Hamilton Disston: Florida’s savior

Susan Weiss

After the Civil War, Florida was in poor economic shape. It ranked thirty-fourth out of thirty-eight states in population. In 1880, there were less than 300,000 inhabitants and no city with a population over ten thousand. Much of the interior and southern portions of the state were considered uninhabitable because of heat, swamps, insects, Indians and outlaws.

Elected officials and the business interests wanted to attract development, commerce and residents to Florida. To encourage the construction of railroads, entrepreneurs had been given state lands at low prices and bonds had been issued to help cover costs. Because of financial mismanagement and a lawsuit by a New York capitalist who was owed money by the state, Florida in 1880 was unable to offer incentives to railroad companies and other enterprises, and, as a result, was facing bankruptcy.

In 1881, Philadelphia industrialist, Hamilton Disston, president and owner of the saw-making firm Henry Disston and Sons, was persuaded by the governor of Florida to purchase 4 millions acres of “swamp and overflowed lands” for the price of one million dollars. The money received from this sale was enough to satisfy the claim against the state, and freed state funds to be used towards building transportation and other infrastructure.

Portions of the Disston purchase included the Everglades, but most of it was not swamp, and Disston became the largest landholder in the United States. The deal included draining parts of the Everglades to open land for agriculture and development His companies did dredge some canals and reclaimed some land north of Lake Okeechobee.

He established the town of Kissimmee as his headquarters. Some of his enterprises flourished, but there were no permanent successes.

He was a very important figure in Florida’s growth during the nineteenth century; had he lived longer he might have been able to achieve more lasting results: he died in April 1896 at the age of fifty-four, either by suicide or a sudden illness. This is still unresolved.