1. Hamilton Disston was an American industrialist and real-estate developer who purchased 4 million acres of Florida land in 1881, an area larger than the state of Connecticut, and reportedly the most land ever purchased by a single person in world history.
Hamilton Disston's related efforts to drain the Everglades triggered the state's first land boom with numerous towns and cities established through the area.
Hamilton Disston furthermore oversaw the successful cultivation of rice and sugarcane near the Kissimmee area.
Hamilton Disston was forced to sell much of his investments at a fraction of their original costs.
Hamilton Disston was born in Philadelphia, the eldest son of nine children born to Mary Steelman and Henry Disston, an English immigrant and descendant of French nobility.
Disston's father was a successful industrialist who rose from being orphaned just days after arriving in the United States to running the Keystone Saw Works when Hamilton was a child.
Henry Hamilton Disston was responsible for multiple machining and saw patents, and in the spirit of Victorian-era paternalism, envisioned and engineered a community around his steel factory in Tacony, Pennsylvania.
Hamilton Disston's father threatened to fire him for repeatedly leaving the factory to work for a volunteer fire department.
Hamilton Disston became the controlling member of the 2,000-employee company and expanded production to 1.4 million hacksaws and 3 million files per year.
Hamilton Disston stood to gain up to 12,000,000 acres with his drainage contract, although it would displace numerous squatters.
On December 17,1881, Hamilton Disston sold two million acres of his land to English Member of Parliament, Sir Edward James Reed, for $600,000.
Hamilton Disston promoted himself as owning two-thirds of the entire state.
Hamilton Disston's headquarters were on the shores of Lake Tohopekaliga and became the city of Kissimmee.
Hamilton Disston "recreationed" in politics, starting as early as 1876 in local issues.
Hamilton Disston's wealth allowed him to associate with tycoons and political celebrities, and he was often sought after to advise politicians though he refused to run for office.
Hamilton Disston publicly supported future president Benjamin Harrison, Congressman William D Kelley, and political boss Matthew Quay.
Hamilton Disston founded a 20,000-acre sugarcane plantation, out of which sprang the city of St Cloud.
The key to Hamilton Disston's Florida plans was a massive dredging effort to drain the Kissimmee River floodplain that flows into Lake Okeechobee, to remove the surface water in the Everglades and the surrounding lands regardless of season.
Hamilton Disston was advised to begin with a large canal connecting Lake Okeechobee with the St Lucie but the prohibitive costs forced him to begin with smaller dredging operations to straighten the Kissimmee River and to connect Lake Okeechobee with the Caloosahatchee.
In June 1883, a report concluded that the Kissimmee valley was indeed drying up as Hamilton Disston planned, and another report a year later reported further drainage with nearly 3,000,000 acres of reclaimed land credited to Hamilton Disston.
Hamilton Disston founded the town of Tarpon Springs, much of which was built by Lake Butler Villa Company, including a commercial pier and two hotels, using lumber from his sawmill in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Hamilton Disston invested heavily in steamboats and built a wharf, a school, and the area's first hotel.
On December 1,1886, Hamilton Disston offered Demens approximately 60,000 acres of land to stretch his railroad to Hamilton Disston City.
Demens countered with a demand of an additional 50,000 acres, but Hamilton Disston refused, mistakenly believing that Hamilton Disston City would thrive if the railroad merely came close to the area.
Furthermore, Hamilton Disston's planned canals to the east and south out of Lake Okeechobee had not materialized.
The 1887 commission concluded that Hamilton Disston had received 1,200,000 acres which he had not earned.
Hamilton Disston reached a compromise whereby he would keep land that he had been given in return for spending $200,000 to improve drainage including improving the flow of the canals he had already dug.
Hamilton Disston himself continued living in Hamilton Disston City until more bad fortune prompted his return to Philadelphia.
The New York Times further reported that, several months before his death, Hamilton Disston suffered from a bout of typhoid pneumonia.
Hamilton Disston was poignantly mourned in Philadelphia as a benevolent employer of over 3,000 and a rare businessman who treated his employees exceptionally well.
Hamilton Disston's hand was always in his pocket and his influence always for his less successful fellow-men to whom he took a fancy.
Hamilton Disston's philanthropy branched out in other areas as well.
At the time of his death, Hamilton Disston's estate was valued at $69,000.
Hamilton Disston carried a $1 million life insurance policy, the second largest in the United States.
Hamilton Disston's family had no interest in Florida and creditors foreclosed on his Florida mortgage four years after his death.
Hamilton Disston was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.
Hamilton Disston was married with a son and two daughters, all of whom survived him.
Hamilton Disston was described as a fun-loving socialite as evidenced by a yacht he owned named Mischief.