Kissimmee, Florida - People from Kissimmee, Florida, Buddy Dyer, Richard Douglas Lane, Kissimmee Utility Authority, Richard Young (Paperback)

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: People From Kissimmee, Florida, Buddy Dyer, Richard Douglas Lane, Kissimmee Utility Authority, Richard Young, William J. Sears, Brent Fullwood, Usssa Pride. Excerpt: Kissimmee, Florida - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Broadway Avenue in c. 1912Founded in the mid-19th century as Allendale, it was renamed Kissimmee when incorporated as a city in 1883. Its growth can be credited to Hamilton Disston of Philadelphia, who based his two-million acre (8,000 km) drainage operation out of the small town. Disston had contracted with the financially wobbly state of Florida to drain its southern lands, for which he would own half of all he successfully drained. This deal made Disston the largest single landowner in the United States. Disston's dredging and land speculation required a small steamboat industry to transport people and goods along the new waterway. The Kissimmee shipyard was responsible for building most of these large steamships, which were just one jump ahead of civilizationwith Kissimmee as the jumping off point. Concurrently, the South Florida Railroad was growing and extended the end of its line from Sanford down to Kissimmee, making the town on Lake Tohopekaliga a transportation hub for Central Florida. On February 12, 1885, the Florida Legislature incorporated the Kissimmee City Street Railway. But the heyday of Kissimmee was short lived. Expanding railroads began to challenge the steamships for carrying freight and passengers. By 1885, the South Florida Railroad had extended its tracks again to Miami. The Panic of 1893 was the worst depression or economic slump the U.S. had experienced, crushing land speculation and unsound debt. Hamilton Disston closed his Kissimmee land operation. Back to back freezes in 1894 and 1895 wiped out t... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=109569