James Edmundson Ingraham was a railroad engineer who moved to Florida in 1874 and became associated with General Henry S. Sanford in Sanford, Florida. He became President of Sanford's South Florida Railroad Company, which became part of the Plant System in 1883 when Henry Plant purchased the majority of the company's stocks. In 1892, Ingraham led the Expedition across the Everglades with backing from Plant. After he reported on the results of the Expedition and the favorable conditions he found on the east coast, he was hired by Henry Flagler and became instrumental in the expansion of Flagler's railroad and hotel system down the east coast. From 1892 until 1897 he was employed by Flagler in various positions, and from 1897 to 1899 he served as a vice president and land commissioner for the Florida East Coast Railway. After the turn of the century, he served as president of Flagler's Model Land Company and as an officer of several small land companies organized by Flagler. In this capacity, he promoted land sales and spurred the growth of towns in Florida for several years. From 1915 until 1920 he was mayor of St. Augustine, home of the Flagler headquarters. Ingraham would have been 41 years old at the time of the Expedition. He was assigned to mess No. 1.
The text of Ingraham's diary of the Expedition included in this project is derived from a typescript found in the James E. Ingraham Papers in the Special and Area Studies Collections Department of the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries. When he created the typescript diary, Ingraham incorporated the record of the Expedition created by Wallace R. Moses. For example, he begins his diary with the Expedition orders and list of members, which we took directly from Moses's record. At the end of his diary, he simply appended Moses's full Expedition record.
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For other topics referenced in the Expedition texts, please refer to the Index to Subjects and Names.
1892 Everglades Exploration Expedition : Three Digital Texts, 2015