Henry Flagler - Upbringing and Education

Upbringing and Education

Henry Flagler was born in Hopewell, New York and was the son of Elizabeth Caldwell Morrison Harkness and the Rev. Isaac Flagler, a Presbyterian minister. His mother was the widow of Dr. David Harkness of Milan, Ohio who had been a widower when they married. David Harkness and his first wife were the parents of Stephen V. Harkness whose business success enabled him to invest substantially with Henry Flagler in the Standard Oil company. Elizabeth and Dr. David Harkness had one son, Daniel M. Harkness, Henry's half-brother.

Henry Flagler received an eighth-grade education before leaving home at 14 to join his half-brother Daniel M. Harkness to work in Daniel's uncle's store, Lamon G. Harkness and Company, in Republic, Ohio at a salary of US$5 per month plus room and board. By 1849, Flagler was promoted to the sales staff of the company at a salary of $400 per month. He eventually left Republic and joined Daniel M. Harkness in Bellevue, Ohio in a new grain business started with Lamon G. Harkness in Bellevue. In 1862, Flagler left Bellevue and founded the Flagler and York Salt Company, a salt mining and production business in Saginaw, Michigan in 1862 with his brother-in-law Barney York. By 1865, the end of the American Civil War led to a drop in the demand for salt and the Flagler and York Salt Company collapsed. Heavily in debt, Flagler returned to Bellevue. He had lost his initial $50,000 investment and an additional $50,000 he borrowed from his father-in-law and Dan Harkness. Flagler felt he had learned a valuable lesson: invest in a business only after thorough investigation.