The City Item for December 4, 1886, says:
“Mr. Henry B. Plant is a very admirable type of that class of successful men of enterprise who owe their prosperity to broad business views, large public spirit, and commanding integrity of character joined to solid capacity. Born in Branford, Conn., his entrance upon active life was in connection with transportation on the New Haven steamboat line, and his subsequent career has been identified with similar enterprises. Ultimately entering the service of Adams Express Company, he was instrumental in extending its business throughout the Southern States, and finally, with others, purchased its lines, and formed the Southern Express Company, of which he became president. This position he still holds, having by his energy and enterprise greatly enlarged and extended the business of the company. In 1853, when the delightful climate, attractiveness and fertility of Florida were as yet but poorly appreciated, Mr. Plant recognized the possibilities which that State opened up, and an opportunity being presented for the extention of transportation facilities by the sale of the Savannah and Charleston Railway, and the Atlantic and Gulf Railway, those properties were purchased and reconstructed by him, the name of the former being changed to the Charleston and Savannah, and the latter to the Savannah, Florida, and Western Railway. This last he extended to the Chattahoochee River, to Jacksonville and Gainesville, in Florida. Subsequently he constructed the road between Way Cross, Georgia, and Jacksonville, and Live Oak and Gainesville, and also placed steamship lines on the Chattahoochee and St. John’s Rivers, connecting the railroad at Jacksonville with Sanford on Lake Monroe, and building the South Florida Railway thence to Bartow and Tampa, establishing steamboat communication to the Manatee River and other points on Tampa Bay. More recently he has established a steamboat line between Tampa, Key West, and Havana. This service was increased on the 1st inst. to tri-weekly trips, under special contract with the Post-office Department. By this route, in connection with the railroad from Tampa, the line from New York to Havana is only three days, thus enabling the invalid or pleasure seeker of the metropolis to exchange the rigors of our winter climate for the delicious temperature of Cuba, with an ease and under conditions of travel which must make this line increasingly popular with the lapse of years. The Mascotte, now running on this route, is one of the most handsome and complete steamships built, its appointments being in every respect really luxurious, while in point of seaworthiness it is everything that the most expert mechanism could make it. Its staterooms are dainty boudoirs, while its saloon is as exquisitely fitted up as any drawing-room. A second vessel, now building for the line, will be equally attractive in all its interior arrangements. Mr. Plant, while a thorough man of business, and deeply immersed in material pursuits, has never lost the courtliness of manner and genial whole-heartedness which are Nature’s choicest gifts to her favorites; and among all who know him he ranks as the loyal friend and elegant gentleman.”
Railroad Topics says:
“In this day of vast individual fortunes, it is no special compliment to say of a man that he is rich. If the public takes any interest in his wealth, there is generally more concern manifested in the manner in which he made his money, than in the mere fact that he has it. But conspicuous success and marked prominence do, and will always, command attention and challenge admiration. The spirit of the American people is to applaud achievement and honor distinction wherever they are observed, and when found combined in one man, they make him a popular object of praise and an interesting subject for biographical sketch. Such a case we have in the person of Mr. Henry B. Plant, whose record we attempt to outline in the following brief story:
“Mr. Plant was born at Branford, Conn., in October, 1819, and is consequently now in the seventieth year of his age. It is indeed a pleasure to contemplate the record of a man who has fulfilled the sacred tradition of his allotted time, and stamped that rounded life with innumerable evidences of steadily growing strength, constantly increasing usefulness, continually widening reputation, and vastly expanding possessions. The personal history of H. B. Plant, if shorn of all details, would stand complete in that one paragraph.
“He has thus far lived to excellent purpose, and in the run of that existence has accomplished in fullest measure all that is comprehended in the descriptive suggestion.
“If we wrote not another line, we would feel that we had made a practical analysis of his life and set forth the salient truths of it. But when a man has attained Mr. Plant’s prominence, and compassed achievements such as his, people are interested in the details of his career, and naturally inquire as to his distinguishing characteristics. In deference to that reasonable curiosity, and likewise for the pleasure that there is in it to ourselves, we gladly make this sketch of him.
“It is nothing remarkable to say that he was born poor. Most men who have ever amounted to much were. Hence in that particular he is not exceptional. Neither would we be satisfied simply to class him with that great multitude, popularly termed, “self made men.” He does belong in that catagory, but is so far above the average, that we incline to think of that descriptive fact more as an accident than as a cardinal virtue.
“The first account we have of him is only a meagre record of his school days. He never went to college, but had to content his ambitious young spirit with a good academic course, supplemented by a brief term of finishing study under a thoroughly competent tutor. This, however, was only a theoretical disadvantage, from the fact that the termination of his school days was no interruption to his mental acquirements. He was born with an ambition for knowledge, and does not to this day feel himself too old, or too wise, to learn.
“Mr. Plant’s first experience in business, was when, a mere boy, he secured employment on one of that line of steamboats, then running between New Haven and New York. Although very young, he appreciated even then that the only way to learn any business thoroughly was by beginning at the bottom. Accordingly he took his first lessons in steamboat life in a humble position. It was not long, however, before, by faithfulness and efficiency, he lifted himself into higher and more responsible places. That first and prompt promotion was the initial sign of what his life would be, and from then till now, he has steadily marched onward and upward, overcoming obstacles and mastering difficulties with heroic energy, and winning success in the various lines of his broadening operations with positive brilliancy.