Florida East Coast Railway Company Records, 1886-1950
Collection context
Summary
- Creator:
- Florida East Coast Railway
- Extent:
- 5 Linear Feet
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
Florida East Coast Railway Company Records (BCHA-2003.7), Broward County Historical Archives, Broward County Library.
Background
- Scope and content:
The Florida East Coast Railway Company Records consist of 22 ledgers of employee records dating from 1886 to 1950 and 4 payroll ledgers dating from 1909 to 1911, as well as two publications and a file of records regarding the FEC track extension in Dania.
The information provided in the employee ledgers dating from 1886 to 1950 includes employees' name, date of application, references, age, weight, height, complexion, color of hair, color of eyes, nationality, date of physical examinations and visual examinations, date of train rule examination, date they entered service, capacity or position, promotions, when they left employment and why they left, and remarks regarding their performance. These records detail the service of individual FEC employees throughout the state of Florida.
The payroll ledgers dating from 1909 to 1911 are from the Key West extension of the railroad (known as the Florida Overseas Railroad). The ledgers show detailed information about the employee's pay rate and job title as well as the location or department that they worked in (examples include Accounting, Stewards Department, and various Mess departments, Dredge Babcock, Boot Key Harbor, and West Summerland).
The collection also includes a file of records regarding extension of the FEC track in Dania dating from 1938 to 1947, a 1937 edition of "Highways of Florida" by Walter H. McDonald, a souvenier "FEC treated tissue for your eyeglasses", and an "Official Fort Lauderdale Apartment House Association Guide."
- Biographical / historical:
In 1885 Henry Flagler (1830-1913) began developing what would become the Florida East Coast Railway Company (FEC) in the St. Augustine area. On September 7, 1895, the name of Flagler's system was officially renamed from the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railway Company to the Florida East Coast Railway Company and incorporated. The railway reached Fort Lauderdale in March of 1896, Miami in April 1896 and Key West in 1912. The extension marked one of the most significant turning points in the development of Broward County and the rest of South Florida. The FEC remains in operation today.
In 1895 Henry Flagler hired Philemon Bryan (1844-1925) to supervise the 400 Black workers building the Florida East Coast Railway from Pompano to Miami, which he did with the help of his two sons, Tom Bryan (Thomas Murray Bryan, 1879-1969) and Reed Bryan (1878-1937). Many of Broward County's first permanent Black residents came to the area as workers on the FEC railway. Although many of them were independent employees, the FEC also used Black incarcerated workers from the convict release system. After the opening of the FEC railway, the majority of Broward County residents worked in some capacity in the agriculture industry. They worked as farmers, as field hands, as produce merchants, and in the produce-shipping industry. Aided by the FEC Railway, many of the early cities in the area became major sources of Florida's winter-season produce such as tomatoes, bell peppers, and green beans for the rest of the country. Dania, for example, was known as the "Tomato Capital of the World," and Dania resident Martin C. Frost (1886-1965) was Florida's largest tomato farmer.
In the 1920s, the Land Boom in Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade Counties led the FEC to lay multiple additional tracks in South Florida, and the rails were changed from 20 pounds-to-the yard to 132 pounds-to-the yard, allowing higher-speed train shipments. During World War II, railway shipments greatly increased from the Great Depression levels in Florida, and South Florida's many military training centers, Naval yards, and military hospitals benefitted from the FEC's high passenger volume capacity.
The Key West extension of the railway, documented in the Payroll Ledgers, began in 1905 and was completed in 1912. During the project an estimated workforce of between 2,000 and 4,000 workers, depending on the year and season, administered and labored on the railroad. The Florida Overseas Railroad was in operation from 1912 until 1935, when it was partially destroyed by a hurricane. As a result, the FEC Railway Company sold the Overseas Railroad bridges and railroad bed to the State of Florida, and it became the foundation of the US 1 Overseas Highway for motor vehicle traffic.
- Acquisition information:
- The Broward County Historical Commission purchased the materials from Wolf's Head Books on March 11, 2003 (Accession BCHA-2003.7)
- Processing information:
This collection received item level processing. This finding aid may be updated to reflect new descriptions as well as acquisitions to the collection.
- Arrangement:
The materials are in their original arrangement.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
The Florida East Coast Railway Company Records are open for research. Indexes of some of the ledgers are available; consult with the BCL Special Collections staff for more information.
- Preferred citation:
Florida East Coast Railway Company Records (BCHA-2003.7), Broward County Historical Archives, Broward County Library.
- Location of this collection:
-
Broward County Historical Archives, Broward County Library100 S. Andrews AvenueFort LauderdaleFL33301USA
