bring them back at the proper time to be
milked, and many other such customs, are very much alike in both
settlements.
The second church, or meeting-house, was built on the common, of wood,
and was succeeded by the present house of worship, which is built of
brick. Mr. Plant remembers the high galleries in the old church where
the seats were arranged in slips, the boys on one side, and the girls on
the other; neither could see the minister, and it is very doubtful
whether any of them heard him. There were no children’s sermons in
those days. The babes, of whom Paul writes, were not fed on milk, but on
strong meat, which even the rigorous doctrinal appetites of the fathers
sometimes found hard to digest. Some of the modern church movements,
such as women preaching, and Salvation Army barracks, would have
sufficiently alarmed those good orthodox people to make them call for a
day of fasting and prayer. Nevertheless they were a noble race, among
whom misappropriation and embezzlement of funds, trust swindling and
corporation stealing and political corruption were unknown.
The pulpit was the old-fashioned barrel-shaped structure, and, like some
of the sermons, was high above the heads of the people. There was a
great sounding-board over the head of the preacher, and it used to be a
subject of calculation with the boys, whether this board would not some
day fall on the devoted head of the speaker and stop the sound
altogether. This church had the old family square pew, and in front of
the pulpit was a bench for the deacons. The people were classified in
their pews according to age, and the oldest, perhaps on account of their
difficulty in hearing, occupied the seats nearest the pulpit. The church
building was not warmed, save by the fervid sermons of those grand old
Puritan divines. That, however, reached only the head and heart, hence,
for the feet, they made stoves of sheet iron, over which was a
perforated tin casing, and over this a hardwood casing. Coals from
corncobs, or seasoned hickory, as being the most durable, were placed in
this stove, which was carried in the bottom of carriage or sleigh to
church, where its heat would last all forenoon. At the close of the
forenoon service, the people went to the neighboring church house, which
was warmed by a log fire. Here they ate their luncheon, and then
returned to the church for another two hours’ devotion.
The Rev. Timothy P. Gillett was pastor of this church in Mr. Plant’s
boyhood. He taught an academy--Mr. Plant being a scholar for several
terms--in addition to his ministerial duties of preaching, visiting, and
catechising the church people. He was a sober, solemn, orthodox
clergyman of the old school, scholarly and dignified both in and out of
the pulpit. It is only a hint of the changes that time brings, and no
reflection on this good man’s charity to say that, had he seen one of
the modern ministers visiting his flock on a bicycle, he would have had
him deposed from the sacred office. Some unfortunate misunderstanding
came between him and his congregation in the latter part of his
ministry, so that his wife refused to have his remains interred in the
church burying-ground. She afterwards relented, was herself buried in
the church cemetery, and left in her will two thousand dollars to
defray the cost of removing her husband’s remains thither, and for
erecting a suitable monument to his memory. The sacred dust of both
pastor and wife rests, as it should, among the people to whom they
ministered for some fifty years or more. The town of Branford was
composed of an intelligent, industrious, and religious people, mostly
farmers and well-to-do citizens. The academy presided over by the Rev.
Timothy P. Gillett constituted a centre of intellectual, moral, and
spiritual development that inspired the life and elevated the character
of the people.
The following account from, the _Branford Annals_ is only one of the
many testimonies that might be recorded of the patriotism and courage of
this people:
“No town in New Haven County was more important during the war of
independence than old Branford. Her citizens proved very patriotic. She
had a few royalists who were somewhat troublesome. But most of her
people were self-sacrificing in a special degree in sustaining the
federal cause. No town surpassed her in furnishing men and means. Most
all of her able-bodied men were in the army, responding promptly at
every call. Col. William Douglass’ regiment, which did most effective
service, was largely recruited from Branford. The coasts and harbors of
Branford exposed her to visits from the vessels of the enemy.
Coast-guards were needed, and were kept night and day at Stony Creek,
Indian Neck, Town Neck, and at Branford Point. At the approach of the
enemy, two reports of a cannon were to call out all the people to repel
invasion. Expresses were kept in readiness to hasten to the remote parts
of the town with the alarming news. When New Haven was invaded, patriots
from Branford were quickly on hand to help. A company of her men were in
the battle at Milford Hill. Two Branford men, Goodrich and Baldwin, were
killed, and several others wounded at that battle. The attack of the
British on the east side of New Haven harbor was repelled by the
Branford home guard mostly. Those from Branford were supported by men
from Guilford, who hastened to the rescue.
“At that time a new vessel, a brig named the _New Defence_, was at
Branford wharf almost ready to sail against the enemy. She had been
built and manned at Branford. Her future history was tragical. At the
first alarm of the landing at New Haven the guns of this vessel were
taken out and hurried over the hills to East Haven. There mounted and
vigorously used and well supported by the brave minute-men with their
muskets, the invaders were compelled to hasten a retreat. One of the
reports made by the British officers speaks of the strong force and
‘great guns’ encountered in that direction. There is an old record at
Branford showing that Mason Hobart, of that place, was paid £5 for
carting two cannon to East Haven from the brig _New Defence_, July 5,
1779.”
Connecticut, though one of the smaller States of the Union, has ever
maintained a high standard of patriotism, education, and moral power in
the progress of the country. De Tocqueville was in the habit of saying,
“All de great men in Amerique comed from dat leetle State dey call
Connecti-coot.” Branford is an old seaport town. Its shipbuilding,
fisheries, West India trade, two hundred years ago, were quite extensive
for that day. It is also a seaside resort in summer, being half-way
between Boston and New York.
Branford was for many years the Governor’s seat of the colonial
government of Connecticut. The house of Governor Saltonstall is still
standing. Many of the useful and prominent men of the country were born
and reared in this quiet yet enterprising little town, founded more than
two and a half centuries ago by the Puritans of old England. Among its
noted and worthy families were those of the Plants and Blackstones, of
whom we shall speak in the following chapter, as the two families became
connected by marriage, and are still warmly attached to their native
town.
[Illustration: text decoration] CHAPTER III.
The Blackstone Family--The Ancestor Came from England before
1630--His Name was William Blaxton--Settled First in Massachusetts,
afterwards Went to Rhode Island--His Beautiful Character and
Numerous Descendants--Origin of Yale College of Branford--The
Blackstone Memorial Library.
From a pamphlet history of the Blackstone family, in which the name is
spelled Blaxton, we gather the following interesting account:
“For several years before Winthrop came, in 1630, William Blaxton
constituted the entire population of this peninsula [Massachusetts, of
which the present Boston Common was then a part], at that time an
unbroken wilderness of woods traversed by savages, by wolves, and other
wild beasts almost as dangerous. Here he dwelt alone, exposed to
dangers, many and great. He was a man of culture, refinement, and
gentlemanly bearing, amiable and hospitable, liked by Indians, and
indeed by everybody. These noble traits, this love of nature, his sacred
calling, his trusting faith, invested whatever belonged to him with a
romantic interest. He was a clergyman of the Church of England, born in
1595, graduated from Cambridge, England, in 1617, and died 1675, aged
eighty years. Blaxton took orders in the Episcopal Church, but it seems
that he never had a cure, though he still wore his canonical coat, which
would indicate his attachment to the English Church, yet some have
represented him as a non-conformist, ‘detesting Prelacy.’ He had in his
library ten large volumes of manuscript books, presumably sermons, all
of which were burned in his house during King Philip’s War. Blaxton came
to America in 1623 with Robert Gorges.”
The father of Mr. Plant’s first wife was Captain James Blackstone. He
lived to the ripe old age of ninety-seven. His son, Timothy B.
Blackstone, is building a public library in Branford to the memory of
his revered father. The following extract of a letter to the donor from
one of the trustees of this library, Mr. Addison Van Name, will be of
interest in this connection, showing, as it does, the origin of Yale
College. The letter is dated from Yale University Library, and runs as
follows:
“My fellow-trustees asked me to procure a design for a book-plate, and
one is herewith submitted for your approval. It seemed to us that a
memorable incident in the earlier library history of Branford might
appropriately be commemorated here, and this has been attempted in the
vignette, in the upper right-hand corner of the plate. You are no doubt
familiar with the story, but President Clap’s _Annals of Yale College_
is not a very common book, and I may be excused for quoting his exact
language.
“In the year 1700, ‘The Ministers so nominated met at New Haven, and
formed themselves into a body, or society, to consist of eleven
ministers, including a rector, and agreed to found a college in the
colony of Connecticut, which they did at their next meeting at Branford,
in the following manner, viz.: Each member brought a number of books and
presented them to the body, and laying them on the table said these
words, or to this effect, “I give these books for the founding a college
in this Colony.” Then the trustees, as a body, took possession of them,
and appointed the Rev. Mr. Russel, of Branford, to be the Keeper of the
Library, which then consisted of about forty volumes in folio.’”
The story is so good that, if there were not the best of reasons for
believing it true, one might easily suspect it to have been invented.
But in his preface President Clap says: “Several circumstances [and
among them we may well suppose the incident in question] I received from
sundry gentlemen who were contemporary with the facts related, among
whom were some of the founders of the college with whom I was personally
acquainted in the year 1726.”
The following account of Mr. Timothy B. Blackstone is taken from the New
York _Herald_ of April 12, 1896:
“Mr. Blackstone was born in a part of Branford known as Blackstoneville,
on March 28, 1829. His father, Captain James Blackstone, in whose memory
he erected this building, was a well-to-do farmer and stock-raiser. He
derived his title of captain from being elected to that position in a
company of local militia. He was elected to the Legislature in the
sessions of 1825, 1826, and 1830, and was elected State Senator in 1840.
“Timothy attended the public schools here until he was eighteen years
old, when he left, and obtained employment as assistant to a civil
engineer, who was at that time surveying on the construction of the New
York and New Haven, now the Consolidated, Railroad. After finishing this
piece of work he became an engineer, and was appointed assistant
engineer of the Stockbridge and Pittsfield Railroad, a short line
constructed in 1849, and now a part of the Housatonic road. After this
road was completed, Mr. Blackstone went west in 1851, and took charge of
the construction of a portion of the Illinois Central Railroad. He
settled at this time in La Salle, Ill., and was Mayor of the city for
one year. In 1856, he became civil engineer of the Joliet and Chicago
Railroad, which ran from Joliet via Lockport to Chicago. After this he
was employed in surveying the land over which the Chicago and Alton
Railroad now runs.
“Mr. Blackstone first began accumulating wealth while this road was
being built. He purchased land ahead, and then sold it at a profit. He
then invested in stock, and held several responsible offices until he
attained his present position--president of the great system.”
On June 17, 1896, the magnificent library was dedicated with appropriate
ceremonies, and called forth much enthusiasm from the towns-people.
In the course of his speech on this occasion, as reported in the _Daily
Palladium_ of New Haven, Judge Harrison said:
“While the primary purpose of the generous donor of this building, and
its endowment fund, is to benefit the people of the town of Branford, it
will never be forgotten that it serves also as a memorial to Hon. James
Blackstone, who spent his long life of ninety-three years in this town,
where he was born, and to the welfare of which he devoted so much time
during the years of his young and mature manhood. For nearly two
centuries the Blackstone family has occupied a conspicuous place in this
community, and for the same length of time representatives of the family
have been tillers of the soil, the title to which has always been in a
Blackstone.
“We cannot properly dedicate this building to the purpose for which it
is intended without calling your attention briefly to James Blackstone,
his life, his family, and his ancestors. He was born in Branford in
1793, in a house located nearly opposite that home which was during
nearly his whole life his residence, and where he died on the 4th of
February, 1886. His first ancestor in this country was the Rev. William
Blackstone, a graduate, in 1617, of Emanuel College, Cambridge. He
received Episcopal ordination in England after graduation, but, like
John Davenport of New Haven, he soon became of the Puritan persuasion,
left his native country on account of his non-conformity, and became the
first white settler upon that famous neck of land opposite Charlestown,
which is now the city of Boston. When the Massachusetts colony came to
New England they found William Blackstone settled on that peninsula. He
had been there long enough to have planted an orchard of apple trees.
Upon his invitation, the principal part of the Massachusetts colony
removed from Charlestown and founded the town of Boston, on land which
Mr. Blackstone desired them to occupy. He was the first inhabitant of
the town, and the colony records of May 18, 1631, show that he was the
first person admitted a freeman of Boston. His house and orchard were
located upon a spot about half-way between Boston Common and the
Charles River. A few years passed by, and the peculiar notions of the
Puritans of Boston on the subject of church organization and government,
had satisfied William Blackstone that while he could not conform to the
church of Archbishop Laud, neither could he conform to the Puritan
Church of Boston, and when they invited him to join them he constantly
declined, using this language: ‘I came from England because I did not
like the lord-bishops; but I cannot join with you because I would not be
under the lord-brethren.’
“In 1633, an agreement was entered into between himself and the other
old settlers, in the division of the lands, that he should have fifty
acres allotted to him near his house forever. In 1635, he sold
forty-four of those acres to the company for £30, retaining the six
acres upon which was his orchard, and soon afterwards he removed to
Rhode Island, living near Providence until the time of his death, which
occurred on the 26th of May, 1675. A few years after leaving Boston he
sold the orchard of six acres to a man named Pepys. He was not in any
manner driven away from Boston by the Puritan Fathers, but holding
certain ideas which did not agree with those of his neighbors, he
concluded to move to a new location, from similar motives to those which
led John Davenport to leave New Haven and go to Boston after the union
of the New Haven colony with the Connecticut colony at Hartford. All of
the accounts and records of Rev. William Blackstone show him to have
been a religious man, with literary tastes, of correct, industrious,
thrifty habits, kind and philanthropic feelings, living for several
years on Boston Neck, and demonstrating the ability of the white man to
live in peace with only Indians for his neighbors. While living in Rhode
Island he frequently went to Providence to preach the gospel, and was
highly esteemed by all the settlers of that colony. In July, 1659, he
married a widow named Sarah Stevenson, and by her he had one son, John
Blackstone. The inventory of his estate after his death describes him as
having a house and orchard, 260 acres of land, interests in the
Providence meadows, and a library of 186 volumes of different languages.
A river of Rhode Island and a town in Massachusetts were named
Blackstone in his honor.
“His only son, John, married in 1692, and about 1713 moved to the town
of Branford, where he took up his residence on lands southeast of the
centre of the town, and bounded southerly by the sea.
“The son of this John Blackstone was born in 1669, and died in Branford,
January 3, 1785, aged nearly eighty-six. His son, John Blackstone, was
born in Branford in 1731, and died August 10, 1816, aged eighty-five.
The son of this last John Blackstone, Timothy Blackstone, was born in
Branford in 1776, and died in 1849, at the age of eighty-three. This
Timothy Blackstone was the father of Hon. James Blackstone, who was born
in Branford, in the old homestead of his father and grandfather, in
1793.
“Here were five generations of the Blackstones living and dying upon the
old family farm in Branford. All of them seem to have possessed many of
the traits of their first ancestor in this country. They were noted for
their force of character, industry, modesty, and marked executive
ability. James Blackstone, like his ancestors, was a farmer. At the age
of twenty he was elected a captain in the Connecticut militia, and as
such commanded his company for several months while serving as
coastguard on Long Island Sound during the war of 1812-15. He held at
one time or another during his life the important local offices of the
town, such as assessor and first selectman. Before the separation of
North Branford in 1831, the township of Branford, as one of the original
towns, was entitled to two representatives in the General Assembly, and
on several occasions Captain James Blackstone of Branford and Captain
Jonathan Rose of North Branford were the representatives of the town at
Hartford and New Haven. In 1842, James Blackstone represented the Sixth
District in the State Senate. In politics he was a Federalist, a Whig,
and a Republican. His advice and counsel were sought by people, not
only of his own town, but of neighboring towns, when occasions arose
concerning the settlement of estates or other matters, where the opinion
and advice of a man of marked good judgment were needed. The first time
I ever saw Captain James Blackstone, he was pointed out to me by a
resident of the town, as he was driving past the old public square, with
the remark: ‘That is Captain James Blackstone. When he rises in a town
meeting and says, “Mr. Moderator, in my humble opinion it is better for
this town that a certain course be taken,” the expression of his opinion
always prevails with the majority of the voters in the meeting, so great
is the confidence the people of the town have in his judgment.’ His
character and remarkable ability can be easily read by any student of
physiognomy who will look at the admirable life-size portrait of him now
placed in this building. If his tastes had led him to a larger place for
the exercise of his ability, no field would have been so large that he
would not have been a leader among men.
“Yet here he chose to dwell, performing his part well through the whole
of his long life....
“The donor of this library was the youngest son of James Blackstone. To
many of you his history and life are well known. He left the east more
than forty years ago to pursue his chosen profession. He married, in
1868, Miss Isabella Norton of Norwich, and since that time his home has
been upon Michigan Avenue, in that great metropolis of the west,
Chicago. There, for over thirty years he has managed with consummate
skill the affairs of the most successful of all the great railroads of
the west. Of him, his character, his generosity, and his remarkable
modesty, but great ability, I am not at liberty to speak ... but this is
not complete as a memorial of James Blackstone unless I mention briefly
the other descendants. The eldest son of James Blackstone, George, died
in 1861, never having been married. The eldest daughter, Mary, married
Samuel O. Plant. One of her daughters, Ellen Plant, is with us to-day.
Three grandchildren of Mrs. Mary Blackstone Plant, being the children of
her daughter Sarah, are William L., Paul W., and Gertrude P. Harrison.
“The second son of James Blackstone, Lorenzo Blackstone, who lived for
many years in Norwich, and died there in 1888, had five children. The
eldest, De Trafford Blackstone, has one son, Lorenzo. The second child
of Lorenzo is Mrs. Harriet Blackstone Camp of Norwich, who has three
children, Walter Trumbull, Talcott Hale, and Elizabeth Norton Camp. The
second daughter of Lorenzo is Mrs. Frances Ella Huntington of Norwich.
The fourth child of Lorenzo Blackstone is William Norton Blackstone of
Norwich; and his youngest son, Louis Lorenzo Blackstone, died in 1893.
“The second daughter of James Blackstone, Ellen Elizabeth, married Henry
B. Plant, now of New York City. She died in 1861, leaving one son,
Morton F. Plant, who is married and has one son, Henry B. Plant, Jr.
James Blackstone’s third son was John Blackstone, who died several years
ago, leaving three children, George and Adelaide Blackstone and Mrs.
Emma Pond.
“Sir William Blackstone, the great authority upon the common law of
England, was a cousin of the fifth degree to our James Blackstone, and
the portraits of the two men bear a marked family resemblance.
“Ten years ago James Blackstone passed to his reward. His influence for
good still exists in this community, where the old New England ideas are
yet strong, though modified by the leaven of modern industry, education,
and thought.”
[Illustration: text decoration]
[Illustration: text decoration] CHAPTER IV.
The Plants Came from England to Branford, between Two Hundred and
Three Hundred Years ago--Still Own the Lands First
Acquired--Henry’s Father Died of Typhus Fever when Henry was about
Six Years Old--His Tender Recollection of his Mother--Henry’s First
Day at School--His Natural Diffidence--Mr. Plant’s After-Dinner
Speeches--His Mother’s Second Marriage--Stepfather Kind to
Henry--Thrown by a Plough Horse and nearly Killed--Attended School
at Branford--Engaged on Steamboat Line Running between New Haven
and New York--On Leaving, Promised a Captaincy--Marriage--Express
Business--Leaves New Haven and Goes to New York--Romantic
Experience in Florida.
The Plants settled in Branford at an early date, and their descendants
still own the lands on which their ancestors first settled over two
hundred years ago. It will be seen, by referring to the genealogical
table at the end of this volume, that Anderson Plant was of the fifth
generation from John Plant, who resided in Hartford, Connecticut, in
1639. Anderson Plant was the father of Henry B. Plant, the subject of
this biography. He is described as a farmer in good circumstances, of
amiable disposition, fond of outdoor sports, gunning being a favorite
amusement. He died when Henry was six years of age, and, consequently,
Mr. Plant does not remember much about his father. He can recall, how
his father once came in, with a friend, from a morning’s duck shooting,
and threw down half a dozen ducks on the floor. At another time, his
father took him by the hand to see something that was happening in the
town which had drawn out the people, but he does not remember what it
was. His father died of typhus fever, and he himself also had the fever,
and was so ill that he knew nothing of his loss until he was partially
recovered from the dreadful disease.
One week after the father’s death, the father’s youngest sister died,
and Henry’s sister also died a few days following, when she was about a
year old. He was then left alone with his mother.
She was the only daughter of the Honorable Levi Bradley. He was a member
of the Legislature and also a musician who taught a singing school. Mr.
Plant remembers that his mother sat with the choir in front of the
pulpit and led the singing in the Congregational Church. She had been
brought up in the Episcopal Church, and though her father did not
approve of it, she deemed it her duty to go with her husband to his
church.
“One of the first recollections I have of my mother,” says Mr. Plant,
“was on a Christmas Eve, when she dressed me up neatly, took me on her
knees, talked affectionately to me, and sang that beautiful vesper
hymn, ‘Adeste Fideles’; even now, whenever I hear it, it brings tears to
my eyes.” This explains tears the author has seen in his eyes while
listening to the orchestra in the music-room, but knew not then what
were their tender and sacred association. Little did that mother realize
the mighty power, the subduing influence, the enduring benediction to
her child of that simple act, the outgoing of the maternal heart. The
hallowed influence of that sacred hour has never been effaced through
long years, in the whirl of business, in the varied conflicts incident
to a public life, in close contact with civil war, within sound of the
booming cannon, and the groans of the dying, away in far distant lands,
and on stormy seas. Yet amid all, the hallowed influence of that sacred
hour, when a mere child on a mother’s knee, has never been effaced. How
well it accords with what the poet wrote:
“I had a mother once like you,
Who o’er my pillow hung,
Kissed from my cheek the briny dew,
And taught my infant tongue.
“She, when the nightly couch was spread,
Would bow my infant knee,
And place her hand upon my head,
And kneeling, pray for me.
“Youth came; the props of virtue ruled;
But oft at day’s decline,
A marble touch my brow could feel,
Dear mother was it thine?
“And still that hand so soft and fair,
Has kept its magic sway,
As when amid my curling hair
With gentle force it lay.
“That hallowed touch was ne’er forgot,
And now though time hath set
Stern manhood’s seal upon my brows,
These temples feel it yet.
“And if I e’er in Heaven appear,
A mother’s holy prayer,
A mother’s hand and gentle tear,
That pointed to a Saviour dear,
Will lead the wanderer there.”
Mr. Plant’s first day at school is another tender memory connected with
his mother. She had dressed him up in new clothes and talked to him
about going to school and learning to read, and becoming a good scholar,
and doubtless much more that her kindly mother-heart would suggest to
awaken interest and stimulate ambition in the boy. Then she took him
outside the gate, pointed out the schoolhouse, kissed him, and told him
to go thither and give his name to the teacher as a scholar. His mother
intuitively knew her child’s sensitive disposition, and had her
misgivings about his being able to carry out her instructions; so she
concealed herself and watched him till he reached the school door. Here
poor little Henry’s courage failed him, and he came running back to his
mother, not to be scolded, but to be encouraged and helped over his
childish timidity. His mother this time went with him to the
schoolhouse, took him in, and made him acquainted with the lady teacher.
Thus began, more than seventy years ago, the first lesson of this most
successful man. The scene is as vivid in his mind to-day as it was on
the day when it was enacted. How little that teacher knew of the man
that was enfolded in this timid child, and of the great privilege, as
well as great responsibility, that was hers, thus early preparing him,
in part, for his great career.
Henry was a very diffident child, nor did his diffidence quite cease
with childhood, for even in manhood at public dinners when he suspected
that he might be called on for a speech, it took away his appetite if
not the enjoyment of the otherwise pleasant occasion.
This will surprise many of Mr. Plant’s friends who have listened to him
with pleasure and profit on many occasions. He rarely prepared his
speeches, but drew his ideas from that knowledge and experience which he
possessed on so many different subjects, and always spoke intelligently
in plain, clear, well-chosen words, without any attempt at oratorical
display. Of this we shall speak in another place.
“Some time after my father’s death, perhaps three or four years,” says
Mr. Plant, “my mother married again, a man by the name of Philemon
Hoadley. He was a very religious man, and was exceedingly kind to me; he
said I was the best boy he had ever seen. He lived in New York State,
and mother left Branford and we moved to his home at Martensburg, New
York. I lived part of the time with her there and part of the time with
my grandmother Plant at Branford. She always attended church on the
Sabbath, and took me with her, never failing to carry a good luncheon,
which we ate in the church house at the close of the morning service.”
An incident of Mr. Plant’s boyhood was sent to the writer by one who has
known him long, and esteems the President of the Southern Express
Company, (of which he has been a faithful and efficient agent in North
Carolina for many years) very highly, and loves him with a genuine,
manly affection. He writes thus:
“The following incident which occurred in Branford during Mr. Plant’s
boyhood may be of interest to you, in showing how near the country came
to being deprived of his great usefulness and noble life. When a boy of
about eight or ten years of age, he was one day riding a plow horse at
work in the field. The horse became frightened and ran away, carrying
plow, boy, and all with him. Barefooted and bareheaded, the brave lad
clung to the horse until entirely exhausted, when he fell and was
severely injured. He was found in the woods by friends who carried him
into their house. After several hours’ hard work by the doctor and
others, he revived sufficiently to be taken to his home. The fight for
life was severe and protracted, but he bore it heroically.
“I wish I could express all I feel towards Mr. Plant. I have been in his
employ thirty-eight years--with the Southern Express Company. During all
these years he has been a friend to me in all that that word implies. I
am sure I voice the sentiments of thousands of his employees when I say
that he is one of the noblest and best of men.
A. P. B.”
* * * * *
After his mother married and had lived for some time at her husband’s
home in New York State, they went to live at New Haven and Henry made
his home with them, often visiting his grandmother Plant at Branford.
The grandmother wanted him to go to Yale College, doubtless in the hope
that he might enter the ministry, for few took a college course in those
days unless they intended to enter the ministry. But Henry was not
particularly fond of study. He had attended the district school at
Branford, and had studied for a time at the Gillett Academy, and at
Lowville, New York State. He had also studied under John E. Lovell, a
famous teacher in New Haven, whose birthday was celebrated in New Haven,
long after his death. He was the founder of the Lancastrian System of
instruction in America. Henry did not accept his grandmother’s offer of
a college course at Yale. He was anxious to try his hand at some active
occupation. He attempted several things, none of which seemed to suit
him. At last, in 1837, he engaged himself to a steamboat line running
boats between New York and New Haven.
The boats of the line were named respectively, _New York_, _New Haven_,
_The Splendid_, _The Superior_, and _The Bunker Hill_.
Henry began as captain’s boy and worked his way up, filling various
positions for some five years, to the entire satisfaction of the
company, so that on leaving it he was promised a captaincy of the next
new boat if he would remain with the line. The following account, taken
from, a recent issue of _The Marine Journal_, shows how young Plant
would pocket his fastidiousness, and stand up to manly duty like a true
American. This recalls the story of a man in a Philadelphia market who
tendered his services to an Irish coachman, who was troubled to find a
man to carry home some fish which he had bought for his master.
Arriving at the fine mansion on Chestnut Street the Irishman offered to
pay his porter, who respectfully declined saying: “Oh, no, I only just
carried the fish to oblige you. I do not need pay. I am a United States
Senator. Good morning.”
“There are few men who can call to mind more interesting reminiscences
of ‘Auld Lang Syne,’ and tell them in a more agreeable manner than Henry
B. Plant. Referring to his early manhood, Mr. Plant said recently: ‘I
got my first experience in the express business when performing the
service of a deckhand on a steamboat running between New Haven and New
York in the latter part of the “thirties.” At the time referred to I was
employed on the side-wheel steamer _New York_, which had for companion
steamers the _New Haven_, _Splendid_, and _Bunker Hill_, on each one of
which I served at one time or another. It was on the _New York_,
however, that I spent the most of my apprenticeship. The deck-hands
slept below in the forecastle, an uncomfortably small space in the
“eyes” of the boat, and took our meals in the kitchen, standing up. Take
it all in all it was rather rough on a fellow that had just left a good
home, and when some of my towns-people would come aboard and catch me
with swab or broom in hand I didn’t feel altogether happy, but had too
much pluck to quit. One winter the _New York_ had been laid up for new
boilers, and I was transferred to the _Splendid_ till the _New York_
was ready for service, and when she came out in the spring it was quite
an event. She had two new copper boilers, one on each guard, the first
to be placed on the guards.
“‘Up to this time a considerable lot of package freight, express matter,
began to be sent back and forth. This was stowed in different places
about the boat and not properly cared for, until one day the captain
conceived the idea that a big double stateroom forward of the wheel
could be used in which to store it, and I was given the duty of looking
after it, and a berth was put up there for me to sleep in. As I look
back upon my career in those days, the one on which I was transferred
from the dingy forecastle to the express room was by far the happiest,
and it was there that I took my first lessons in the express business.’”
Those who are familiar with the extensive business of the Southern
Express Company, of which Mr. Plant was the founder, and which begins at
Washington and extends throughout the railroads south of Washington and
the Ohio, excepting the Illinois Central, and to Cuba by the Plant
Steamship Lines, can understand why it has taken nearly a lifetime of
earnest toil to get it up to its present magnitude. It is a monument to
the enterprise of the youngster from Connecticut, who got his first idea
of the express business on a steamer between New Haven and New York
nearly sixty years ago. The other large undertakings of Mr. Plant in
railroads, steamships, hotels, etc., that have helped make the State of
Florida the garden spot of the United States in winter, were easy as
their necessities developed, in comparison to the Southern Express
business which was the foundation of this enterprising citizen’s fame
and fortune.”
Captain Stone was very fond of young Plant, and deeply regretted his
loss to the service. It was during Mr. Plant’s engagement with this
company, in 1842, that he married Miss Ellen Elizabeth Blackstone,
daughter of Hon. James Blackstone, one of the Blackstone family already
referred to in this biography. One son was born to him, a promising
child, who lived only eighteen months. His second and only living child
is his son, Morton Freeman, now associated with his father as his
assistant, and Vice-President of all the interests of the “Plant
System,” over which his father presides. Mr. Plant’s position on the
steamboat line plying between New York and New Haven, entailed a
frequent absence from his home in New Haven, and he therefore decided to
be more at home. At this time he went into the express business of the
line conducted by Beecher and Company. At first he had charge of the
business at New Haven, but afterwards went to New York City, still
keeping up his connection with the boats. When the Beecher Company was
consolidated with the Hartford and New Haven line, owned by Daniel
Philipps and C. Spooner of Hartford, Mr. Plant was placed in charge of
all the express business of the New Haven line in New York. Subsequently
the business was acquired by the Adams Express Company, and was
transferred from the steamboat line to the railroad, and Mr. Plant was
transferred with it. While thus employed, young Plant was economical and
saving. He received his pay monthly, and instead of wasting it in folly
and dissipation he gave his earnings to his mother, and she banked it
for him. He then bought some stock in a New Haven bank which he still
retains. His stepfather, being a religious man, advised Henry to buy a
pew in a new church which the Congregational Society was building at New
Haven. This he did, and in after years, on the failure of the church,
when the property was sold, he got back his money. His stepfather died
at New Haven about 1862 or 1863.
It was in 1853 that Mrs. Plant was seized with congestion of the lungs,
and Doctors Delafield and Marco advised that she be at once taken to
Florida. On March 25, 1853, Mr. Plant started with his sick wife from
New York City to Charleston, South Carolina, by the steamer _Marion_.
From Charleston he sailed on the steamer _Calhoun_ to Savannah, Georgia.
And from Savannah he went by the steamer _Welaka_ to Jacksonville,
Florida. It took over eight days to
[Illustration: _Ellen Elizabeth (Blackstone) Plant._]
make the journey which is now a delightful trip of one day, for he left
New York on the Sabbath morning and the next Sabbath evening he arrived
at Jacksonville, which was a small village then with only one poor wharf
and not a vehicle of any kind to carry passengers or baggage. He
succeeded in getting some negro boys to carry his trunk to a poor hotel
where he remained only one day. Through some persuasion he found a man
to take him into his private house at Strawberry Mills, seven miles in
the country from Jacksonville, across the St. John’s River. Here Mrs.
Plant’s health greatly improved, her cough disappeared and she was so
much better that by the first of May, Mr. Plant was able to leave her
and return to New York. Early in July, Mrs. Plant came back to the city
apparently in good health. The following almost romantic story is told
in the New York _Times_ of their first experience in Florida.
“In the winter of 1853, a Northern man with an invalid wife brought her
down to Jacksonville to benefit her health. The present metropolis of
Florida was then a settlement of five or six houses, one of which was
called a hotel, but the hotel was so badly kept that the gentleman was
cautioned against going to it, and he found accommodations in a private
house. He had letters of introduction to a Florida settler, whose home
was six or eight miles out of Jacksonville, and as soon as he could
communicate with him through a stray traveller, the settler sent his
boat after the Northerner and took him to his house. The boat was an
immense ‘dug-out,’ made from a single mammoth log, manned by a crew of
uniformed blacks, who handled their oars in man-of-war style. At this
settler’s house a hospitable and comfortable stopping-place was found.
“In the course of the winter the lady’s health improved to such an
extent that her husband decided upon taking her to St. Augustine for a
pleasure trip. There was in the household a beautiful Indian girl, the
daughter of one of the Seminole chiefs, who afterward became the wife of
the settler I have mentioned, and she volunteered to accompany the lady
on what was then the long and difficult journey. The only road between
Jacksonville and St. Augustine was the old Spanish highway known as ‘the
king’s highroad,’ and this was so grown up with trees and bushes that it
was barely passable. But even this road lay five or six miles from the
settler’s house, and to reach it it was necessary to drive through the
trackless woods. The gentleman and his wife and the Indian girl set out
in a buggy, their host going before them on horseback to select the road
and blaze the trees between his place and the king’s highway, to enable
the strangers to find their way back.
“The journey was made in safety; but the return trip took a little
longer than was intended, and the party found themselves at the point
where they must leave the old highway and turn into the forest just as
the deep shades of a Florida night were about to fall. They found the
blazed trees, but were unable to follow them. The gentleman, however,
managed for some time to pick his way by finding the indistinct wheel
tracks in the sand and the broken twigs; but as the darkness increased
this became impracticable, and there was every prospect that the invalid
lady and her husband and the Indian girl would be compelled to spend the
night under the pine trees. But their host was better acquainted with
blazed trees, and, as they did not arrive when expected, he set out on
horseback to hunt them up, and his shouts soon gave them welcome
assurance of succor. The lady’s health was so much improved before the
winter ended that she returned home comparatively well, and during the
remainder of her life every winter was passed in Florida. Her husband
has not since that time missed his annual winter trip to Florida, and he
is now spending his thirty-ninth winter in the State.
“The gentleman who found Jacksonville a settlement of a few shanties,
and who came so near passing a romantic but uncomfortable night in the
woods with his wife and the Seminole girl, told me the story of his
adventure a few days ago, while I sat with him in his gorgeous private
car, so far down in the State of Florida that, in 1853, few white men
had reached it. The Florida climate never did a better winter’s work
than when it restored the health of this gentleman’s wife, and thus
interested him in the new country, for the gentleman was Mr. H. B.
Plant, who no longer does his Florida travelling in a dug-out, but sends
his own cars over his own tracks to the farthermost corners of the
State.”
[Illustration: text decoration]
[Illustration: text decoration] CHAPTER V.
Mr. Plant Goes from New Haven to New York--Captain Stone’s
Friendship--Mrs. Plant’s Health Fails again--Returns to the
South--Is Appointed Superintendent of Adams Express Company--His
Great Executive Ability--The Civil War--Mrs. Plant’s Death--Mr.
Plant Buys out the Adams Express Company.
When Mr. Plant first went to New York City he boarded at the Judson
Hotel, then kept by a Mr. Judson of Hartford, Connecticut. A little
incident of that period shows the high estimation in which he was held
by Captain Stone, Superintendent of the New York and New Haven steamship
line. Captain S. Bartlett Stone brought his son George to board at the
Hudson Hotel, saying, “Henry, when you were a boy I took charge of you;
now do you the same for my son.” Mr. Plant remained in New York until
October, when the fall weather of the North began to affect the health
of his wife unfavorably. He then started South by the steamship
_Knoxville_, which ran to Savannah. When he reached Savannah he
commenced to exercise his appointment as superintendent of the Harnden
Express, which forwarded express matter from New York by steamer to
Savannah, and thence to Augusta, Macon, and Atlanta, by the Central,
Macon, and Western Railroads; and also in Charleston, of the Hoey
Express, by which goods were forwarded by steamer from New York to
Charleston and were then distributed through the interior by the South
Carolina Railroad.
About this time, Adams & Company had organized under the corporate title
of the Adams Express Company, and had acquired all these express
interests above mentioned. This was in March, 1853, and April, 1854. The
chief shareholders of the company were Alvan Adams, of Boston; William
B. Dinsmore, of New York; Edward S. Sanford, of Philadelphia; Samuel S.
Shoemaker, of Baltimore; James M. Thompson, of Springfield,
Massachusetts; Johnstone Livingstone, of New York; and R. B. Kinsley, of
Newport, Rhode Island. When it was found necessary for Mr. Plant to go
south again on account of his wife’s health he was appointed
superintendent of the Adams Express Company. This was in 1854, and he
was placed in charge of all the interests then controlled by that
company, and all that might be acquired by the company in the South
under his management or through his efforts.
During Mr. Plant’s administration of the Adams Express Company, the
lines were extended over all the railroads south of the Potomac River,
namely, Norfolk, Richmond, and Lynchburg, Virginia; Louisville,
Kentucky; Cairo, Illinois, and over all the railroad lines constructed
in the South, and over all the navigable rivers on which at that time
there was steamboat connection. The expanding and establishing of this
great express business at Nashville, Memphis, Vicksburg, Louisville, and
New Orleans, and many other cities and towns, proved to be a herculean
task requiring much arduous travel, often in stage-coaches by day and
night, over rough roads, through swamp and forest, in summer’s heat and
winter’s cold. It goes without saying that in securing efficient
service, properly locating offices, appointing qualified agents, and
earning the confidence and patronage of an exacting public, there was
demanded a discriminating judgment, prompt decision, skill, and tact of
the highest order. It was a tremendous strain on mind and body, and that
too upon one not yet used to a Southern climate. It must be remembered
also that the express business of the South forty years ago was in its
infancy; the great Adams Express Company was still in its swaddling
clothes, and required the greatest care and skill to nurse it into
maturity, strength, and power, especially in the peculiar condition of
the country at the time when a dreadful civil war raged throughout the
land.
Few men would have ventured on such a hazardous undertaking, and fewer
still would have conducted it to such a successful completion.
To the cool, clear head, the calm, quiet spirit, the persistent energy
and dominant will of Henry B. Plant, is due the success of this great
achievement. The Southern Express Company and the Texas Express together
do a business now extending over twenty-four thousand four hundred and
twelve miles of railway, have lines in fifteen States, employ six
thousand eight hundred and eight men, use one thousand four hundred and
sixty-three horses and eight hundred and eighty-six wagons. Of both
these companies, Mr. Plant is the honored and efficient president, and
were we to attempt to estimate the amount and value of the goods handled
by these great organizations we feel sure the figures would be beyond
the credulity of our readers.
This comes down to the year 1861, the beginning of the civil war, when
the Adams Express Company, believing that it would be hazardous for
Northern citizens to hold property in the South, decided to dispose of
their interests there. After unsuccessful negotiations with other
parties resident in the South, the company sold and transferred their
entire interest in the express line to Henry B. Plant. He formed a
corporation under the laws of the State of Georgia, taking in all the
shareholders of the Adams Express Company who were then residents of
the States south of the Potomac and Ohio rivers.
The company thus formed, known now as the Southern Express Company, at
once elected Mr. Plant as its president, and this honorable and
responsible position he still holds. A central office was established at
Augusta, Georgia.
Mrs. Plant’s health now began to give way. Their little boy Morton was
with relatives in the North. She saw that troubles many and great were
coming upon the country. Her disease returned, consumption laid its cold
hand upon her, and on February 28, 1861, this faithful wife and loving
mother was taken from a world of strife, with its tumults of war and
fratricidal conflicts, to the home of rest, peace, and eternal
blessedness. The remains were interred in Augusta, but afterwards were
removed to the family plot in the cemetery at Branford, the place of her
birth and where her early years had been spent.
[Illustration: text decoration]
[Illustration: text decoration] CHAPTER VI.
Relations to the Confederate Government--Jefferson Davis Gives him
Charge of Confederate Funds--Mr. Plant Buys a Slave, who afterward
Nursed him through a Severe Sickness--Impaired Health--Goes to
Bermuda, New York, Canada, and Europe--Second Marriage.
The seat of the Confederate Government at this time was Montgomery,
Alabama, and the express company, just organized by Mr. Plant, was
appointed by that government collector of tariff upon all goods
consigned by the express company, and was also given the custody of all
funds of the Confederacy that were to be transferred from one place to
another. The express company filled this latter office until the
dissolution of the Confederacy.
In consequence of this responsibility, officers and agents of the
company were either relieved from military service, or detailed for the
service of the express company. Its officers and agents were also for
the same reason exempted from jury duty in Southern States.
Shortly before the removal of the capital of the Confederacy from
Montgomery to Richmond, it was deemed necessary by government officials
to define citizenship, and consequently a proclamation was issued by
President Davis, that specified a time in which all citizens of States
not in the Confederacy should leave it, or failing to do so within the
time specified, would become citizens of the Confederacy, and would be
subject to all duties and requirements of citizenship in the said
Confederacy.
“At that time I thought it was incumbent on me,” said Mr. Plant, “that
my duties and opinions should be understood by President Davis and his
advisers. To that end I caused myself to be represented by counsel to
Mr. Davis and his Cabinet, in order that my opinions and position might
be clearly defined and known to the government, so that its wish might
be expressed, as to whether I should continue to have charge of the
express company without interference, or avail myself of the
proclamation, and take my departure with other citizens of the State of
New York.
“I wished to know whether by remaining I would be required to abandon
the express and its obligations. It was a great satisfaction to me to
learn from my counsel that the Cabinet were unanimous in this decision
expressed by the President, that I should remain and continue to conduct
the business of my company, he having full confidence in whatever I
might do.”
The substance of this interesting episode has been published before with
some slight variations, but the above is from the most authoritative
source, and may therefore be received as correct.
While living at Augusta, Georgia, a curious incident occurred which
resulted in the purchase of a slave by Mr. Plant. When the express
office was opened at this place, help was needed, a sort of
man-of-all-work for the many requirements of the office. Dennis Dorsey,
a colored man, was hired from his owner to act as porter, and in
whatever capacity he might be required. One summer when Mr. Plant was
about to go north, Dennis came to him and said that his master was going
to sell him, and that he wanted Mr. Plant to buy him. “What does your
master want for you?” asked Mr. Plant. “Fifteen hundred dollars,” Dennis
replied, “but it is too much, I am not worth so much. You can buy me
when you come back, as there is little danger of my being sold at that
price.” But Dennis was sold in Mr. Plant’s absence. When Mr. Plant
returned, Dennis besought him to buy him from the trader at Mobile who
then owned him. Mr. Plant bought him for eighteen hundred dollars, and
brought him back to Augusta. In a short time after this Mr. Plant was
stricken down with gastric fever, and Dennis proved a good and faithful
nurse to him. Mrs. Plant was in her grave, and Mr. Plant lived alone at
the hotel, so Dennis was gratified by the opportunity to return the
kindness rendered to him by his generous purchaser.
Early in August, 1863, Mr. Plant returned from the mountains, whither he
had gone during his convalescence. His health had been improved by the
change, but he was still far from strong. Mr. Thomas H. Watts,
attorney-general for the Southern Confederacy, had seen Mr. Plant’s
physician, who had advised a change of climate. Mr. Watts sent Mr. Plant
a passport, with an order from President Davis authorizing him to pass
through the Confederate lines at any point. In about a month after this
he went to Wilmington, North Carolina, and embarked on the steamer
_Hansa_, for the Bermudas. He remained there about a month, when he went
by the steamer _Alpha_ to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and thence to Montreal.
There some friends from New York came to see him, and brought his son
Morton from school to him. Mr. Plant then went to New Haven,
Connecticut, to visit his mother, and in the fall took passage on the
steamship _City of Edinburgh_ for Liverpool.
He was now a stranger in a strange land; the weather was cold, and with
impaired health his experience was rather depressing.
However, Mr. Plant has never been the man to despond, still less to
despair, but to make the best even of discouraging circumstances. So he
went to Paris, whose mercurial people seldom cry, and always laugh when
they can. Here he heard of some friends who were staying in Rome, and
whom he would like to meet, so he determined to go there. By the French
Commissioner of Passports he was informed that his passport from the
Confederacy could not be recognized, and he was summoned to appear at
the commissioner’s office. He at once presented himself to this
official, answered many questions, and was informed that there was no
way by which his passport could be accepted at present, but as he wished
to visit Rome, then occupied by French troops, his case would be
considered.
A few days afterwards he had the satisfaction of receiving a document
which served as a passport, given in the name of the Empire of France,
and in which he was described as a citizen of the United States of
America, resident at Augusta, Georgia, and all officers, civil,
military, and naval, were commanded to protect this stranger. He went to
Rome _via_ the Mediterranean Sea, and was received everywhere with great
respect. He was about two weeks in France, several weeks in Rome, and
from thence he went to Naples, Leghorn, Genoa, Milan, and Venice, which
latter place was occupied by an Austrian army.
From Venice he went to Switzerland, visiting many places in that
picturesque land, and returned to Paris by way of the Rhine. He then
passed his time between London and Paris until the autumn, when he
returned to America by way of Canada. He afterwards went to New York,
where he was staying when President Lincoln was assassinated. By the end
of April he was back in Augusta, Georgia.
Mr. Plant’s second tour in Europe was in 1873, on the occasion of his
second marriage. He was then accompanied by his mother and his son,
Morton Freeman, and on this occasion he made quite an extensive tour of
the continent.
His third visit was in the year 1889, when he went to the Paris
Exposition with an exhibit of Southern products. Soon after his arrival
in Paris he was asked by General Franklin, representative and
Commissioner-General of the United States, to accept the position of
juror in Class Six, representing the United States. To this responsible
position he was duly appointed by the proper authorities, and served
with entire satisfaction to all concerned. He was the only
English-speaking juror in that class, as Sir Douglas Galton was absent
until near the close of the Exposition. From this Exposition the “Plant
System” was awarded a large number of medals, which may be seen framed
in that palace of art, wrongly named an hotel, at Tampa Bay. A diploma
was given to Mr. Plant, in addition, and many other marks of esteem and
courteous attention were freely tendered him.
Mr. Plant led a very busy life in Augusta. He lived with his wife at the
hotel, and, when she was travelling in the North in the summer, he had
his office, for convenience, on the same floor as his bedroom. It had
been his habit to keep pad and pencil by his bedside, so that when there
came to his mind a matter that called for attention he at once put it
down on his memoranda. He was constantly receiving reports from his
express offices all over the South. There came to him, for adjustment,
many questions of management that were perplexing and urgent, so that he
was often on the road, called away at short notice, north, south, or
southwest. Complications, great, varied, and numerous, were superinduced
by the civil war. The railroads were often seized by the contending
armies, offices were raided, and confusion worse confounded heaped
troubles thick and fast upon the president of the company, sufficient to
have crushed a man of ordinary brain and nerve. But Mr. Plant was not
the man to give way to difficulties,--only coolly to plan, determine,
execute, and conquer.
The following communication in memorandum form, from one intimately
acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. Plant while in Augusta, Georgia, will be
found suggestive of the busy life he led, and will prove valuable in
furnishing the dates when he lived in that city, and the location of his
various residences while there. Moreover, its sequel sounds like the
plot of a good novel.
“Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Plant became residents of Augusta, Georgia, in 1854.
Captain W. and his wife moved to that city in 1855. Both families
boarded at the Eagle and Phœnix Hotel, and thus became acquainted.
The Eagle and Phœnix was on Broad Street, and is now believed to be
the property of Mr. Plant. Mr. Plant was busy organizing and developing
the express business, was continually on the road, and made frequent
visits to the North. He moved to the Globe Hotel about the summer of
1856. Captain W. and his wife moved to the Trout House, in Atlanta,
Georgia, early in 1858, and Mr. and Mrs. Plant joined them there and
spent the summer months with them, while Mr. Plant still made Augusta
his headquarters and was constantly on the road.
“On Mr. and Mrs. Plant’s return to Augusta in the fall of 1858, they
took residence at the Planter’s Hotel, then kept by Mr. Robbins. In the
spring of 1859, Mr. and Mrs. Plant, leaving their young son Morton, with
Captain W. and his wife in Atlanta, visited New Orleans and remained
there during Mardi Gras. Their stay, however, was much shortened by the
demands made upon Mr. Plant’s time and attention by the celebrated
Maroney robbery. Mrs. Plant’s health, which had been failing for some
time, was rapidly growing worse. Mr. Plant’s movements were thus
handicapped, and his trips necessarily became shorter and more frequent.
Captain W. and wife moved to Athens in April, 1861. Mrs. Plant intended
to spend the spring and summer of 1862 with them, but their plans were
broken up by her death, at the Planter’s Hotel, Augusta, February 28,
1862.
“Mr. Plant visited Athens shortly after the funeral, and remained
several weeks; from thence important business called him back to
Augusta. Health began to fail him and he visited Athens again in the
following year. It was at this time that his friends prevailed upon him
to pay a visit to Europe in the hope that his strength would be restored
to him.
“In illustration of the good memory which Mr. Plant possessed for a past
kindness, the following interesting story is told. The narrator was
sitting in his office talking with Mr. Plant, when the latter suddenly
turned from him to a clerk to instruct him in the following words.
‘While I remember it, I want you to write to Mrs. W. to say that her
request that we take charge of her money is granted. We will take it and
give her six per cent., this will give her ---- dollars to pay for her
board, and we will add to it ---- dollars, which will keep her
comfortably among her friends.’
“The amount added was very nearly one and a half times as large as the
interest on the moderate amount of insurance which her deceased husband
had placed on his life before he died.
“Then when all arrangements for this poor widow’s comfort had been made
with the treasurer, Mr. Plant, not supposing that I had ever heard of
the woman, explained that long years ago, when his first wife was sick
in Augusta, this now widowed woman was very kind to her and also to his
son Morton who was then a very little child. This was thirty-six years
ago, but it was as fresh in Mr. Plant’s memory, and as near to his heart
as if it had occurred only a few weeks ago. Little did this good woman
think at the time she rendered this kindly service to a delicate wife,
that thirty-six years hence it would be paid back to her with compound
interest. It may be truly said that ‘bread cast upon the waters shall
return after many days.’”
The Southern Express Company rendered very valuable services to the men
engaged on both sides during the Civil War, by carrying packages, boxes,
and parcels of all descriptions free of charge,--medicines, and comforts
of various character, that made the hard life of the soldier a little
easier, and gladdened his heart with the evidences that he was
remembered tenderly in his far-away home. This service was especially
acceptable on the occasions of exchange of prisoners, when clothing and
money were the special needs of the men.
The benediction of many a brave heart, now still in death, rests upon
the kindly services of the Southern Express Company so generously given
during the four years of the bloody struggle.
In evidence of Mr. Plant’s popularity and the esteem in which he was
held by his associates in business as early as 1861, it may be mentioned
that on January 1st of that year, at Augusta, Ga., he was made the
recipient of a magnificent testimonial in the form of a service of solid
silver bearing the following inscription:
PRESENTED TO
H. B. PLANT
BY HIS ASSOCIATES IN THE ADAMS
SOUTHERN EXPRESS
AS A TESTIMONIAL OF THEIR
RESPECT AND ESTEEM
AUGUSTA, GA.,
JANUARY 1, 1861
In 1873, eleven years after the death of his first wife, Mr. Plant
married Miss Margaret Josephine Loughman, the only daughter of Martin
Loughman, of New York City. She is descended from an ancient and noble
family, whose ancestral estate, eight miles long, in the Land of the
Shamrock, is now occupied by Lord Dundrum. Mrs. Plant’s great
grandmother on her mother’s side was Lady Mary Murphy, of Ballymore
Castle, Ballymore. Her own mother was Miss Ellen O’Duyer, said to have
been a woman of great beauty and to have been descended from the Kings
of Munster.
The finest train of Pullman palace cars we ever saw was prominent among
the beautiful exhibits at the Atlanta Exposition of last year (1896).
Their exquisite upholstering and decoration owed their superlative
finish to the refined taste of Mrs. Plant. The Tampa Bay Hotel, more
like a palace of art, is indebted to this same lady for much of its
elaborate furnishing and artistic adornment. The two hand-carved
mantelpieces in the salon, the admiration of all visitors, as well as
some of the fine cabinet-work in the gentlemen’s reading-room, evinced
her business capacity and fine sense of the fitness of beautiful
furnishing that costs no more than the plain and commonplace. She has
given much time and earnest effort to the selection, purchase, and
direction of the upholstering and decorations of that finest of
American-built steamships, _La Grande Duchesse_, just completed at
Newport News.
The impress of her forcible character and refined taste can be detected
in many places throughout the great system over which her husband so
ably presides, but is known only to those who are admitted to the inner
circles of its operations.
[Illustration: text decoration] CHAPTER VII.
Education from Books, and from Experience--Keen Intuitions--Abreast
of the Progress--Mr. Plant’s After-Dinner Speech at Tampa Banquet
Given him by Tampa Board of Trade, March, 18, 1886--Location of
Tampa--In Territorial Days Had a Military Reservation--In 1884
Population about Seven Hundred--Its Cosmopolitan Population
now--Many Cubans and Spaniards in Tampa--Tobacco
Industry--Phosphate Abounds in this Part of the State--Much of it
Shipped to the North and to Europe--Plant System Gives Impetus to
the Prosperity of the Place--Its Progress the Last Five or Six
Years.
Text-books are necessary instruments in a systematic course of
instruction, especially in the period of school and college days, but
their chief value lies, not so much in the actual knowledge which they
impart as in the intellectual training which they give for the
acquisition of knowledge in the future. Hence, as civilization advances
and the schools of higher education increase, less dependence is placed
on text-books, and more emphasis is laid upon lectures and laboratories
by which the student is stimulated to original investigation and
independent thought. The knowledge of current events which we derive
from observation of human nature, and which gives us great
opportunities to do good to ourselves and to others, is not acquired
from books.
The books may have done good service in the previous mental discipline,
but the actual knowledge, the practical experience in a professional or
business career, has come to us in the course of solution of the
problems of life. Mr. Plant is a striking illustration of this fact. He
was never a bookish man, and lays no claim to classical erudition or
scientific knowledge; yet he is fully alive to the progress of the human
race. Few events of importance in the world escape his keen observation.
It was his quick insight and keen penetration which led him to see the
opportunities and possibilities offered in the South, when others had
passed them by unseen.
Mr. Plant has an intuitive knowledge, possessed by few men, of many
things outside his immediate sphere of action. He spent several days
going over the plans of _La Grande Duchesse_ in minute detail before the
contract for building her was signed, noting scores of corrections which
the architect was more than gratified to make. His after-dinner speeches
at Southern banquets have no spread-eagleism in them; no declamation,
but calm, quiet, easy suggestion, as if talking to a few friends whom he
loved and wanted to help, and better still, wanted them to help
themselves. There is no alarm, but friendly admonition, wise counsel,
valuable instruction, most kindly administered.
In March, 1886, the Tampa Board of Trade honored Mr. Plant with a
splendid banquet, and warmly welcomed him and his friends to this once
sleepy old hamlet, now kept awake by the steam whistles of the South
Florida Railroad and those of the steamships sailing to the West Indies.
In reply to a toast by General John B. Wall, Mr. Plant said:
“Some two years and a half ago I was escorted here by some of the
gentlemen present, upon a wagon-line across the peninsula of Florida
from Kissimmee City, with Mr. Haines, Mr. Ingraham, Mr. Elliott, and Mr.
Allen. We had a day’s journey to reach over the gap in the railway that
was then being constructed, connecting Tampa with the St. John’s River.
It was an interesting trip. I think to the best of my recollection we
passed not more than seven habitations on that journey, certainly not
more than that while daylight lasted, and now we can make the trip from
Kissimmee to Tampa in three or four hours and find cities on the
way,--cities of enterprise, with a frugal and industrious population.
Business has grown, and great progress has been made in this part of
Florida, but no place has improved more than this town of Tampa. Tampa,
it seems to us, had a chill, although the climate was good. A citizen
told me on that visit that they did not value the land at anything, but
that the air was worth one thousand dollars an acre. That gave the value
of Tampa land at that time. All are aware what is the value of Tampa
land at present. Very little I am told is for sale.
“That is what the railroad has done for Tampa. The gentlemen who are
associated with me look with pleasure upon the progress that has been
made in Tampa. We go back and look upon the progress that has been made
by what is known as the Plant System, which commences at Charleston,
reaches out to Chattahoochee, and terminates at Tampa. This system,
which you probably know, we call under various names; it is part
railway, part express company, part steamboat company, part steamship
company, but it all has one object and is known as the Plant System. It
has been successful in what it has undertaken so far. I think that
success may be attributed to the harmony that prevails in the councils
on the part of the officers of the railroads, of the steamships, of the
steamboats, and express, that go to make up that system. There is no
jealousy, but rather a rivalry to know which will do the most. And to
that spirit, in every one connected with the system, to do all that is
possible to advance its progress, is due the success of the Plant
System.
“This is, I think, all that can now be said in direct response to the
toast, but I would like to say a few words of Tampa, of its
possibilities and its opportunities. You are all aware that Tampa is but
one port on the Gulf of Mexico from which a railroad extends to the
interior. There are ports north of it and ports south of it; ports where
railways extend to deep water. Some of them have the advantage of Tampa.
It is useless to mention the names, for you all know them; you are
familiar with the advantages of all these ports. I will not give the
reason why they have not advanced. It may be because they have not all
had the railway backing that Tampa has had; they have not had a united
line of railways leading to them and extending from them. Tampa has just
started, it seems to me, in its progress towards prosperity, and the
prosperity that it must receive if it receives the backing that commerce
would dictate to it. The wants of commerce are large; they are exacting,
and Tampa has many rivals. There are many cities that aspire to it and
to grow as these cities see that Tampa is growing at the present time.
They will do it, if it is possible, by putting on steamship lines, by
putting on railway lines, by extending them to get some of the business
at least, that is now drawing towards Tampa, and it is for the people of
Tampa to determine for themselves to what extent they shall share it.
“As I have stated, it is important to Tampa’s interests to see that all
obstructions to commerce are removed; in other words, that commerce and
trade shall be unimpeded both to and through Tampa. You all recollect
that last year there was a great Exposition in a neighboring city of the
Gulf--New Orleans,--where millions of money were expended to draw the
attention of the countries south of us, notably the West Indies and
South America. This, that their attention might be drawn to the United
States, and especially the southern part of the United States, for
trade, and, as I said, millions of money were expended on making that
Exposition and maintaining it all the winter for the purpose of showing
the people of the West India Islands what could be done. That Exposition
was gotten up not for benevolence, but for the purpose of inviting
trade. Now we are doing all we can to encourage that trade by opening up
mail communication between the United States and those very countries
that so much money was spent to encourage the trade from.
“We are running steamships three times each week, and I think that every
gentleman in this hall should raise his voice to the authorities at
Washington and endeavor to persuade them to send the mails of the entire
United States (I mean the mails of the entire United States, the South
and West as well as the East), by the quickest route whereby they can
reach those countries of which I have spoken. By that route the mails
can reach the whole of the West India Islands, the whole of the west
coast of South America, in better time and more frequently, with the
present source of communication than by any other line. And
notwithstanding that line was put on on the 1st of January, our postal
authorities at Washington hardly seem alive to that fact, and, as I said
before, I think that the gentlemen of Tampa should raise a united voice
that the Post-Office Department may be waked up to know there is a route
via Tampa that is the quickest for the entire countries south of us. I
do not know that I can say any more. I have responded to the toast ‘Our
Honored Guests,’ and said very little about them. I feel somewhat in the
position that Mr. Ward probably felt when he was advertised to deliver a
lecture on ‘Twins.’ He occupied his entire evening on the introduction,
and left the speech on the ‘Twins’ out altogether.”
The following account of the growth of Tampa is taken from the New York
_Daily Tribune_ of November 17, 1891. It illustrates the large share
which Mr. Plant has had in this growth, and the way in which he has
closely identified himself with its history.
“Over on the west coast of Florida in Hillsborough County, or less than
two hundred miles north of the southern end of the State, is an old, old
town, which, in the territorial days of Florida, when the Government
first established a military reservation here, was a small settlement
that grew into a village and was called Tampa. Owing to its extreme
isolation, its growth was slow, and, in 1884, there were not more than
one or two shops, and a population of a little less than seven hundred.
A year later the southern terminus of the Plant System of railroads was
established at Tampa, and since then the growth of the place has been
phenomenal. As Postmaster Cooper, one of Tampa’s wide-awake citizens and
a newspaper editor, says: ‘Henry B. Plant may be said to have been the
founder of Tampa, and people of enterprise, industry, and capital from
every State in the Union, and Cuba, have flocked here and built upon the
foundation, until to-day Tampa rivals the best cities in the State. The
South Florida Railroad is one of the best equipped railways in the
South, extending from Port Tampa to Sanford, a distance of 124 miles.’
“The South Florida Road runs through the most fertile and most
prosperous part of the State and has done more than any other agency to
develop South Florida. And while it is true that the railroad gave to
Tampa her first onward impetus, and has done, and is yet doing, much
toward the development of the place, yet there are other agencies which
have done much to help along the great work. The most prominent of these
is the cigar-making industry, which was first established here three
years ago. It is second to none as an important factor in Tampa’s
substantial prosperity and commercial success. Tampa has also profited
by the immense deposits of phosphate, which is shipped from here, not
only by rail all over the country, but by water direct to Europe. There
is a large grinding mill here, and a meeting of representatives of
phosphate interests was held recently, and a movement started to put up
the necessary tanks and machinery for making the acids and other
materials for the manufacture of superphosphate. When factories of this
sort are put up it will no longer be necessary to send the phosphate to
Europe to be acidulated.
“I went over to the palatial Tampa Bay Hotel, an enterprise of Mr.
Plant, and the completion and furnishing of which, preparatory to its
opening in two or three weeks, Mr. Plant has been personally
supervising. I found him and a portion of his family at breakfast in his
private car, in which he was to start north in the afternoon for a brief
stay before coming down here for the winter. Mr. Plant is always
approachable, genial in his manner, ready to talk about people and their
prosperity, but not of himself or his. No one can accuse him of egotism.
He said nothing of his massive hotel until I drew him out. I said: ‘Mr.
Plant, I learn that no one knows better than you of the beginning and
the progress of Tampa and its probable future. In fact, they say that
you are the father of Tampa; tell me about it, please.’
“‘Well,’ said the genial railroad president, ‘when I first drove across
the country from Sanford, for we are nearly west of that point, and
there was no other way of getting here by land, I found Tampa slumbering
as it had been for years. This was eight years ago. It seemed to me that
all South Florida needed for a successful future was a little spirit and
energy, which could be fostered by transportation facilities. There were
one or two small shops and a population of about seven hundred in Tampa.
I made a careful survey of the situation, calculated upon its prospects
and concluded to take advantage of the opportunity, and we who made
early investments have proved the faith in our own judgment. Tampa was
really unknown to the commercial world until the South Florida Railroad
introduced her there. This was in 1885, and it brought to the town a new
life, and breathed into it all the elements of push, progress, and
success. Tampa at once began to spread itself, and ever since has been
fairly bounding along the road to greatness. It has now a population of
about ten thousand, and is rapidly increasing. Hundreds upon hundreds
of thousands of dollars have been invested in business, and instead of a
few scattered and unpainted storehouses, there are now many magnificent
brick blocks, handsome private residences, cosey cottages, large
warehouses, mammoth wholesale establishments, busy workshops,
comfortable hotels, two newspapers, a phosphate mill, cigar factories,
first-class banking facilities, telegraph and telephone communications,
two electric-light establishments, ice factories, a complete system of
waterworks, eight lines of steamships and steamboats giving
communication to Key West and Havana, Mobile, places on the Manatee
River, etc.’
“Mr. Plant’s hotel, upon which he has spent about $2,000,000 on the
building and grounds and $500,000 for the furnishing, and which is
nearly ready for the opening, is in the centre of a sixteen-acre plot of
ground just north of the city bridge. The architecture is Moorish,
patterned after the palaces in Spain, and minarets and domes tower above
the great five-story building, each one of which is surmounted with a
crescent, which is lighted by electricity at night. The main building is
511 feet in length, and varies in width from 50 to 150 feet. A wide
hall, on either side of which are bedrooms, single and in suites, runs
the entire length of the building to the dining-room at the southern
end. The exterior walls are of darkened brick, with buff and red brick
arches and stone dressings. The cornices are of stone and iron; the
piazza columns are of steel, supported on pieces of cut stone.
“The main entrances are through three pairs of double doors, flanked by
sixteen polished granite columns, supporting Moorish arches, over which
balconies open from the gallery around the rotunda to the second floor.
The principal staircase is of stone, and the horseshoe arch and the
crescent and the star meet the eye at every turn--the electric lights in
the dining-hall, the music-hall, the drawing-room, the reception-room,
the reading-room, and the office being arranged after these patterns.
The drawing-room is a casket of beautiful and antique things, embracing
fine contrasts. There are a sofa and two chairs which were once the
property of Marie Antoinette; a set of four superb gilt chairs which
once belonged to Louis Philippe; two antique Spanish cabinets, and
between ten high, wide windows appear Spanish, French, and Japanese
cabinets, both old and quaint. Old carved Dutch chairs, rare onyx
chairs, and queer seats of other kinds are scattered along the hall.
Among the large collection of oil paintings, water-colors, and
engravings, are portraits and old pictures of Spanish castles and
fortresses.
“A large rustic gate for carriages and two for pedestrians lead into the
grounds on the northern side. These gates are made of cabbage-palmetto
trunks, the mid-ribs being of the leaves worked into a quaint and rustic
design. On either side of the great gate stand giant cabbage-palmettoes,
thirty and forty feet high, set in groups of five and seven, the Moorish
numbers. A number of large live-oaks, one a tree of great breadth and
beauty, remain on the grounds. Near the centre of the lawn a fort has
been built of white stone, having two embrasures. In it are mounted two
old cannon that were spiked on the reservation of Tampa during the Civil
War. The grounds front on the Hillsborough River and overlook the city,
Fort Brooke and Tampa Bay, and are filled with fruit-trees, roses and
flowers.
“The streets of Tampa are not what they will be, but a great improvement
has been going on in the last year; and when all the thoroughfares are
paved, macadamized or otherwise hardened, they will be attractive
drives. The roads on the west side of the river are naturally hard and
smooth, giving fine drives in various directions. The water supply is
obtained from one of the largest springs of water in the State, and is
abundant for all purposes, and ample factories provide ice from
distilled water. Until the session of Congress of 1889, Tampa was in the
Key West customs district, and the customhouse business was looked after
by a deputy appointed by the Collector of Customs at Key West. But when
Congress passed a bill making Tampa a regular port of entry, a collector
and a full corps of assistants were appointed. To give an idea of the
growth of Tampa, it is only necessary to compare the customs returns for
1885, when, under a deputy-collector, the receipts were only $75, with
the report of last year, which showed receipts considerably above
$100,000.
“For a long time builders had suffered great inconvenience and delay
because there were no brickmaking works. It was not believed that good
brick could be made in Tampa, and all orders for this necessary building
material had to be sent away from home. But in 1888, one of the
enterprising citizens, who had found a bed of good clay just north of
the city, began to manufacture bricks. The result is that builders are
now furnished with home-made bricks almost as fast as they need them. It
was stated to me that as much as $300,000 had been expended in the
erection of brick buildings during the last year. One of the new public
buildings is the City Hall and Court House. It is 50 by 100 feet on the
sides and is two and a half stories high.
“Tampa’s population may certainly be called cosmopolitan, comprising
people from every quarter of the globe; but three classes preponderate
so largely as to warrant distinction,--the American, the Cuban white
people, and the African or colored people. There is no difference worthy
of note between the first mentioned in Tampa and those of other sections
of the United States. They have all the push and enterprise
characteristic of the American people, and are the peer of any in social
life.
“There are between three and four thousand Cubans in Tampa, and some
Spaniards, too, but there is an intense prejudice on the part of the
Spaniards against the Cubans, and as the latter feel the same dislike
for the Spaniards, conflicts between the two sometimes occur, and if it
were not for the good police administration might prove serious in some
instances. The Cubans are many of them property-holders and are
identified closely with the city’s growth. They are reported as moral,
temperate, energetic and quite desirable citizens; and, are almost
without exception, engaged in cigar-making and kindred industries. They
are also an amusement-loving people, have several clubs and societies,
an opera-house, a band and a newspaper. The Cuban settlement is in the
Fourth Ward, called Ybor City, after Martinez Ybor, the pioneer cigar
manufacturer in Tampa. Only four years ago this part of the city was an
unimproved and uncultivated forest; now it is an active, bustling,
wealthy town within itself, and, to add to its interest, Postmaster
Cooper recently established a branch station, as he has also in the
settlement of the colored people, for the accommodation of those who
live far from the general post-office.
“Twelve cigar factories are located in Ybor City, and there nearly all
of the cigar-makers live. The largest factories are those of Ybor &,
Co., Sanchez, Haya & Co., Lozano, Pendas & Co., R. Monne & Bro., and E.
Pons &, Co. These five factories manufactured 33,950,575 cigars last
year, the output of the Ybors alone being 15,030,700. The total number
manufactured in the thirty factories in Key West was 77,251,374. More
than $30,000 is paid out to the 1500 or 2000 cigar-makers in Ybor City
every Saturday night, one-fourth of which is paid out at Ybor’s factory;
and about $150,000 has been expended here in the past six years upon
improvements. This cigar-making industry has contributed materially to
the development and growth of Tampa during the last five years, and it
promises much greater benefit in the future. It was in October, 1885,
that Martinez Ybor & Co., who began manufacturing in Havana in 1854, and
afterward put up a large factory in Key West, came to Tampa to
investigate the resources and advantages offered for cigar-making. They
soon afterward purchased forty acres of land in the Fourth Ward, cleared
it of the pines, wild-oats and gophers, and built a factory, a large
boarding-house or hotel, and several small cottages for the workmen
whom they brought from Key West and Havana. The venture proved a success
from the start and improvements were added. The original factory, a
wooden structure, is now the opera house, and a large brick factory has
succeeded the first one, where the daily output of the 450 cigar-makers
employed is 40,000 to 50,000 cigars. Then came Sanchez & Haya, Emilio
Pons, and others, and all declare that they are doing an excellent
business.
“‘The required condition of the climate of Tampa for good cigars is said
to be fully equal to that of Key West or Havana,’ said one of the
manufacturers who has had factories in both places. ‘This has been
proven by an actual and thorough test. Another advantage comes from the
superior transportation facilities of the South Florida Railroad, which
gets freight quickly to New York.’
“The colored people of Tampa are declared to be in a better general
condition than they are in any other part of the South. They are also
represented to be a generous, quiet and inoffensive class of citizens.
They are also far more industrious than those in some other sections of
the South, working almost every day, and the 2000 negro population have
a settlement of their own, midway between Tampa proper and Ybor City,
which would be a credit to any community. Many of the houses, like the
streets, run in irregular lines, but the homes and the shops have a
tidy and orderly appearance as though not neglected, and at night
everything about them is quiet and peaceful, only the songs and the
moderate conversations and the musical laughter being heard. Very few of
these people live in rented apartments, but nearly all own their little
cottage homes. They have many excellent churches, schools taught by
colored teachers, and nearly every home has a small library. Then, too,
or with very few exceptions, the colored people command the respect of
the whites.
“Port Tampa, which is the port from which the Plant Steamship Line sails
for Havana and other places, is about ten miles below here. One of its
attractions is ‘The Inn,’ a great hotel built in colonial style, beside
the South Florida Railroad, over the water and about 2000 feet from the
shore. It is both a summer and winter resort for tourists and
Floridians. Another attraction is the fishing, either for bass from the
wharf or boats, or for the tarpon, or, ‘Silver King,’ at Pine Island.
The third attraction is Picnic Island, the name itself telling its
purpose.”
Notwithstanding the general depression of the country during the last
five years, the growth of Tampa has gone forward with a rapidity
unsurpassed in any five years of its history. The entire city has
increased in population from seven thousand to twenty-eight thousand
during the past decade and is still growing steadily. Property is as
valuable on the main business street of Tampa as it is in New York City
above Central Park. The city has a Board of Trade, a Board of Health,
schools, academy and churches of all Christian denominations. Few, if
any, cities in Florida have a more promising future before them than
Tampa.
[Illustration: text decoration]
[Illustration: text decoration] CHAPTER VIII.
Florida Mr. Plant’s Hobby--Banquet at Ocala--Mr. Plant’s
Speech--Sail on Lakes Harrison and Griffin--Banquet at
Leesburg--Visit to Eustis--Cheering Words to a Young Editor--Make
the best of the Frost--It may be a Blessing in Disguise--Must
Cultivate other Fruits, (and Cereals) besides Oranges--Importance
of Honesty--Sense of Justice--Consideration for the
Workmen--Unconscious Moulding-Power over Associates and
Employees--Letter of Honorable Rufus B. Bullock.
Mr. Plant’s associates say of him: “Oh, Florida is one of the
President’s pets.” Anything touching the prosperity of Florida is sure
to get a sympathetic hearing from him at all times. He loves the Land of
Flowers and has spent many pleasant days in it at all seasons of the
year. Nor does it fall to the lot of every man to receive such high
appreciation for the good he has done and such esteem and affection as
Mr. Plant receives from these warm-hearted, whole-souled Southern
people. Mr. Plant having recently included Ocala in his railroad and
hotel system, a fact which promises much for the future progress of this
enterprising town and section of Western Florida, the people wished to
express their grateful appreciation of the man whom all the South
delights to honor. So, in the winter of 1896, they tendered to him a
grand banquet to which he and his friends and associates in office were
welcomed. Nothing was left undone by these good people to make the
occasion pleasant.
The feast was held in the Ocala Hotel which came into the possession of
Mr. Plant during 1896, and was opened that season as one of the Plant
System Hotels. The house was elaborately decorated with Southern ferns
and flowers. A reception was first held in the parlor, then about
seventy ladies and gentlemen sat down to a sumptuous dinner, enlivened
by sweet music, and good cheer. Many beautiful tributes of esteem and
friendship were eloquently presented to the guest of the evening, who
had been requested by the committee of arrangements to speak to the
toast, “The Plant System.” The following account taken from the Atlanta
_Constitution_, is a fairly good report of his speech, which held the
audience spellbound from beginning to end. He said: “I am gratified and
pleased beyond measure to be with you to-night on an occasion of social
enjoyment to exchange compliments and greetings with the undaunted
citizens of Ocala and revel in the bounteous hospitality of this proud
and prosperous little city. Words count for but little in the effort to
express my sincere appreciation of such evidences of cordiality as have
been shown this night to me and to my friends and associates in
business. Surely the very presence of so many of your community’s worthy
citizens, your city’s leading business and professional men, who have
rendered the further compliment of bringing with them their charming
wives and daughters, would of itself inspire any man, who is not
insensible to the impulse of gratitude, with a feeling of gratification
and deep appreciation for the compliment it conveys. It pleases me to
see so many of the ladies of Ocala here to-night, for their charming
presence lends beauty to the brilliant scene and makes all the more
enchanting this hour of pleasure and promise.
“I feel that it is good to be here. I am always glad to mingle in social
intercourse with my good friends of Florida, for I warrant you that
nothing is more comforting than to know that in all my endeavors to aid
them in the upbuilding of their favored section I have their hearty
good-will and unstinted co-operation. In congratulation upon the
continued prosperity of Ocala, despite the recent chilling frosts, which
seemed well-nigh to sweep away your beautiful orange groves and blight
the interests of your agricultural community, I wish to say that it is
pleasing to me to observe the undaunted pluck and courage of your
irrepressible and invincible people, who, never swerving from the
duties of citizenship, have set about the arduous task of building up
again the agricultural and industrial interests of this region of
Florida, with a newness of life and a heartier zest. Such determined
effort will surely be crowned with unbounded success and prosperity in
the end. There is no reason why Ocala should not be a prosperous city.
Your climate is excellent; your water is pure and wholesome; your lands
are fertile and prolific, and your people are joined with a unity of
ambition and a unity of aim for the upbuilding of every interest alike.
“I have been asked to speak to you of what is known as the ‘Plant
System.’ Not this mere physical system of the man--for that speaks for
itself. But the system of railways and steamships and other interests
which have been built up as all other industries are built up in the
great march of American progress and industrial development. In touching
upon the plans and scope of the Plant System, I believe I will be
credited with perfect sincerity when I say in the very outset, that if
some of the conditions of which we now have knowledge had been known in
the beginning, much of this system would not exist to-day. I have
reference to such conditions as have in late years arisen and confronted
corporations in the nature of an obstacle and an obstruction. As you all
perhaps know, there has been a great change in the plans and methods of
railroad construction during the last decade or two. In the old days
railroads were built for the most part by the people of means along the
proposed route, and they were for the most part short lines. People did
not set out in the earlier days to build long lines of railways. As
years rolled by, however, there sprang up among the people of some
sections an unexplained feeling of hostility to corporations--a sort of
antagonism to capital--which has worked its way like a devouring worm
into the politics of the nation, and which, in recent years, has well
nigh sapped the lifeblood from many of the leading railway systems of
the country, by plunging them into such a complicated pool of injurious
legislation as to land them on the dangerous shores of bankruptcy. Just
at the time when such a spirit of antagonism was at its zenith there
came a change in the methods of operating railway lines. Instead of the
short lines, several of the roads began to be joined together for a
longer line, thus reducing the expenses of operation and at the same
time giving better facilities of travel and of shipment. It was found
that the railroads could not live if operated on the short-line basis,
for competition grew so great it became necessary to link this road and
that to form a through line binding the commerce of one section to that
of another in rapid transit at reduced expenditure. This came as a
necessity born of the situation, for the railroads were being bankrupted
on the old plan and were sold out by receivers for their original owners
to the men of capital, and they saw the absolute necessity of a more
economical basis of operation. Taxes were high, competition was great
and everything served evidence that the old plan would no longer prove
feasible.
“Just why there should be any hostility to such a plan of railway
management among the people who are, after all, the ones benefited most
by the increased facilities that are given them, is not made clear to
me, but such a spirit did prevail, and does prevail to-day in some
sections to such an extent that men, blinded to the interests of the
people of their sections, are continually stabbing at the very heart of
the railway corporations and crying out that they need to be watched by
legislative censors, and of this notion the railway commission was born.
My friends, I know but little of the motives that prompt such
legislation against railroads, but I do know that some very serious
mistakes have been made. It has been said that the king can do no wrong,
but it has with equal truth been said that the king can make mistakes.
In the State of Georgia, this persistent spirit of hostility to
railroads, this organized effort of legislative restriction, has within
the past few years thrown nearly every railroad in the State into the
hands of a receiver. The result has been a gradual reorganization of
these properties by the men of capital in the East, and a new plan of
operation at reduced expenditure through consolidation. What else could
have resulted?
“The interests of the people and the railroads are certainly not
conflicting interests. They are common interests and should go hand in
hand and heart to heart in the great work of building up this country.
The one should not be made an obstacle for the other. I cannot see how
the Plant System of railways and steamships could be other than a pillar
in the structure of the industrial world of this Republic, interested in
all that tends to the promotion of the general interests of the people.
Of what avail would railroad construction be to the owner if it were
intended to be run in hostility to the business interests of the people
of the country it traversed? What would a railroad be worth if not
supported by a healthful business community in perfect harmony? On the
contrary, what would any country be without the railroads?
“It is true that the people of this section have suffered heavy loss
lately through some unexplained stroke of Providence, by which the
orange groves of Florida were laid low by the withering touch of the
hand of dread winter, and it is furthermore true that the phosphate
interests have been injured by an over-production, but that is a matter
that rests with the fates, to be worked out in their own good season.
Misfortunes sometimes prove to be but blessings in disguise, and it
rests not with mortals to gainsay the wisdom of that edict which comes
from an Omniscient Providence. In all your losses on the farms and in
the phosphate mines, bear in mind that the railroads are suffering a
kindred loss, for the blow was as keenly felt by them as by you.
“Let us move together while the hand of adversity weighs heavily upon
us, just as we have always tried to do when we were more prosperous. Let
us take no part in the systematic effort that some are making, to
persecute the railway enterprises of Florida at such a time as this, for
such persecutors are blinded to their country’s interests. If there was
ever a time when the people and the railroads ought to work in perfect
harmony that time is at hand. I believe labor ought to be protected in a
reasonable and rightful degree, but I also believe that capital ought to
be protected against the unrighteous onslaughts of those who know not
what they do.
“In conclusion, my good friends of Ocala, I beg to thank you again for
your generous reception to-night. I believe there is much in the spirit
that rules here that bespeaks the dawn of brighter and better days for
the people of this region.”