Flagler: Rockefeller Partner and Florida Baron by Edward N. Akin

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 467 a commonly held vision of national character, that was monolithic in its proportions. But recent studies suggest that only a modicum of ideological consensus prevailed during the antebellum period. What Ward actually discerns, it would seem, is a particular view of the new nation and its future, in this case a vaguely Whiggish one that the railroad men tended to share. Moreover, the topic is inherently com­ parative, but the essays deal exclusively with the United States. In order to assess how it was (or is) that “Americans look at the world differently” (p. 3), one must have a baseline for comparison—different from what? Without it, the inquiry can only reveal how American railroad men envisioned their country, not what was distinctive about that vision. All in all, these provocative essays highlight aspects of American railroad history that deserve further research. Ward’s preliminary survey suggests that the effort would surely enrich our understanding of technological change. Colleen Dunlavy Dr. Dunlavy, assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, recently completed a dissertation that explores the influence of political structure on early railroad development in the United States and Prussia. Flagler: Rockefeller Partner and Florida Baron. By Edward N. Akin. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1988. Pp. xiii + 305; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $24.00. Henry Flagler, son of a struggling Presbyterian minister, struck out on his own at age fourteen. For the next twenty-three years he worked his way up from freight handler on the Erie Canal to grain merchant in Cleveland. But this was merely prelude to his first smashing success as John D. Rockefeller’s partner in the infant oil business. Having gained a fortune by age fifty-five, Flagler diverted his acumen and energy to a second career during which he developed the east coast of Florida from a swampy no-man’s-land into a string of luxurious resorts, citrus groves, and farms growing winter vegetables for the northern market. For readers interested in the influence of technology, a unifying factor runs through Flagler’s two careers. The railroad age of Amer­ ican history extended from roughly 1850 to 1920, from the time when trunk lines began to link the middle west with the eastern seaboard to the period when competition with automobiles, trucks, and air­ planes loosened the railroads’ grip. Flagler’s two careers fell squarely into this railroad age: he became Rockefeller’s partner in 1867; he began his Florida operations in 1885; he died in 1913. And Flagler’s unique talent proved to be that of utilizing the railroads to gain busi­ ness mastery. 468 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE According to Edward N. Akin, it was not efficiency and economies of scale but transportation that allowed the Rockefeller firm to dom­ inate the oil industry. And it was Flagler who negotiated the rates at which the company moved crude oil from the wells in northwestern Pennsylvania to refineries in Cleveland and the finished products to the Atlantic seaboard. Rival companies complained bitterly about the secret rates, rebates, and drawbacks that gave Standard its killing advantage, but Flagler piously defended these special rates as proper compensation for Standard’s services to the railroads in providing a steady flow of traffic and “evening” the revenues among the lines. In 1885, when Flagler began constructing the Ponce de Leon in St. Augustine, his first luxury hotel, he realized that he could never fill its rooms unless there were better rail connections with the north. He began investing in a feeble Jacksonville railroad and thereafter plunged ever deeper into railroading. Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railroad (FEC) pushed farther and farther south, reaching West Palm Beach in 1894 and Miami in 1896. The final extension, completed in 1912, was an engineering marvel, an “overseas railroad” carrying the line from island to island, over bridges as long as 7 miles, from Key Largo to Key West, a distance of 128 miles. Although the FEC never made a profit until long after Flagler’s death, the railroad was the key to his economic power. By purchasing railroads that had received land grants from the state and...