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Kenneth W. Milano HomeGenealogy Research Services ProductsEncyclopaedia KensingtonianaLinks [ ] Web [ ] Site _____________________ Search Monday, May 10, 2010 ..:: Encyclopaedia >> Kensington Portraits & Biographies >> Hamilton Register Login Disston ::.. Portraits & Biographies Minimize Hamilton Disston Minimize William Afflerbach Biography by Mary Ellen Wilson and is located in the American National Biography, published by Oxford University Press, 1999. Charles Baldrey Austin Photo from Ken Milano's archives. William Deal Baker hamdisston.jpgHamilton Disston (23 Aug. 1844-30 Apr. 1896), land developer, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of William Ball Henry Disston, an industrialist, and Mary Steelman. At the age of fifteen Disston started as an apprentice in one of the divisions Albert C. Barnes of his father's factory, Keystone Saw, Tool, Steel and File Works, setting a precedent for other family members. The firm, Samuel Bower later renamed Henry Disston and Sons, eventually became the world's largest saw manufacturing company. A few years later, Frederick Page Buck much to the dismay of his father, Hamilton and other young men from the Disston factory volunteered for Union army service William W. Burrows during the U.S. Civil War. Returning to the firm at the end of the war in 1865, Hamilton continued an active role in the John Bromley company, becoming its president in 1878 upon the death of his father. Rev. George Chandler The year before Disston assumed the reins of Henry Disston and Conrad Fries Clothier Sons, he traveled to Florida for a fishing excursion with a friend, Henry S. Sanford. Sanford, who had pursued a U.S. John Clouds diplomatic career, was a scion of a wealthy Connecticut family and had real estate investments along Florida's St. Johns River. William Cramp It is very possible that Disston's interest in a Florida land project began at this time. Whatever the turn of events, Disston Hamilton Disston eventually met with Florida governor William D. Bloxham and signed a land deal considered by many historians as essential to Henry Disston the future development of the state. Benjamin Eyre Back in 1850 the federal government had transferred ownership of several million acres of federal lands in Florida to the state. Jehu Eyre Within five years the Florida legislature had established a board of internal improvements to administer the disposition of these Manuel Eyre lands for railroad, canal, and other construction projects. By the 1870s the Internal Improvement Fund was mired in debt from Stella Britton Fisher the default of antebellum railroad companies, and land sales could not even meet interest obligations. A bondholder of the Frederick Gaul fund sued in federal court to stop the board from selling additional tracts. The court responded in 1877 by placing the Alfred C. Harmer Internal Improvement Fund in receivership, thus making it very likely that the state would lose title to the properties. Then in John Harrison 1881 Disston and his associates signed a drainage contract with the trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund "to drain and Frederick W. Haussmann reclaim by draining all overflowed lands in the State of Florida practicable and lying south of Township 23 and east of Peace John Hewson Creek." This included a large portion of south and central Florida below present-day Orlando. Disston and his associates Jacob Holtz were to receive one-half of the lands recovered. Because legal proceedings had state lands tied up in receivership, tracts Howard Atwood Kelly reclaimed by Disston could not be transferred to him. This legal obstacle led to another agreement between Disston and Governor Chuck Klein Bloxham, which is known as the Disston land purchase. Under this deal, which was quite controversial within the state, Disston Timothy C. Matlack purchased 4 million acres of land for $1 million. This discharged the debt incurred by the Internal Improvement Fund and cleared Edward Moran the way for land transfers. Thomas Moran The first drainage project joined the Caloosahatchee River to Lake Okeechobee, thus permitting Florida's largest lake to drain Paine (Payne) Newman into the Gulf of Mexico. The second project connected by canal a series of lakes around the upper Kissimmee valley. As the Jacob Peters development of the upper Kissimmee River proceeded, several thousand acres of the drained lands were converted to Gunnar Rambo agricultural production. Around 1887 at St. Cloud, Disston was cultivating sugar and rice. Later in 1891 he persuaded the Alfred J. Reach federal government to establish an agricultural experiment station near St. Cloud. Not only did the station conduct research Thomas Say with sugar cane varieties but also with many types of fruits and vegetables. William J. Seddinger Eventually Disston was deeded 1,652,711 additional acres of land Benjamin Shibe by the state of Florida for his drainage efforts. Canal construction and river improvements made water transportation John Batterson Stetson possible from Kissimmee through Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River to the Gulf of Mexico. Although his drainage Jacob Tees projects were probably too ambitious for private capital and did not accomplish all that was planned, central and south Florida George C. Urwiler were opened to development and settlement years earlier than would have been the case without Disston's activities. Several John Vaughan scholars of the Disston land deal maintain that had the Board of Internal Improvements been forced to sell all lands in 1881, the John Welsh consequences would have been disastrous. For example, the state would not have kept ownership of any of the lands as it had under Alpheus Wilt the Disston contract and it could not have offered lands as an incentive to railroad, canal, and other development companies. Hugh J. Worrell Thus developers such as Henry B. Plant and Henry M. Flagler--who played a key role in the development of the state--might never The Founders of Penn Home: have invested in the state or might have waited until a later period. Unfortunately, Hamilton Disston's reinvestment of profits in additional projects coupled with the economic depression of 1893 produced a financial strain on his personal finances. Furthermore, Florida railroad expansion had diminished the profitability of his steamboat companies. Apparently believing he had brought financial ruin to the family business, Henry Disston and Sons, Disston committed suicide at his Philadelphia residence as creditors were preparing to foreclose on a $1 million loan. As others in his family had little or no interest in the Florida Elizabeth Van Dusen properties, and funds were required to secure the firm's indebtedness, the land was sold for a fraction of its value. Margaret Creamer Bibliography Elizabeth Keen Business records of Disston and Sons are at the factory site in Ann Lee Tacony, Pa. An excellent study of Hamilton Disston's Florida land development projects is an unpublished undergraduate paper written at the University of North Florida by Jack W. McClellan, "Hamilton Disston in Florida" (1987). Two other helpful articles, The Founders of the Kensington Soup which appear in the Florida Historical Quarterly are J. E. Society: Dovell, "The Railroads and the Public Lands of Florida, 1879-1905," 34 (1955): 236-58, and T. Frederick Davis, "The Disston Land Purchase," 17 (1939): 200-210. See also R. E. Rose, The Swamp and Overflow Lands of Florida (1916), and Charlton W. Richard S. Allen Tebeau, A History of Florida (1971). A well-written general account of the Disston family business is Harry C. Silcox, A Joseph Bennett Place to Live and Work: The Henry Disston Saw Works and the Tacony Community of Philadelphia (1994). An obituary is in the Theodore Birely Philadelphia Record, 1 May 1896. John Clouds ------------------------------------------------------------- Morris G. Condon Print George Stiles Cox Joseph P. Cramer William Cramp Matthias Creamer Jacob Plankinhorn Donaldson David Duncan Abraham P. Eyre Franklin Eyre Jehu W. Eyre Eli Garrison, Sr. Edward W. Gorgas George James Hamilton Jacob Jones Joseph Lippincott Robert R. Pearce Thomas Dunn Stites George Stockham Jacob Tees George Washington Vaughan Jacob Keen Vaughan John Vaughan Andrew Zane --------------------------------- Print Copyright (c) 2006-2009 Kenneth W. Milano 215-317-6466 Terms Of Use Privacy Statement