Napoleon Bonaparte Broward was born on April 19, 1857 at Duval County, Florida. Broward's parents were American, and he had French heritage from his paternal line. Some of his ancestors were residents of Spanish Florida; his father, also Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, who married Mary Parsons, was a farmer of Duval County. There the son was born and lived until the fighting of the Civil War forced a removal to Hamilton County.
An orphan at twelve, the future governor worked on the old farm near Jacksonville and attended a country school for several winters.
While still a boy Napoleon Broward was employed as deck-hand on a steamboat, and on reaching manhood went to Cape Cod and followed the sea for two years. Returning to the St. John's River he was owner and captain of a steamboat until his appointment as sheriff of Duval County in 1889, to which office he was elected in 1892 and again in 1896. But the water never ceased to call him and meanwhile he had built and operated the steamer Three Friends, in 1896 commanding her on several filibustering expeditions, successfully landing men and munitions on the coast of Cuba.
In 1900 he served in the Florida House of Representatives, and was appointed a member of the state board of health. A growing interest in the state's welfare and her future led him to the question of the drainage of the Everglades, and with this as a platform and aided by the fame of his Cuban expeditions he was elected governor of Florida in 1904.
The project of drainage had been discussed for fifty years and a foundation for the work had been laid by the former administration, but Broward from the stump developed for it a wide popular support of which it was in need. During his term of office (1905 - 09) dredging was begun (October 1906) and 13. 22 miles of canal were completed.
Broward is one of the very few Florida politicians to have achieved lasting national recognition. On his recommendation, the legislature created a Board of Control for all state institutions of higher education; these schools were consolidated, and the University of Florida and the Florida Female College (later Florida State College for Women) were established. Other recommendations, at least partly carried out, were greater state aid for common schools, taxation of franchises, primary election legislation, and a resolution proposing an amendment to the constitution to create a board of drainage commissioners. During his tenure, the development of the Everglades had started, the Choctawhatchee National Forest was founded and the University of Florida, the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes were incorporated. Broward also proposed and strongly advocated state life insurance, and a resolution memorializing Congress to segregate the entire negro race in the United States under a government of its own. In the primary election of 1910 Broward was nominated as Democratic candidate for United States senator (virtually equivalent to election), but died before the vote was taken.
In his political affiliation Napoleon Broward was a Democrat, so in the primary election of 1910 he was nominated as Democratic candidate for United States senator.
Quotations:
Broward said of his chances,
"I don't intend to go after the cities. Their newspapers are against me and they don't take me seriously. But I'm going to stump every crossroads village between Fernandina and Pensacola and talk to the farmers and the crackers and show them their top ends were meant to be used for something better than hatracks. I'm going to make 'em sit up and think. They won't mind mistakes in grammar if they find I'm talking horse sense. "
In September, 2017, a Broward County lawyer, Bill Gelin, published an excerpt of a forgotten document that Broward wrote during his term and may have delivered as a speech. He called on Congress "to purchase territory, either domestic or foreign, and provide means to purchase the property of the negroes at a reasonable price and to transport them to the territory purchased by the United States. "
"The white people have no time to make excuses for the shortcomings of the negro, " he said. "And the negro has less inclination to work for one and be directed by one he considers exacting, to the extent that he must do a good day's work or pay for the bill of goods sold to him. "
Quotes from others about the person
The Florida Times-Union wrote,
"Today there are thousands who, like the 'Times-Union, ' always opposed the big man so recently crowned with laurel and now clothed in a shroud, who see so clearly the qualities that all admired, that past differences refuse to intrude, and the opponent craves a place among the mourners. "
While working on the ship Napoleon Broward met Annie Isabell Douglass, a frequent passenger. They were married in 1887. He was survived by his wife, Annie Douglas, and nine children.
1829–1870
1861–1893
1863–1929
1904–1988
1906–1992
1889–1923
1901–1995
1899–1961
1863–1883
1892–1970
1867–1953
1836–1869
1910–1989
1896–194
1883–1883
1896–1943
1867–1951
1859–1926
In the election of 1892, under Broward's leadership, Broward's close friends, John N.C. Stockton and John M. Barrs, became city attorney and councilman.
