Henry Morrison Flagler lived two lives. The first: a ruthless businessman who went from humble beginnings to the world of the Rockefellers. The second: a man who paved the way for tourism as he built the east coast of Florida with a renewed sense of compassion.

Born in 1830 in Hopewell, N.Y., the man with the bushy mustache and hair parted down the middle was one of the state's most glamorous developers -- and the namesake of the state's 53rd county.

He was also a man who changed his course in life, a process that began after his wife, Mary, died in 1881 and left him with a 10-year-old son. Flagler responded by distancing himself from the Standard Oil Co. he founded with John D. Rockefeller and spending less time in its New York offices.

At 53, he visited St. Augustine and found a cause. Believing the state needed better transportation and hotels, he set about the task of building both. Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad stretched from St. Augustine to Key West, complementing his string of luxury lodgings that included the Breakers in Palm Beach County.

Flagler constantly stretched his credit rating to the limit. He saw his role in Florida as a paternalistic lord, willing to pay the occasional bribe so he could control his own destiny.

In 1905, he began constructing what would be called "Flagler's Folly," a railroad that would span seven miles of open water on its way to Key West.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 men plagued by mosquitoes, sand flies and hurricanes built the bridge in seven years. Three times -- in 1906, 1909 and 1910 -- storms nearly halted the project. Hundreds of workers died in the 1906 storm.

But Flagler persisted, and the railroad was dedicated in 1912. It proved to be a failure, though, and never earned the expected revenue before it was destroyed by a 1935 Labor Day hurricane.

Flagler died in 1913 at age 83 after falling on the marble stairs of Whitehall, the palace he built for his third wife in Palm Beach.