Barron gift collier biography

American entrepreneur

Barron Gift Collier (March 23, 1873 – March 13, 1939) was an American advertising entrepreneur who became the largest private landowner and developer in Florida, as well as the owner of a chain of hotels, bus lines, several banks, newspapers, a telephone company, and a steamship line.

History

Collier was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He quit school at 16 to work for the Illinois Central Railroad.

Barron gift collier biography

He founded the Consolidated Street Railway Advertising Company of New York City within four years. In 1907, Barron Collier married Juliet Gordon Carnes, also a native of Memphis.

In 1911, they visited Fort Myers, Florida on vacation and became interested in the area.

They bought Useppa Island in Lee County for $100,000.^[1] Over the next decade, the Colliers went on to acquire more than 1,300,000 acres (530,000 ha) of land in Southwest Florida. His holdings were from Ten Thousand Islands to Useppa Island and from present-day Napl