Richard Johnson "Dicky" Bolles was an infamous larger-than-life land speculator who played a major role in the early development of Dade and Palm Beach counties. In fact, some believe his life story continues beyond the grave today in a supernatural afterlife.
Dicky Bolles was born Aug. 1, 1843, the son of Dr. Richard M. and Henrietta Bolles of New York City. Bolles had an innate talent for investments and real estate marketing which at the youthful age of 23 earned him a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
His aggressive business enterprises and short physical stature (just 5 feet, 6 inches) won Dicky Bolles the title from both critics and admirers as the "Napoleon of Finance" on Wall Street.
In 1906 his real estate business acumen was brought to the attention Florida's own political "Napoleon" - Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward (1905-09), a former ship captain and Cuban gun-runner from Jacksonville. Broward needed someone with Bolles' skill in land development to fulfill his vision of Everglades "reclamation".
Governor Broward's reclamation plan was the polar opposite of today's restoration projects in the Glades. He favored the draining and settlement of Everglades marshlands with new farms and townships to increase the state's tax base.
The target of Broward's ambition was Dade County, the vast thinly settled geographical area extending from the Florida Keys north to the St. Lucie River and west to the mouth of Kissimmee River on Lake Okeechobee at the turn of the 20th century.
On Dec. 26, 1908, trustees of the Florida Internal Improvement Fund signed a contract with Dicky Bolles, conveying 500,000 acres in "overflowed" (submerged) state lands to the developer for $2 an acre.
Bolles formed the Florida Fruit Lands Company to develop 180,000 acres of land within Dade and the newly created Palm Beach County (established in 1909). His plan was to divide the land into sections for farms and township units.
He later established the Okeechobee Fruit Lands Company to dispose of the remaining 240,000 acres of property available for development along the shores of Lake Okeechobee. Bolles and his affiliated developers would eventually sell more than 20,000 parcels of land.
Dicky Bolles' primary residence during his stay in Florida from 1910-17 was the exclusive "Seminole Club" in Jacksonville, a private men's-only institution hosting the city's leading business movers and shakers. He listed his occupation as a "Capitalist," according to the U.S. City Directories 1832-1998 archive.
Bolles promoted Everglades properties held by his development companies through a nationwide advertising campaign touting the marshes as the "Promised Land," a "Tropical Paradise" and even as a new "Garden of Eden".
The "Bolles Hotel," once located on the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee in the community of Ritta, was built by the developer in 1910-11 to house prospective Everglades land buyers. The landmark hotel was damaged by the 1928 hurricane and burned to the ground in 1929, according to the Florida Division of Archives.
During a four-day tour of the Everglades sponsored by the Florida Internal Improvement Fund, Dicky Bolles hosted a visit in April 1912 by Florida Governors William Sherman Jennings (1901-05) and Albert Gilchrist (1909-13) at the Bolles Hotel. The governors would later acquire property through his land company.
Dicky Bolles' most ambitious development scheme, which also marked the beginning of his misfortunes, was the infamous "Progresso Land Auction" of March 11, 1911. More than 3,000 land hungry settlers and investors descended on the unincorporated village of Fort Lauderdale for a chance to obtain property in a lottery drawing.
However, lotteries were illegal in Florida and the random drawing was canceled. The crowd was told they could purchase deeds to the plotted land tracks for $240 - sites unseen. The promised town of "Progresso" was never established.
After inspecting the swampland purchased during the Progresso auction, one Iowa investor reported, "I have bought land by the acre, and I have bought land by the foot, but by God I have never before bought land by the gallon."
An estimated 4,805 Everglades land buyers attended a similar 1912 "convention" held in West Palm Beach. Most of the prospective buyers traveled to Palm Beach County from the Midwest, according to a 2002 study appearing in the Florida Geographer.
An editorial published in the March 1912 edition of the Miami Metropolis lamented, "Florida has so much good rich land that requires no draining...that the state and its people have undoubtedly suffered great injury through attempts to unload upon unwary customers land that has no condition to produce at this time."
Dicky Bolles' final years in Florida were spent in state and federal courts, fending off criminal fraud charges and lawsuits from angry customers whose promised "Garden of Eden" was swampland.
Bolles was arrested in 1913 with his case going before a state court in March of that year.
Amazingly, the jury decided Dicky Bolles was an "honest man" and he was judged innocent by the court. He was later awarded $1.4 million by the State of Florida for his past land sales in November 1913.
However, Dicky Bolles legal problems were not over. A federal prosecutor in Kansas City presented a 122-page indictment against Bolles for mail fraud with more than 100 witnesses testifying against him.
Legal defense fees and a lavish lifestyle reduced his real estate fortune. What remained of his land grant in 1915 reverted to trustees of the Florida Internal Improvement Fund for nonpayment.
Dicky Bolles died March 25, 1917, soon after boarding a F.E.C. Railway train in West Palm Beach bound for Jacksonville. He was buried within the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY.
Upon his death, Bolles' estate passed on to his secretary in Jacksonville, Agnes Cain Painter. She established a not-for-profit foundation which was used to finance "The Bolles School" in Jacksonville.
Justice from Beyond the Grave?
Dicky Bolles successfully avoided a prison sentence during his lifetime, but at least one South Florida family is convinced he is facing a worse fate in the afterlife.
The story of Dicky Bolles' ghostly visitations at a suburban home in Davie, FL, is the topic of an episode entitled "Deadly Force" (Season 11, Episode 193) of "The Dead Files" cable television series featured on the Travel Channel.
The episode first aired Oct. 3, 2019. During their investigation, psychic medium Amy Allan and retired New York City detective Steve DiSchiavi revealed to a terrified Broward County couple that their property was once part of Bolles' Florida Fruit Lands Company.
Dicky Bolles is described by Allan as an unhappy spirit trapped in their home. He is being eternally tormented by his deceased common-law "wife," who is preternaturally angry about her small estate settlement, and pursues both the living and the dead.
Perhaps this is a final judgment for the Napoleon of Finance.
(c.) Davidsson. 2019.
*NOTE: Read additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Monday, November 25, 2019
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