| |
CHARLES LEWIS BANDY.
Charles Lewis Bandy, now in the fourth term of his able service
as tax collector of Osceola county, is one of the most
far-sighted and discriminating men in public life in this
section and has gained an enviable reputation in official
circles for high political integrity and effective public
spirit. He has been a resident of Kissimmee since 1885 but was
born in Birmingham, Alabama, June 29, 1874. He completed an
education begun in that city in the public schools of Kissimmee
and after laying aside his books learned telegraphy, securing
his first employment as a telegraph operator on the Atlantic
Coast Line Railway, working in this capacity from 1896 to 1906.
In the latter year he was elected tax collector of Osceola
county and he has served by reelection since that time, his
continued return to office being conclusive evidence of the
security of his place in public regard. He has done able and
conscientious work during his four terms of service, has
initiated many needed reforms and improvements and has proven
himself eminently capable, efficient and conscientious.
Mr. Bandy married, July 12, 1899, Miss Mary T. Gilbert, of
Kissimmee, a daughter of James R. and Maria B. Gilbert, the
former for fourteen years treasurer of this county. Mr. and Mrs.
Bandy have one son, Richard Gilbert, who was born August 20,
1908. Fraternally Mr. Bandy has extensive and important
affiliations, holding membership in the Masonic lodge and
chapter; in the Knights of Pythias, of which he is past
chancellor; the Woodmen of the World, of which he is past
commander; and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He has
always taken a keen interest in public affairs and aside from
his present office served from 1907 to 1909 as a member of the
Kissimmee city council He never withholds his support from any
project which he believes to be for the benefit of the community
and during the period of his residence here has become a
recognized leader in the field of municipal advancement.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913,
Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
592
|
WILLIAM I. BARBER.
Among the most progressive and enterprising young men in public
life in Kissimmee is numbered William I. Barber, who on January
7, 1913, took office as tax assessor of Osceola county and has
already proved his efficiency and ability in the excellent
results which have attended his labors. He is a native son of
this section, born January 19, 1887, his parents being Joseph
and Mamie (White) Barber.
In the acquirement of an education William I. Barber attended
the local public schools, but his advantages along this line
were extremely limited for he laid aside his books at the early
age of eleven years since which time he has been dependent upon
his own resources. The self-reliance, initiative and
independence engendered in him at this time have remained as
elements in his character and are important factors in his
success today. He worked at various occupations until he was
seventeen and then obtained a position as clerk in a store,
retaining it for six years. At the end of that time he secured
employment upon a cattle ranch, where he remained until 1912
when he was elected tax assessor of Osceola county. ITe assumed
office January 7, 1913, and is now serving, proving capable,
conscientious and public-spirited in the discharge of his
duties.
On the 11th of January, 1911, Mr. Barber married Miss May Belle
Patterson of Sarpy county, Nebraska, a daughter of Joseph and
Mary D. (Malino) Patterson. The father was a successful civil
engineer. The mother was born in South America, her father
having been American consul to one of the South American
countries. Mr. Barber is a member of the Baptist church and
fraternally is connected with the Masonic lodge. Lie is still a
young man but has already reached a gratifying position in
official circles and he possesses in his ambition, his energy
and enterprise the elements of continued progress and
advancement.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
711
|
HEMMING M. BREAKER.
Hemming M. Breaker, controlling important real-estate interests
in Kissimmee as a member of the firm of H. M. Breaker & Company,
was born in South Carolina and spent his early life in
Tennessee, whither he went with his parents when he was six
years of age. His education was acquired in the public schools
of that state and after he had laid aside his books he engaged
in the manufacture of machinery there, becoming well known and
prominent in business circles of Chattanooga. He worked for
twelve years on the operation of the incline to Lookout mountain
and thoroughly identified himself with the interests of the
section, serving for three years as park commissioner.
Mr. Breaker came to Florida in 1909 and settled in Kissimmee,
where in the same year he organized the firm of H. M. Breaker &
Company, dealers in real estate. The company is composed of H.
M. Breaker and J. A. Barclay, and they do a very extensive
real-estate business, handling a great deal of valuable
property. They are especially interested in the development and
exploitation of surburban additions and in this way have done
important, valuable and lasting work in the best interests of
the city. Mr. Breaker is known as an expert judge of land values
and he is, moreover, a resourceful, far-sighted and energetic
business man, his standards and high ideals being important
forces in his continued prosperity.
Mr. Breaker married Miss Jennie E. Brown, a native of Ringgold,
Georgia, and they became the parents of two sons: Charles M.,
who is a carpenter in Kissimmee; and Clem W., who is engaged in
merchandising in the same city. Mr. Breaker is a member of the
Baptist church and fraternally is connected with the Knights of
Pythias and the Royal Arcanum. Essentially progressive and
public-spirited in matters of citizenship, he has since his
arrival in Kissimmee thoroughly identified his interests with
those of the city, giving his active and helpful cooperation to
all movements and projects for the general good. He is now in
the second term of his service as a member of the city council
and is acting with great ability and foresight as chairman of
the street and sanitary committees. He is always to be found
among the leaders in any work of progress, reform or advancement
and his name has come to be regarded as a synonym for business
integrity and high ideals of public service.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
380-381
|
NATHAN C. BRYAN.
Nathan C. Bryan, for the term from April, 1912, to April, 1913,
mayor of Kissimmee and connected with business interests of the
city as secretary and treasurer of the Waters & Carson Grocery
Company, is a man to whom advancement has come as a natural
result of the energy, determination and integrity which are
dominating qualities in his character. Through successive stages
of progress and advancement he has worked his way upward in the
business world and has today reached a position where his name
is a synonym for progress and advancement in commercial,
financial and political circles of the city.
Mr. Bryan was born in Georgia and spent his early life in his
native state. In 1885 he came to Florida, settling in Kissimmee,
where he entered the employ of the Waters & Carson Grocery
Company as clerk and delivery man. From that position he rose
steadily, each year of the succeeding twenty-eight bringing him
new advancement until he is today secretary and treasurer of the
company and general manager of the jobbing, wholesale and retail
departments. The firm with which he is connected is one of the
largest and most important of its kind in this part of Osceola
county and controls a large and representative trade. Its
officers are: C. A. Carson, president; N. B. Carson, vice
president; and N. C. Bryan, secretary and treasurer. The capital
stock is fifty thousand dollars.
In addition to his connection with this concern Mr. Bryan is
also a director in the Kissimmee Lumber Company and in the State
Bank of Kissimmee, of which he was one of the organizers, and he
is recognized as one of the most able, resourceful and
far-sighted business men in the city.
Mr. Bryan is not only well known in mercantile circles but he is
also one of the most prominent men in democratic politics in
Osceola county and his well directed activities have for the
past twenty years been powerful in local political development.
He has served ably as chairman of the democratic executive
committee and he was for two years on the city council, giving
his influence during that time to the support of constructive
and progressive legislation. In 1912 he was elected mayor of the
city, polling two hundred and nine votes out of a total of two
hundred and fifty, and his administration was characterized by
businesslike, straightforward and progressive work in the
interests of the people.
Mr. Bryan married, in August, 1889, Miss Annie Oliver, of
Kissimmee, a daughter of Joseph S. and Nannie Oliver, the former
for a number of years a prominent railroad contractor and for
two terms a member of the Florida legislature. He has
passed away. Mr. and Mrs. Bryan have two children: Eugene, a
traveling salesman with headquarters in Jacksonville; and Joe
Berta, who is a graduate of the State University of Tallahassee.
Nathan C. Bryan believes that this institution should be
supported by the citizens of the state of Florida and is always
ready to co-operate in any movement to promote this object.
Mr. Bryan is well known in fraternal circles of Kissimmee,
holding membership in the Masonic lodge, of which he is junior
warden, and the Knights of Pythias, of which he is past
chancellor. He belongs to the Baptist church and has been Sunday
school superintendent for the past twenty years. Throughout a
residence in Kissimmee covering a period of more than a quarter
of a century he has labored earnestly and effectively along
different lines of community development. He has become widely
known, while his strength of character and his honorable public
record constitute him a valued citizen, of whom Kissimmee has
every reason to be proud.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
127-128
|
CHARLES A. CARSON.
Charles A. Carson stands as a central figure in the business,
political and educational life of Kissimmee and Osceola county,
his activities touching and influencing the general advancement
and development along these lines. He is known as a capable
organizer and promoter, his enterprise and executive ability
having been factors in the foundation of many of the most
important industrial, commercial and financial concerns in the
city and his business discrimination and foresight elements in
their continued growth. His name is a synonym for progress and
for that public spirit which makes individual prosperity a
valuable public asset. He was born in Reynolds, Georgia, and
after completing a public-school education entered Mercer
University in Macon, from which he was graduated. He afterward
engaged in teaching in Reynolds and Butler, Georgia, and he
followed that occupation until 1883, when he came to Florida. He
settled immediately in Kissimmee and at once identified himself
with business life by organizing the Waters & Carson Grocery
Company, Incorporated, with which he is still connected. He
organized the State Bank of Kissimmee in 1901 and has been its
president since that time, the remarkable growth of the
institution being largely due to him. The officers at the time
of organization were as follows: President, C. A. Carson; vice
president, J. M. Lee; and cashier, N. B. Carson. This is one of
the most solid and safe financial institutions in this section
of the state. It was organized with a capital of fifteen
thousand dollars, which has since been increased to fifty
thousand, the present surplus being thirty-two thousand, five
hundred dollars. The amount on deposit is two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars and four per cent interest is paid on all
savings accounts. The bank occupies a fine modern two story
brick building, seventy-five by seventy feet in dimensions — a
valuable addition to the business section of the city. The
present officers are: C. A. Carson, president; John M. Lee, vice
president; M. Katz, second vice president; and N. B. Carson,
cashier. The board of directors is as follows: C. A. Carson,
John M. Lee, N. B. Carson, N. C. Bryan, M. Katz, H. Fleming and
E. L. Lesley. In addition to the enterprises above mentioned Mr.
Carson is known in Kissimmee as the founder of the Kissimmee
Lumber Company, of which he is president, and as president of
the Osceola Hardware Company, and the Kissimmee Phone Company.
He was in addition one of the incorporators of the American
National Bank of Tampa and one of the organizers of the Florida
National Bank of Jacksonville — connections proving conclusively
the scope and importance of his business identifications.
Beneficial and far-reaching as has been his work along business
lines, however, it forms only one of his varied interests, for
he is not only a powerful force in county and state politics but
he is one of the leaders in the promotion of the cause of
education in Florida. He has devoted much time and active labor
to school affairs and during the three years of his service as
county superintendent of schools accomplished constructive and
progressive work, having graded the public schools before the
state law was passed requiring it. While in the senate he aided
in the passing of the state high-school law and served as a
member of the committee on education for six years. He was for a
similar period of time trustee of the University of Florida and
is now in the sixth year of his service as president of the
board of trustees of Columbia College in Lake City. He has had a
long and distinguished public career. He was treasurer of
Osceola county for three years immediately following the
formation of the county, serving from 1887 to 1890. From 1893 to
1900 he was president of the Kissimmee city council and in 1896
was elected to the state senate. He represented the nineteenth
senatorial district, comprising Orange and Osceola counties, and
during the eight years of his able service was the instigator of
much progressive legislation, aiding in the passage of the
railroad commission bill, the first primary election law and the
state high-school law.
Mr. Carson married Miss Anna Bryan, a daughter of John M. and
Louisa M. (Norton) Bryan, of Kissimmee, the former state senator
and railroad commissioner. Mrs. Carson’s mother is a daughter of
Captain Nathan Norton, of the Confederate army. Mrs. Carson has
two brothers, William James and Nathan P., both of whom have
served in the United States senate, the latter being a member of
the present congress. Mr. and Mrs. Carson became the parents of
five children: James M., an attorney in Jacksonville; Elizabeth
B., who lives at home; Charles A., Jr., a student at Colorado
College, Colorado; Anne B., who is attending the same
institution; and Inez, who is a student in Columbia College,
Lake City. Mr. Carson is a member of the Baptist church and has
been a deacon in it for the past twenty-seven years. There is
scarcely a phase of legitimate activity in this section of the
state which his wise and well directed labor has not affected in
a vital way and the city in its business policies, its
educational institutions, its standards and ideals has profited
greatly by the influence of his work and personality. Kissimmee
is proud to number him among her citizens and he in turn is
proud of the achievements of the city with which he has allied
his interests for almost thirty years.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
33-34
|
ARTHUR E. DONEGAN.
Kissimmee is fortunate in numbering Arthur E. Donegan among her
citizens, for he has made his constructive intelligence, his
progressive spirit, his initiative and aggressiveness the
foundation of a great and lasting success, which, touching and
influencing many phases of the political, social and financial
development, has for the past fifteen years been one of the
powerful factors in the growth of the community. Mr. Donegan
stands as a central figure in financial circles of this part of
Florida for he is president of three of the strongest and most
conservative banks in the section, and he is, moreover,
connected through investment or official service with a great
many of the business institutions upon which rest the present
security and future growth of the city in which he resides. As a
politician, his record has been varied in service and faultless
in honor, and his career has been not only prosperous but useful
and beneficial in its various relations.
Mr. Donegan was born in County Queens, Ireland, August 4, 1876,
and is a son of Peter and Susan (Cox) Donegan, natives of the
Emerald isle. In that country the father was a farmer owning his
property and acting also as manager of some English estates. He
came to America in 1886, and settled in Florida, where he
continued his connection with agricultural pursuits. His son
Arthur was ten years of age when the family removed to the
Lhiited States, and he completed an education begun in Ireland
in the Kissimmee high school. After laying- aside his books he
became connected with a local railroad as chief clerk and
superintendent and he did able work in this capacity for three
years. At the end of that time he identified himself with
mercantile interests of the city, as a member of a well known
firm here, severing this connection when he was elected
supervisor of registration. That he has since that time been
prosperous in his business career, his varied and important
connections plainly indicate and he is well known in financial,
industrial and commercial circles of the city, and for many
years has been one of the most powerful individual forces in the
general business development. On the 2d of April, 1910, he aided
in the organization of the Citizens’ Bank of Kissimmee, which in
that year was capitalized with a stock of thirty-five thousand
dollars and with the following officers: Arthur E. Donegan,
president; H. M. Pfann, vice president; C. W. Dann, second vice
president; and Paul K. Weaver, cashier. Since that time the bank
has enjoyed a steady and rapid growth, much of the credit for
its expansion being due to the energy and initiative spirit of
its president. At the present time the deposits amount to two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the surplus is five thousand
and the value of the bank building and fixtures over twenty
thousand. Four per cent interest is paid on all savings accounts
and safety deposit boxes are rented to patrons. The bank
building is a modern two-story brick structure, fifty by
seventy-five feet in dimensions, and attractively and modernly
furnished in every particular. The present officers are : Arthur
E. Donegan, president; H. M. Pfann, vice president; and Paul K.
Weaver, cashier. The board of directors is as follows: Arthur E.
Donegan, H. M. Pfann, C. W. Dann, F. W. Hill, and L. H. Cohoon.
The bank is the depository for the funds of the state of
Florida, Osceola county and Kissimmee, and is undoubtedly one of
the best managed and most prosperous financial institutions in
this part of the state. Mr. Donegan is also president of the
First National Bank of St. Cloud and of the State Bank of Haines
City, connections which indicate something of his power and high
standing in banking circles. He is in addition president of The
W. B. Makinson Company of Kissimmee, president of The Model
Hardware Company of Lakeland, treasurer of The Florida
Plantation Company of New York and is connected with a variety
of important business concerns in the city where he makes his
home. He is vice president of The Everglades Land Company,
secretary of the United Land & Investment Company, president of
the South Florida Lumber Company, president of The Donegan
Cattle Company, president of The Arthur E. Donegan Hardware
Company and is largely interested in the development and
exploitation of Florida lands. He was the first president of the
Kissimmee Board of Trade and has been active in the affairs of
the body since its organization, serving at present as chairman
of the finance committee. All of his business interests are
carefully and conservatively managed for Mr. Donegan is a
far-sigbted, able and resourceful man, capable of initiating
important projects and possessed of the intellectual power and
the breadth of view necessary to carry them forward to
successful completion.
It is not alone along business lines however, that Mr. Donegan
has done splendid work for Kissimmee, for in the political field
he has been prominent and active for many years, and has made
his name a synonym for progress and advancement. After serving
ably and efficiently as supervisor of registration he was
appointed deputy collector of Osceola county and in this office
discharged his duties in a conscientious and capable manner. In
1907 he was elected to the state legislature and after serving
for two years was appointed deputy clerk of the circuit court.
After a time he was elected to the office of clerk of the
circuit court and acted in this capacity until 1912 when he was
sent to the Florida senate representing the nineteenth
Senatorial district comprising Osceola and Orange counties.
Since assuming his duties he has been identified with much
progressive and reformatory legislation and his influence and
vote are always given to projects of improvement and
advancement. A man of modern views, advanced ideas, high
standards and disinterested public spirit, he has made all the
activities of his life conform to one ideal — that of making his
individual success an element in public development.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
13-14
|
H. D. GEIGER.
One of the most successful of the younger representatives of the
legal fraternity in Kissimmee is Id. D. Geiger, who is
efficiently serving as prosecuting attorney for Osceola county.
He has lived practically all his life in this state, having been
born in Marion county, October 27, 1885, a son of Dr. L. D.
Geiger, formerly corresponding secretary, treasurer and
superintendent of missions of the Florida Baptist Convention.
H. D. Geiger removed in his boyhood to Orange county and was
there reared and educated, supplementing a grammar-school course
by attendance at the high schools in Leesburg and Apopka,
afterward entering Stetson University, where he remained during
the years 1904 and 1905. At the age of nineteen he enlisted in
the United States army at Macon, Georgia, and was stationed at
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, with the Sixteenth Battery, Field
Artillery, at that time the
heaviest field artillery in the world. At the close of his term
of enlistment he received an honorable discharge and returned to
Florida, joining his parents in Apopka, where for twelve months
he edited and published the Orange County Citizen. Having
determined, however, to make the practice of law his life work,
he entered Wake Forest College, at Wake Forest, North Carolina,
in the fall of 1908 and in February of the following year was
admitted to the North Carolina bar at Raleigh, graduating with
the degree of Bachelor of Laws, May 20, 1910. He was admitted to
the bar of the state of Florida in the same year and began the
practice of law in Kissimmee as junior member of the firm of
Moon & Geiger. At the same time he was appointed assistant
prosecuting attorney for Osceola county and served capably and
efficiently until April, 1912, when he left the office, also
severing his connection with the firm of Moon & Geiger. In
November, in recognition of his satisfactory work as assistant,
he was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney and he has
since served, proving aggressive, fearless, far-sighted and
discriminating in the discharge of his official duties.
On the 20th of March, 1912, Mr. Geiger was united in marriage to
Miss Sarah F. Russell, of Greenfield, New Hampshire, and both
are well known in social circles of Kissimmee. Mr. Geiger is a
member of the Baptist church and his official, social and
professional prominence places him in a foremost position among
Kissimmee’s honored and valued citizens.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
398
|
LONNIE HENRY INGRAM.
Lonnie Henry Ingram, identified with public interests of Osceola
county as sheriff and with business affairs of Kissimmee as
proprietor of one of the largest livery, feed and sales stables
in the city, was born in Newton Grove, North Carolina, February
1, 1875, his parents being Richard A. and Bettie Ingram. His
education was acquired in the public schools of his native
community and after laying aside his books he engaged in horse
dealing, an occupation in which he continued until he came to
Florida in 1892.
Upon his arrival in this state Mr. Ingram settled in Volusia
county and spent three years there, returning to North Carolina
in 1895. For ten years thereafter he engaged in horse dealing
throughout Arkansas, Indian Territory and Texas, gaining a
reputation for honesty and straightforward business methods
throughout those three states. He eventually returned to
Florida, settling in Kissimmee in 1905, purchasing in this city
the Miller livery, feed and sales stables, which he has since
conducted. Thoroughly understanding the business in principle
and detail and being a recognized judge of the value of horses,
he has made this one of the most important enterprises of its
kind in the city and now controls an important and growing
patronage, accorded to him in recognition of his honorable and
upright business methods and his earnest desire to please his
patrons.
Always a public-spirited citizen and actively interested in
community affairs, Mr. Ingram has identified himself more or
less with public life since his arrival and his name is
prominent on the roster of county officials of Osceola county,
where in 1912 he was elected sheriff. He has since served in
this capacity and in the discharge of his duties has proven not
only conscientious and reliable but also capable and efficient,
conducting the affairs of his office to the entire satisfaction
of his constituents and of the public at large.
Mr. Ingram married, in October, 1902, Miss Lula Simmons, of
Little Rock, Arkansas, and they have one daughter, Irene Bush.
Fraternally Mr. Ingram is connected with the Knights of Pythias
and his social spirit makes him very popular in that
organization. He is prominent in business, official and social
circles of Kissimmee and is today one of the leading citizens of
his adopted city.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
642-643
|
ANDREW JOHNSON.
The Florida bar numbers among its representatives no more
resourceful and far-sighted man than Andrew Johnson, now in
general practice in Kissimmee. During the thirty-one years he
has lived in the state he has been connected with a great deal
of important professional work in and outside of the courts and
by his efficiency, his foresight and his business and legal
ability has gained for himself an enviable degree of prominence
and distinction.
Mr. Johnson was born in New York city and acquired his early
education in the public schools of that city. He afterward
attended Bryant & Stratton Business College and after completing
the course there was a student in Douglas University, Chicago,
Illinois. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1878, at
Springfield, Illinois. He then in 1879 moved to San Francisco,
California. There he built up an extensive and profitable
patronage, and became known as a strong, able and forceful
practitioner. In 1882 he came to Florida, on account of the
health of Mrs. Johnson, and settled in Orlando, where he became
identified with legal practice as a member of the firm of
Johnson & Hammond, a connection which continued for eleven
years. His ability soon became widely recognized and he was
called upon for a great deal of special legal work involving
important business interests and calling for the services of a
man of tact, diplomacy and unusual efficiency. At the instance
of a number of northern capitalists and in their interest, he
went to Tennessee and Alabama to open up a railroad in those
states for the transportation of coal and iron. Afterward his
employers transferred all their interests to the Birmingham
district of Alabama. He represented them in that state,
assisting in the construction of the Tennessee River & Coosa
Railroad. When this work was completed Mr. Johnson found himself
in impaired health and in order to recuperate, went to Europe,
traveling on the continent for some years. On his return he
located the Little Rock Northern Railway. He was then employed
and undertook to make a report on the business conditions of
Mexico for some New York capitalists who were organizing a
company capitalized at ten million dollars. He spent eight
months thereafter in the saddle traveling all over the country
gathering data for the report, which when completed was
exhaustive and reliable in every detail. At that time Mr.
Johnson having perceived the spirit of unrest that pervaded the
republic, predicted the present revolution and the troubles
which preceded it and in view of the unsettled business and
political conditions advised the abandonment of the proposition.
When Mr. Johnson returned from Mexico he settled in Sanford and
engaged in the practice of his profession there for four years,
coming at the end of that time to Kissimmee, where he has since
continued to reside. He has already made his influence felt in
legal circles, and has become widely known in the community as
an attorney whose knowledge of the law is comprehensive and
exact, and whose application of points of law always correct and
logical. He has secured a large and constantly increasing
patronage and is connected with a great deal of important
litigation.
Mr. Johnson was married at Watseka, Illinois, in 1879, to Miss
Maggie H. Anthony. He has by his first wife three children:
Frances M., now Mrs. Arthur E. Rendel of New York city; La Rue,
now living in New York city; and Pauline, who is Mrs. George
Blanchard Fry of New York. In 1910 Mr. Johnson married Mrs. Cora
Hawley Seaton, superintendent of the Children's Home Society of
Florida, who is the mother of H. Hawley Seaton, supervising
architect of the Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburgh.
Mr. Johnson gives his political allegiance to the democratic
party and takes an active and intelligent interest in public
affairs, although the only office he has held was that of
delegate to the democratic national convention of 1888. He is
connected fraternally with the Masonic order, belonging to
lodge, chapter, commandery and shrine, and his religious views
are in accordance with the doctrines of the Episcopal church. He
is a man of broad interests, specially trained and efficient in
his chosen profession, and possessing in his initiative spirit,
his organizing power, his industry, enterprise and ability the
foundatons of a great and lasting success. Mr. Johnson is of
Scotch-Irish ancestry.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
666-667
|
“PAT” JOHNSTON. [ROBERT GEORGE JOHNSTON]
One of the most successful of the younger representatives of the
Kissimmee bar is Robert George Johnston, known by everybody as
“Pat” Johnston, who since his admission in 1911 has been
practicing his profession in this city. He was born in Howard
county, Nebraska, and began his education in the public schools
of that section, completing it in the high school at Kissimmee,
where he located in 1895. After laying aside his books he
engaged in merchandising for some time but later determined to
study law. Accordingly, he entered the law department of the
University of Florida and was graduated in 1911 and in the same
year was admitted to the bar. In 1912 he was appointed clerk of
the circuit court and served in an efficient and capable way
until January 1, 1913, when he resigned. He has again turned his
attention to the general practice of law and has won rapid
success, his knowledge and ability proving an excellent gateway
to a lucrative patronage. He is a member of the Florida State
Bar Association and is connected with business interests of this
city as president of the Southern Florida Lumber Company. He is
also president of the Osceola Journal Publishing Company, a
weekly paper, and secretary of the Southern Utilities Companies.
On the 30th of September, 1912, Mr. Johnston was united in
marriage to Miss Adalene F. Donegan, of Kissimmee, and they are
well known in social circles of the city. Mr. Johnston is a
member of the Knights of Pythias. To his many friends in this
city he is familiarly known as “Pat” and he has made the name a
synonym for professional ability, business discrimination and
high personal integrity.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
115
|
GEORGE FREDERICK KRIBBS.
One of the most prominent and able members of the Osceola county
bar is George Frederick Kribbs, practicing in Kissimmee. He was
born in Clarion county, Pennsylvania, November 8, 1846, and
acquired his early education in the public schools of that
locality, later attending Emlenton College and finally
Muhlenberg College at Allentown, from which he was graduated in
1873. He afterward remained in the institution as a teacher but
after one year took up the study of law, being admitted to the
bar at Clarion, Pennsylvania, in 1875. He immediately began the
practice of his profession there but after three years turned
his attention to journalism, purchasing the Clarion Democrat,
which he published successfully for twelve years. He became
powerful as a director of public thought and opinion and well
known throughout the city and vicinity, where his
straightforward character and upright life won him well deserved
popularity. In 1890 he was elected to congress on the democratic
ticket, representing the twenty-eighth Pennsylvania district,
and he served ably and conscientiously in the fifty-second and
fifty-third sessions. In 1895 he came to Florida, settling first
at Narcoossee, where he became associated with Hamilton Disston
in the orange growing business, handling also the sales of the
Disston properties. He later bought a large and productive
grove, but after the great freeze his partnership with Mr.
Disston was dissolved and he continued in the business alone.
His residence in Kissimmee dates from 1907, when he came to this
city and opened a law office here, where he has since remained
in continuous practice. He possesses a comprehensive and exact
knowledge of the underlying principles of law and has secured a
large and representative patronage in recognition of his ability
and the excellent results which follow his labors. He has not
given up his identification with the orange growing business,
still owning some valuable bearing groves. He has attained honor
and distinction in his profession, having served as prosecuting
attorney and as county judge, resigning the latter position when
his hearing became partially lost. His official career was
distinguished by a broad-minded impartiality, a sense of
personal responsibility and a realization of the dignity and
value of the work he was called upon to do. His duties were ably
and conscientiously discharged and his record reflects great
credit upon his ability, his loyalty and his public spirit.
Mr. Kribbs married, in 1880, Miss Martha Rodgers, a daughter of
Dr. Mark Rodgers, of Brookville, Pennsylvania. Mr. Kribbs is a
member of the Lutheran church and fraternally is connected with
the Masonic order, being past master of his lodge, past high
priest of the chapter and a member of the commandery. In
citizenship he is eminently progressive and public-spirited, in
business transactions upright and honorable, while in his
profession he has won that distinction which can result only
from unusual merit and ability.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
682-683
|
JOHN M. LEE.
The progress and growth of any community are the direct result
of the combined efforts of many men, yet in every city there are
certain individuals who by the force of their ability, energy
and initiative spirit stand out as forces in development. Such a
man is John M. Lee, of Kissimmee, to whom the city owes the
foundation and advancement of a number of her most important
financial and commercial institutions and who since locating
here in 1880 has
influenced practically every phase of her political, social and
business life. Fie was born in Tattnall county, Georgia, and is
a son of Hamilton J. and Martha E. (Mattox) Lee.
John M. Lee acquired his education in the public schools of his
native county and in 1880 left Georgia and came to Florida,
settling in Osceola county, where he engaged in merchandising
and in cattle dealing on an extensive scale. In 1887 he was
appointed clerk of the circuit court and served as such with
ability and distinction until 1904. During that time he
interested himself in various other lines of activity, becoming
especially prominent m business circles, in which he was soon
known as an able organizer and promoter. He was one of the
founders of the Osceola County State Bank and served as its
president until it was absorbed by the State Bank of Kissimmee,
of which he was elected vice president, a position which he has
since held. He was also the organizer of the Osceola Abstract
Company and president of the concern for many years, finally
disposing of his interests. Probably the most important of his
present business connections is his identification with the
Lee-Parsons Cattle Company, one of the largest cattle dealing
enterprises in this section of the state, owning over fifteen
thousand acres of pasture land and valuable holdings of bush
land throughout the state and handling on an average seven
thousand head of high-grade cattle. In addition to this Mr. Lee
is one of the largest individual orange growers in the state,
owning eighty acres of bearing groves, which he manages himself.
In the course of his residence in this county he has probably
bought and sold more real estate than any other one man and his
work along this line has been an important force in the
development and exploitation of Osceola county land. All of his
business interests are carefully and conservatively conducted,
for Mr. Lee is a far-sighted, able and resourceful business man,
his sagacity being far-reaching and his integrity standing as an
unquestioned fact in his career.
Mr. Lee married Miss Dora Outlaw, of Americus, Georgia, a
daughter of P. D. Outlaw, a planter in that vicinity. Mr. and
Mrs. Lee have six children: Eunice, who is now Mrs. N. G.
Waring, of Lakeland, Florida; Vivian, who was graduated from the
Wesleyan Female College in 1912; Mildred, who is a graduate of
the high school; Ethel, who is still pursuing her studies;
Margaret; and John M., Jr.
The prominence which Mr. Lee has attained along business lines
is, however, only one of his many claims to honor and respect
among his fellow townsmen, for he has been for over a quarter of
a century a leader in local politics, his name standing as a
synonym for reform, progress and advancement. He wrote the first
city ordinance and was afterward elected mayor of Kissimmee, a
position which he filled ably and creditably for a number of
years. He was for a long time a member of the city council, a
position which he resigned in 1913 after long, able and
beneficial service. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
church and an active religious worker, having served on the
board of stewards and as church trustee for a quarter of a
century. He is greatly respected wherever he is known, as his
efforts are in a high degree unselfish and directed so as to
prove of permanent and practical benefit to those with whom he
is associated and to the community at large.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
201-202
|
JUDGE THOMAS MALCOLM MURPHY.
Judge Thomas Malcolm Murphy, who is serving with ability and
distinction as county judge of Osceola county, has been a
resident of Kissimmee since 1885 and during the intervening
period has by his well directed activities constituted himself a
force in business, social and political development. He was born
in Princeton, New Jersey, and spent his early life in that city,
acquiring his education in its public schools. Upon the outbreak
of the Civil war he enlisted in the Union army, joining Company
A, New Jersey National Guard, at Trenton, in April, 1861. After
the expiration of his three months’ term of enlistment he became
a member of Company I, Second New Jersey Volunteer Cavalry, and
as a private went to the front, taking part in the battle of
Winchester and the campaign through the Shenandoah valley under
General Sheridan. He was in Custer’s division and remained in it
until the surrender of Lee at Appomatox, after which he received
his honorable discharge as major.
With a creditable military record Judge Murphy returned to New
Jersey and there remained until 1873, when he removed to
Minnesota, where he engaged in farming and stock-raising,
remaining in that state until he came to Florida in 1885. He
settled immediately in Kissimmee and turned his attention to the
real-estate business, his interests gradually centering upon the
development of his own orange groves. He had valuable and
productive holdings and his prosperity increased yearly until
the great freeze of 1895 destroyed his trees and left him with
his fortune seriously impaired. He secured a position as a
bookkeeper and gradually by hard work, ability and industry
again worked his way upward to success, becoming a power in
business circles, where he was known as an organizer and
promoter. He aided in the foundation of the Osceola Phone
Company, of which he served as president for six years, much of
the success of the enterprise being due to his able management.
For a number of years past Judge Murphy has been prominent in
local politics and in important public positions has given to
his fellow citizens the services of a sincere, far-sighted and
reliable business man as well as an able politician. He was
mayor of Kissimmee for four years, his service extending from
1907 to 1910 inclusive, and during his administration much
constructive work was accomplished along lines of municipal
development, for the waterworks plant was built, sewers were
constructed and many lines of sidewalk laid. He left the office
of mayor when he was appointed by the governor county judge of
Osceola county and his able service won him election to the
position in 1912. Fie has proven discreet, conscientious and
far-sighted in the discharge of his duties and his services have
been distinguished by impartiality of judgment and sincerity of
purpose.
Judge Murphy has been twice married. While still a resident of
New Jersey he wedded Miss Virginia Field, of that state, and
they became the parents of one daughter, Maud, who married W. B.
Wakinson, a merchant of Kissimmee. After the death of his first
wife Judge Murphy married Mrs. Carrie H. Cunningham, of
Cincinnati, Ohio, and they had fourteen children, twelve of whom
survive. Judge Murphy is well known in General O. Howard Post,
No. 35, G. A. R., of which he is serving for the second time as
commander. During the years of his residence in Kissimmee he has
taken a deep interest in the development of the city and has
done everything in his power to promote its growth along all
lines. His is a splendid example of the power and force of
honorable manhood, of earnest effort and high principle.
Successful in business and political life as well, his salient
characteristics are such as make for good citizenship in any
community and which win the esteem, confidence and good-will of
all.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
386
|
JOHN LEWIS OVERSTREET.
One of the most active, able and prominent men in public life in
Kissimmee is John Lewis Overstreet, now in the first year of his
able service as clerk of the circuit court. He was born in the
city where he now resides and is a son of Malcolm N. and Rebecca
(Bronson) Overstreet. The father was born in Emanuel county,
Georgia, May 6, 1850, and during the Civil war came to Florida,
where he engaged in farming and orange growing until his death,
which occurred February 9, 1913. Throughout the period of his
residence in this state he was interested in public affairs and
for six years served ably and efficiently as a member of the
board of county commissioners.
John L. Overstreet acquired his education in the public and high
schools of Kissimmee and began his independent career as clerk
in a hardware store in this city. When he resigned that position
he turned his attention to contracting and building, securing in
recognition of his honorable and upright business methods and
his excellent work a large and lucrative patronage. His public
career began with his election to the office of tax assessor of
Osceola county, a position in which he served ably for eight
years, gaining widespread recognition as an able and
conscientious public servant. In 1912 he was elected clerk of
the circuit court for a four year term and in this connection
has proven able, straightforward and thoroughly reliable,
discharging his duties to the entire satisfaction of all
concerned.
On December 20, 1901, Mr. Overstreet married Miss Lulu V. Bass,
of Kissimmee, and they have four children, Murray W., Lois
Janet, Mary Eleanor and Alta Ruth. The parents are members of
the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and Mr. Overstreet is now
acting as superintendent of the Sunday school. He is a member of
the Kissimmee Building Committee and fraternally is connected
with the Masonic order, the Knights of Pythias, the Odd Fellows
and the Woodmen of the World. In private life he has ever been
actuated by the principles which govern honorable and upright
manhood and the same high ideals have ever been manifest in his
official and political relations.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
442
|
FLEMING GOOCH RAILEY, Jr.
Ip enumerating the elements which during the past few years have
had the most powerful influence upon the general business
development of Miami mention should be made of the activities of
Fleming Gooch Railey, Jr., secretary and treasurer of the
Railey-Milam Hardware Company and one of the most progressive,
efficient and resourceful young business men of the city. He was
born in Augusta county, Virginia, May 31, 1884, and is a son of
Rev. Dr. Fleming Gooch Railey, D. D., a Presbyterian clergyman,
who is still active in the ministry, having charge of an
important
pastorate at Selma, Alabama. The father served churches in his
ministerial capacity at Bloomfield and Glasgow, Kentucky, and
afterward came to Florida, where he resided in Kissimmee and
Bartow for a number of years. During the Civil war he served as
a private in a Virginia regiment and was captain of a company
belonging to the Third Kentucky Regiment during the war with
Spain. His wife, who was in her maidenhood Miss Sallie Goodloe
Barclay, was born and reared in Lexington, Virginia. Both the
Railey and Barclay families were among the oldest in Virginia,
the former having been established in Charlottesville, that
state, by John Railey, of Scotch and English descent, who
crossed the Atlantic in 1620. Both lines were represented in the
colonial army during the Civil war.
When Fleming Gooch Railey was three years of age he accompanied
his parents to Bloomfield, Nelson county, Kentucky, and five
years later to Glasgow, Barren county, where he remained until
he was sixteen years of age. He acquired his education in
private and public schools in Kentucky and spent three years in
a coeducational college at Glasgow. In 1900 he came with his
father and mother to Kissimmee, where he became a clerk in a
store, retaining that position until the 1st of December in the
same year, when he went to Palm Beach and entered the employ of
John Sewell & Brother, who controlled mercantile establishments
in that city and in Miami. In February, 1901, he was transferred
to their Miami store, but in the fall of the same year returned
to Palm Beach. In the following July he resigned from the employ
of John Sewell & Brother and, returning to Miami, secured a
position in the large wholesale and retail hardware
establishment conducted by Frank T. Budge, with whom he remained
as head clerk for eight years. In 1910 he became the prime mover
in the organization of the Railey-Milam Hardware Company, of
which he has since been secretary, treasurer and general
manager, his able, far-sighted and intelligent work being one of
the greatest factors in the growth of the business. The other
officers are: M. A. Milam, president; and Gaston Drake, vice
president. The Railey-Milam Hardware Company, although recently
established, is today one of the largest business concerns in
Miami and controls an extensive, important and growing trade. It
occupies a fine reinforced concrete building on Twelfth street,
one hundred by one hundred and forty feet in size and two
stories in height. As secretary-treasurer and general manager of
this concern Mr. Railey has given a great deal of his time to
its affairs and has proven himself an able business executive
and a man of sound judgment and discrimination.
On the 18th of September, 1907, Mr. Railey was united in
marriage to Miss Alpha Sallee Wigginton, a daughter of Silas T.
Wigginton, of Miami, and a twin sister of Mrs. M. A. Milam, wife
of Mr. Railey’s business partner. Mr. Railey is a member of the
First Presbyterian church of Miami and holds membership in the
Masonic order, being affiliated with Biscayne Bay Lodge, No.
124, A. F. & A. M. He belongs to the Merchants Association and
the Miami Board of Trade and is active in advancing the general
interests of the city. To his numerous friends in Miami he is
familiarly known as “Pat" Railey and he has made the name a
synonym for progressiveness in business and loyalty in
citizenship.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
359-360
|
LILBURN ROGERS RAILEY.
Lilburn Rogers Railey, is an attorney at law in Miami, with a
large clientage, and in his chosen profession has made that
steady advancement which results only from merit in handling
important litigated interests. He is still a young man, with
opportunity before him to attain greater success, and his many
friends do not hesitate to predict for him continued progress in
the field of his chosen profession. He was born in Liberty, now
Bedford City, Virginia, April 4, 1884, a son of Rev. Dr. Fleming
G. Railey, a Presbyterian minister, now located at Selma,
Alabama. The father was a Confederate soldier during the Civil
war and served as captain of Company G, Third Kentucky Regiment,
during the war with Spain. The mother of our subject was in her
maidenhood Miss Sallie Goodloe Barclay, and is a native of
Lexington, Virginia. Mr. Railey comes of old Virginia stock on
both sides, his father having been born in Charlottesville, in
that state. The family moved to Bloomfield, Kentucky, and later
to Glasgow, where the father held an important pastorate. In
1900 he removed to Kissimmee, Florida.
In the acquirement of an education Lilburn R. Railey attended
public school in Bloomfield and Glasgow, Kentucky, and began his
independent career in Miami, where he located in 1903. He was
first employed as a hardware clerk and held this position for
two years, becoming connected in 1905 with the Acme Bottling
Works, of which he was the founder and to the affairs of which
his attention was given for three years, or until January, 1909.
In the meantime, however, he had begun the study of law under
the direction of the Chicago Correspondence School and after
graduating, June 30, 1909, was admitted to the bar, receiving
the right to practice before the Florida courts, October 28th,
of the same year. Since that time he has been engaged in general
practice in Miami, having in 1911 formed a partnership with
Mitchell D. Price under the firm name of Price & Railey, now one
of the strongest law firms in the city, connected through its
large practice with much important litigation.
On the 4th of April, 1910, Mr. Railey was united in marriage to
Miss Tillie Wigginton, a native of Bloomfield, Kentucky, and an
acquaintance and schoolmate of his early boyhood. Mr. Railey is
connected with the Dade County and the Florida State Bar
Associations and fraternally is a member of the Knights of
Pythias, of which he is past chancellor and past grand
representative. His religious views are in accord with the
doctrines of the Presbyterian church, in which he serves as
deacon. He is recognized as a strong and able lawyer, with a
thorough understanding of legal principles, while his
application of points of law is always correct and logical.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
176
|
RUFUS EDWARDS ROSE.
Florida is fortunate in having in the office of state chemist a
man of such scholarly attainments and such broad and
comprehensive scientific knowledge as Rufus Edwards Rose, whose
work in various responsible positions of civil engineering and
in the field of agricultural chemical research has influenced
the development of her natural resources in an important way and
added something of great intrinsic value to the scientific
knowledge of the world.
Mr. Rose is a native of Louisiana, born in New Orleans, March
19, 1847, and is a descendant of a
prominent Virginia family. His father, Alfred James Rose, was a
grandson of John Rose, of Virginia, who at one time was chief
draughtsman and constructor in the Philadelphia navy yard. He
married Eliza Pancoast, of Philadelphia. The maternal
grandfather of the subject of this review was John Seaton
Johnston, also of Virginia, who married Susan Cenas, a
representative of one of the old French families in Louisiana,
members of which were prominent in colonial times.
Rufus E. Rose acquired a thorough education in civil engineering
and in chemistry and in his early manhood became connected with
the development of the Louisiana sugar industry, having been one
of the first to assist in developing a system of operation for
sugar houses based on scientific chemical laws, as distinguished
from the old “rule of thumb” methods. In the course of his work
of investigation he studied the problems connected with the
drainage system of
Louisiana, becoming familiar with canals and levees and with the
best methods of draining the swamp lands flooded by the annual
overflow, in order to bring them to a condition where rice and
sugar could be profitably raised upon them. Mr. Rose spent many
years in this work, studying drainage and land reclamation and
thoroughly mastering the scientific details connected with these
problems. His reputation grew as his work progressed and when
the great project of draining the Everglades of Florida was
initiated, it was placed under his control by Hamilton Disston,
of Philadelphia. Mr. Rose was selected as a man whose superior
scientific attainments eminently well qualified him to
superintend and direct the immense undertaking. This, however,
was abandoned after the death of Mr. Disston.
In June, 1881, Mr. Rose left Louisiana and came to Florida,
becoming connected with the Okeechobee Drainage Company (the
Disston company), building the first dredges at Cedar Key. This
work completed, he went to Kissimmee in November of the same
year, and there constructed a fleet of dredges and steamers for
the company, digging some forty miles of canal, improving ninety
miles of the river channels, and thus reclaiming a large
territory in the Kissimmee valley.
He established and successfully operated the celebrated St.
Cloud sugar plantation, near Kissimmee, which he afterward sold
to Hamilton Disston. So successful was his work in this section
of the state and so beneficial its effects upon the quality and
abundance of production that in 1885, at the New Orleans Cotton
Centennial, the products of the Southport and St. Cloud Sugar
Plantations, in Osceola county, then under the direction of Mr.
Rose, secured first premiums for sugar products and sugarcane in
competition with those of Louisiana, Cuba, Mexico and South
America. From 1881 to the present time Mr. Rose has continued
his scientific work in Florida, making practical and beneficial
application of a knowledge which is at once exhaustive and
accurate. In 1901 he was elected without opposition to his
present position as state chemist and he has been three times
unanimously reelected by the people of Florida. Beginning in
1901 with one assistant and with a very inferior laboratory
equipment and with a net income of eight thousand six hundred
dollars, Mr. Rose has so directed his labors that the state
laboratory now occupies a creditable building of six rooms, well
arranged and well equipped. The staff consists of the state
chemist and three assistants, chemical analysts of repute and
ability, all graduates of the Florida University, and there are
two competent inspectors in the field. Although the equipment
and the working force of the department have so greatly
increased on account of the increased responsibilities of the
office, the net income for 1908 was above thirty thousand
dollars, nearly four hundred per cent greater than that of 1901,
while the net income for 1912 amounted to sixty-seven thousand
five hundred dollars, an increase of more than eight hundred and
forty per cent.
It is impossible to estimate the value of the work done by Mr.
Rose in this position, for it has affected the growth of
practically all of the representative industries of the state,
has promoted efficiency by establishing scientific and accurate
methods, has increased facilities and thus added to the amount
of production, and in the last analysis increased in a material
way the wealth of the state as well as the scientific knowledge
of the nation. In addition to his
office as state chemist, Mr. Rose is president of the Florida
Agricultural Society, vice president of the Interstate Cane
Grower’s Association, and representative of the Florida
agricultural department to the National Association of Food,
Drug and Dairy Officials, connections which show the extent of
the interests and the importance of his place in agricultural
circles of the south.
Mr. Rose has been twice married. In New Orleans he wedded Miss
Emeline Soule and they became the parents of a daughter, who is
now Mrs. FI. J. Rogers, of DeFuniak Springs. After the death of
his first wife Mr. Rose married Miss Mary A. Morgan, of
Philadelphia, a daughter of Isaac Morgan and Mary (Bacon)
Morgan, prominent Quaker families of Pennsylvania, and they have
two children, Muriel M. and Rufus Edwards, Jr.
Although not a politician in any sense of the word Mr. Rose is
intelligently interested in public matters and active in state
and local affairs. His greatest claim to distinction, however,
lies in his constructive scientific work, in which connection he
has done much to promote the upbuilding of the state of Florida.
His researches have been carried far and wide into the realms of
scientific agriculture. He has demonstrated the worth of his
work in practical form in his efforts in reclaiming and draining
the lands of the state, particularly the Everglades, and in
various other fields of activity in which he is interested. His
labors have therefore been of the utmost benefit to his
fellowmen and he has justly merited the honors and distinction
which have come to him as a man of superior practical and
scientific attainments.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 - 1913,
Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and Peace
and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p. 508-509
|
WILLIAM J. SEARS.
William J. Sears has lived in Kissimmee since he was seven years
of age and is today one of the best known men in the city,
having thoroughly identified his interests with various phases
of professional, political and fraternal activity. An able and
discriminating lawyer, he has achieved a position of eminence at
the bar, his practice covering litigation in all the courts of
the state as well as the United States supreme court. His life
has nevertheless been largely devoted to the public service and
the results he has accomplished have been significant and
lasting. He is now serving his third term as county
superintendent of schools and in 1913 was elected attorney for
the county board of commissioners.
Mr. Sears was born in Georgia, December 4, 1874, and is a son of
William J. and Mary F. (Fletcher) Sears, the former a prominent
physician and surgeon. The mother is an aunt of Duncan U.
Fletcher, United States senator. The parents came to Florida in
1881 and six years later the father was appointed the first
county superintendent of Osceola county. He became well known
and prominent in professional and public life and at his death
in 1901 left a wide circle of friends to mourn his loss.
William J. Sears, Jr., was seven years of age when the family
moved to Kissimmee and in the public schools of this city he
acquired his early education, supplementing this by a course in
the Florida State College at Lake City, from which he was
graduated in 1895. Having determined to study law, he entered
Mercer University the next year and after completing his studies
was admitted to the bar of Georgia. In 1911 the University of
Florida conferred upon him the degree of A. B. Lie obtained the
right to practice before the lower Florida courts in 1897 and in
1905 was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the state,
winning admission to practice before the United States supreme
court in 1912. He is known as a strong, forceful and able
practitioner, well versed in the underlying principles of his
profession and possessed of analytical and incisive qualities of
mind which make his presentations and appeals forceful and
effective.
Mr. Sears’ public career began almost simultaneously with his
law practice. In 1899 he was elected mayor of Kissimmee and in
this capacity gave to the city the services of a far-sighted and
discriminating business man as well as a capable politician. He
was for four years president of the city council and in 1912
served as secretary of the second congressional district. In the
following year he was elected county attorney for the county
board of commissioners and he is still serving in that
position and as county superintendent of schools, to which he
was first elected in 1905. He has made his influence felt in two
important phases of public life — an influence always broad in
its scope and constructive and lasting in its results.
Mr. Sears married, February 21, 1901, Miss Daisy Watson, a
daughter of J. W. Watson, an artist and photographer of Raleigh,
North Carolina, and a sister of John W. Watson, mayor of Miami,
Florida. They have one son, William Joseph, Jr., the fourth of
that name.
Mr. Sears is a member of the Baptist church and has always taken
an interest in religious work, serving in 1899 as president of
the Baptist Young Peoples Society of Florida. He is very
prominent in fraternal circles, holding membership in the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. On
the 13th of March, 1913, at the annual session of the grand
lodge of the latter organization, held at Kissimmee, he was
elected grand chancellor of the grand domain of Florida, the
honor coming to him in recognition of his able services in
promoting the interests of the association in the state where he
has lived for more than thirty-one years. Mr. Sears gives his
political allegiance to the democratic party and is always a
strong advocate of reform, progress and advancement along all
lines. He is one of the older residents in Kissimmee and has
thoroughly identified his interests with those of the city,
proving in more than one way a city builder. Since the beginning
of his business career he has promoted progressive public
movements by his indorsement and hearty cooperation and he today
occupies a prominent position in the community, which is due not
so much to the success which he has attained along material
lines as to the honorable and upright methods by which it was
achieved.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
284-285
|
EVEREST G. SEWELL.
Everest G. Sewell, identified with mercantile interests of Miami
as a member of the firm of John Sewell & Brother, dealers in
clothing and men’s furnishings, and president of the
Sewell-Harley Realty Company is also prominent as president of
the Miami Merchants Association. He was born in Hartwell,
Georgia, September 17, 1874, and is a son of Dr. J. W. Sewell,
of whom extended mention is made elsewhere in this work.
Everest G. Sewell came to Florida with his parents in 1886 and
for ten years thereafter resided in Kissimmee, acquiring his
education in the public schools of that community. In 1896 he
came to Miami and here, in company with his brother John, opened
the first men’s furnishings store in the city. Their
establishment was the second of any kind to be opened here, the
first being the hardware store belonging to Frank T. Budge,
which opened its doors to the public three days before the
Sewell store was ready for business. The firm of John Sewell &
Brother has steadily prospered through the years and today
conducts the largest clothing and men’s furnishings enterprise
in Miami. Every department is carefully managed and profitable,
the stock of shoes being especially full and complete and one of
the largest in the state of Florida. In addition to this
business connection Everest G. Sewell is also president of the
Sewell-Harley Realty Company and as such active in the real
estate field in Miami. He is president of the Miami Merchants
Association and by virtue of his success, his wealth, his high
standards and force of his personality is recognized as a vital
force in the business development of the city.
On the 27th of June, 1906, Mr. Sewell married Miss Adele M.
Wait, of Greenville, Illinois, and they have many friends in
social circles of this city. Fraternally Mr. Sewell belongs to
the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of
Pythias and he is identified also with the Tarpon and Miami
Clubs. No man is better known in the general public life of
Miami than he, for he has witnessed the growth of the city since
its foundation and has from pioneer times borne his full share
in the work of expansion and upbuilding. No project or movement
instituted
for the general good lacks his support and hearty cooperation
and his name is here a synonym for loyalty and good citizenship
and for progressive and effective public service. The
celebration held in Miami in July, 1911, for the purpose of
commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of the
city was the conception of Mr. Sewell and the credit for its
splendid success was due more to him than to any other
individual. As chairman of the committee on arrangements he
spared neither time nor personal labor to make the affair a
notable event in the history of the Magic city. Upon the
principal day of the celebration the governor of Florida,
accompanied by his staff and by other men high in the councils
of the state government, together with thousands of people from
the neighboring cities and towns, came to Miami, their numbers
being still further augmented by a general outpouring of the
rural population from the surrounding districts. A grand parade,
two miles in length, was held and there were also various other
functions and ceremonies befitting the occasion. Mr. Sewell as
the prime mover in this important event worked incessantly for
several weeks on the preliminary details and is almost entirely
responsible for its brilliant success, the occasion providing an
event in his career to which he can point with pride. Indeed,
this may be said of his entire life, which has been actuated
always by laudable ambition and characterized by unfaltering
industry, combined with a high standard of business ethics.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
353-354
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CHARLES WIGTON WARD.
Charles Wigton Ward still holds the title of the best land man
in Florida, although he has recently severed a great many of his
most important business connections here, and spends the summer
months abroad or in the north. In Kissimmee, where he resides,
and throughout Florida he is regarded not only as an expert
judge of land values, but also as a man whose enthusiasm and
ambition unite with his ability, resourcefulness and indomitable
energy to make him one of the most distinctively representative
business men in the south. He was born in Delaware county,
Ohio, March 14, 1855, and is a son of Samuel M. and Mary J.
(Wigton) Ward. The father was a native of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, and followed the carriage manufacturing business
in Ohio. The mother was of Scotch extraction and a descendant of
the Wigtons, of Wigtown, Wigtownshire, in the southwest of
Scotland.
Charles Wigton Ward’s father died when he was nine years old,
and his mother’s death followed a few years later. Thrown upon
his own resources, he began business when very young, spending
most of his early life in railroad and telegraph business in the
west, winning promotion to the position of telegraph
superintendent. He was also, when only twenty-three years of
age, receiver of the Hawkeye Telegraph Company of Iowa, taking
hold when the company was bankrupt and putting its affairs upon
a solid business footing, and remaining with the reorganized
company as secretary and treasurer and general superintendent
after it was absorbed by the Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph
Company. These lines finally passed to the Western Union
Telegraph Company. Mr. Ward then engaged with the Mutual Union
Telegraph Company in the construction of its lines, and remained
with that company until that corporation also was swallowed by
the Western Union. Although urged by the officials of the
Western Union to continue under the new ownership, Mr. Ward
concluded that he would engage in a more independent line of
work and turned his attention to real-estate business, in which
he has won such prominence and success.
The late Hamilton Disston, of Philadelphia, was responsible for
Mr. Ward's removal to Florida. In 1894 Mr. Disston decided to
import an expert real-estate man of tried experience and wide
reputation to take charge of the sale of the lands belonging to
his various drainage, sugar-development and land companies. Mr.
Ward was at that time operating throughout the west from Chicago
headquarters and was doing an annual business of more than a
million dollars, his field extending from Chicago to the Pacific
coast. Impressed with his ability, Mr. Disston engaged him to
take up the Florida work in which he continued until the time of
his retirement. Mr. Disston died not long after Mr. Ward entered
his service and at a time when a general depression in the
real-estate market made his vast holdings practically
unmarketable, but owing to Mr. Ward’s energy, ability, and
boundless hope in the future, his interests were conserved
through the trying period, and the lands which he formerly owned
have steadily increased in value since that time.
In 1900 The United Land Company was organized and took over the
Disston properties, Mr. Ward assuming the management. By a great
deal of patient, skillful work he created a market for the lands
and sold various tracts in different parts of the seven counties
embraced by the company’s holdings at from three to four times
the prevailing prices. With the lands changing hands, a general
revival of real-estate activity began, and buyers flocked to
Florida from all over the country; and the movement, started at
that time, has continued with increasing volume until the
land market in Florida is doubtless more active today than in
any other portion of the United States, with prices several
hundred per cent higher than when Mr. Ward revived the dead
market. During the period covered by his activity in Florida he
has handled and sold about four million acres of land, has
accomplished an incomparable work along lines of state
development and has also amassed a fortune for himself as a
reward for his foresight and business ability. He has retired
from active business, although he still retains valuable
individual holdings in several counties, and is connected
through investment and in official capacity with various
investment companies and other corporations. He may justly feel
proud of the fact that during his entire business career he has
been able to keep out of the law courts individually, and to
keep his corporations free from litigation during the time of
his connection with them. Nothing but the most careful,
honorable dealing would insure such a record in operations of
such magnitude.
Mr. Ward married Miss Cora A. Parkhurst, of Iowa, who died many
years ago, leaving him two sons: Ralph McQuiston, who is in the
importing business in New York city; and Charles Wayne, an
automobile dealer in the same city.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
174-175
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HON. JOHN W. WATSON.
The life of Hon. John W. Watson has been so varied in its
activities, so honorable in its purposes and so far-reaching and
beneficial in its effects that it has become an integral part of
the history of Miami and Dade county and has also left an
impress upon the annals of the state. His work has closely
touched political development, for he is an ex-member of the
Florida state legislature and ex-speaker of the Florida house of
representatives and a man who has by able, far-sighted and
discriminating work in the public service taken a high place
among the leaders in constructive statesmanship. He was born in
Newbern, North Carolina, October 31, 1858, and is a son of John
W. and Janet (McCubbin) Watson, natives of Virginia. Their
marriage occurred in that state and they afterward removed to
North Carolina, where their son, the subject of this review, was
born. The father was of English ancestry and aided the
Confederate cause during the Civil war, serving as a
non-commissioned officer in the southern army. He was a merchant
by occupation and followed that line of work until his death,
which occurred when he was sixty-three years of age. He is
survived by his wife.
Hon. John W. Watson was still a small boy when he removed with
his parents to Raleigh, North Carolina, just after the close of
the Civil war. He was reared in that city and educated chiefly
in the Raleigh Academy, laying aside his books at the age of
sixteen in order co visit the American southwest. He spent two
years in the south and southwest, living chiefly in Louisiana
and Texas and engaging in various occupations. Returning to
Raleigh when he was eighteen, he secured a position as clerk and
held it for three years, at the end of which time he again left
home, going southward to Georgia. After two years, in 1882, he
came to Florida and has since been a resident of this state. He
located first in Cedar Keys and became a clerk in a mercantile
store, later marrying the daughter of his employer. From Cedar
Keys he went to Kissimmee, where for a number of years he
engaged in the hardware business. While a resident of that city
he first became known in public life, his aggressive spirit and
modern ideas carrying him forward into important political
relations. He served as mayor of Kissimmee for two terms, as
president of the city council and chairman of the board of
county commissioners, finally^ enlarging the field of his
interests to include activity in state politics. He was elected
to the Florida legislature and served six consecutive terms,
during one of which he acted as speaker of the house of
representatives, his public service being distinguished by a
breadth of view and a progressive and businesslike activity
which marked him an able politician. While still residing in
Kissimmee and prominently engaged in the hardware business there
he made a trip to Miami in 1895, just before the Florida East
Coast Railway was completed to the town site, and here
established a hardware store, becoming in this way one of the
pioneer business men of the community. For several years after
this he maintained his residence at Kissimmee and conducted
hardware stores in both cities, finally, however, disposing of
his original enterprise and moving his family in 1905 to Miami.
The hardware concern which he established here in 1895 has had
an uninterrupted growth since that time and is known today as
one of the solid and substantial business houses of the city.
The business, which has both wholesale and retail departments,
is conducted under the name of the John W. Watson Hardware
Company and occupies a two-story brick building, seventy-five by
one hundred feet, which Mr. Watson erected and owns. In addition
there is a warehouse, three stories high, fifty by one hundred
feet, adjoining the main building. This is also of brick and
owned by Mr. Watson. The company controls one of the finest
mercantile concerns in Miami and the credit for its success and
its prosperous condition is due entirely to Mr. Watson, who has
developed it from a humble beginning. In addition to his store
he has extensive property interests in the vicinity of the city,
owning a forty acre bearing grapefruit grove at the edge of the
Everglades, four miles west of Miami. He was connected with the
general business life as president of the Miami Board of Trade,
a position in which he did far-sighted, beneficial and
progressive work.
Mr. Watson married, in 1882, Miss Cora Chafer, a native of Iowa,
who was reared in Jacksonville, Florida. They have three
children: Robert O., now a member of the Miami city council and
acting as manager of his father’s hardware business; Janet, who
married W. W. Charles, of Miami; and John W., Jr., now a student
in Stetson University.
Mr. Watson is numbered among the most progressive and successful
business men of Miami, but in his business success does not lie
his truest and most worthy claim to a place in the city’s
history, for as a public official his work has been
far-reaching, progressive and constructive. He represented Dade
county in the state legislature for two terms and in 3912 was a
prominent candidate for governor of the state before the
democratic state convention, receiving the solid and flattering
support of all the delegates from that portion of the state
where his merit and worth are known. He was elected mayor of the
city and has since labored for the advancement of the community
interests, doing effective work in the line of reform and
upbuilding. Fraternally he is connected with the Masonic order
and the Knights of Pythias, being well known in both
organizations. To make his native talents subserve the demands
which conditions of society impose at the present time is the
purpose of his life, and by reason of the fine discrimination
and judgment which characterize his efforts at all times he
stands today as a splendid representative of the successful
business man to whom business is, however, but one phase of life
and does not exclude active participation in the other vital
interests which go to make up the sum of human existence.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
643-644
|
HON. GEORGE AMBROSE WORLEY.
In 1878 a boy then twelve years of age ran away from the Emory
and Henry College in Virginia, where he had been sent to study
for the Baptist ministry, and worked his way southward to
Florida, where in the St. Johns river lumber camps he began his
active career. The independence, the love of personal freedom
and the scorn of pretense which drove him away from wealth,
coupled with a distasteful occupation, have remained dominating
qualities in his character since that time and today the Hon.
George Ambrose Worley, a leading lawyer of Miami and member of
the state legislature, is a man of energy, initiative and
determination, a lover of justice and a firm believer in
individual rights. His activities are so varied in their scope
and his life so honorable in its purposes that the record of his
career speaks for itself.
Mr. Worley was born in Wythe county, Virginia, August 31, 1866,
and is a son of Rev. Dr. Ambrose Gaines Worley, a Methodist
clergyman of much prominence, in fact one of the ablest pulpit
orators of his time in the United States. His active career was
spent in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and the
two Carolinas and for over thirty years he was one of the
highest officials in the Virginia and Georgia Methodist
Episcopal conferences. His father was closely related to James
Madison, Zachariah Taylor, Judge Edmond Pendleton, of Richmond,
and General Edmond Pendleton Gaines, of the United States army,
the hero of Fort Erie in 1814. His wife was in her maidenhood
Miss Elizabeth Baker Worley but, despite the similarity in
names, was not related to her husband before her marriage. She
was born in Germany but came to America with her parents when
still a child. The paternal branch of this family is of old
American establishment and of English descent, it having been
founded in the United States by Joseph Nathan Worley, a native
of England, who settled near Morristown, Tennessee, in 1755. His
son, also named Joseph Nathan Worley, served in the Colonial
army during the Revolutionary war. The paternal grandmother of
the subject of this review was Sallie Gaines, a daughter of
Samuel Dalton Gaines, the well known Indian fighter and
political orator of Kentucky, who resided at Somerset, in that
state.
George A. Worley’s early boyhood was spent in Georgia and when
he was twelve years of age his father, being desirous that his
son should follow in his footsteps and become a minister of the
Gospel, sent him to the Emory and Henry College in Virginia. The
son was, however, very much disinclined to study for the
ministry and, being possessed of great decision of character,
ran away from the institution one day after he entered it. He
made his way south to Florida and for some time after his
arrival “roughed it" along the St. Johns river as the most
insignificant
member of a lumber crew, his duties being to do quickly whatever
he was told to do. In payment for these services he received his
board and lodging and he spent two years in this manner. In
1880, when he was fourteen years of age, he went to Texas and
was there employed on a cattle ranch. Returning to Florida in
the following year, he obtained employment with a surveying
party under Hamilton Disston, who was at that time surveying a
four million acre tract of everglade land which he had purchased
from the state of Florida for twenty-five cents an acre. Several
prosperous and growing cities and towns now stand upon the
Disston tract. Mr. Worley made himself generally useful to the
members of the party and remained with them for a year and a
half, returning at the end of that time to Georgia and settling
in Washington, where he read law under the eminent southern
orator and statesmen, the Hon. Robert Toombs. In December of the
same year Mr. Worley was admitted to the bar at Lexington,
Georgia. He was at that time but eighteen years of age but could
easily have passed for a man of twenty-five, the hardships of
his early life having been written upon his countenance in lines
of determination and decision. Immediately after his admission
he began to practice law and for nearly thirty years has
followed his profession, being well known at the bars of
Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and North and South Carolina as
well as Florida. As a criminal lawyer he has gained wide
distinction and flattering recognition, his services being
sought by clients from practically every state in the Union.
From 1884 to 1887 Mr. Worley resided at Kissimmee, Florida, and
since 1896 has been in Miami, where he is numbered among the
most forceful and able lawyers of the city. He is practicing in
association with his son, under the firm name of G. A. Worley &
Son. He is an orator of great ability and power and had the
distinction of delivering the first Fourth of July oration in
Miami on Independence Day, 1896. In 1912 he was elected to the
Florida house of representatives and is now serving, his ability
having gained for him a high place among the leading legislators
in the state.
On the 5th of November, 1886, Mr. Worley was united in marriage
to Miss Mary Kramer Headley, of Winston Salem, North Carolina, a
daughter of Captain Philip D. Headley, who commanded the
Louisiana Tigers during the Civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Worley have
six children: Mary Kramer, who married B. J. Shepard, of Miami;
George Ambrose, Jr., who is practicing law in association with
his father; Christine Elizabeth; Sarah Gladys; Katrina; and Lee
McBride. The last named is a boy of nine years but has already
an enviable reputation as a swimmer.
Mr. Worley is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South,
and belongs to the Country Club of Jacksonville. In Miami he is
a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and belongs
also to the Miami and Tarpon Clubs. He is one of the best known
men in southern Florida today and is a familiar figure in Miami,
where his great height and bulk distinguish him in any
gathering. Even at the early age of fourteen he weighed two
hundred and three pounds and stood six feet three inches in his
stocking feet. At present he weighs two hundred and ninety
pounds and is six feet six inches in height. He is a man of
brains and personality whose mental powers match well his great
physique and the greatness of whose attainments places him among
the leading and substantial citizens of Florida.
Source for Biography: Chapin, George M., Florida, 1513 -
1913, Past, Present and Future, Four Hundred Years of War and
Peace and Industrial Development, (c) 1914, Volume 2, p.
691-693
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