“To one of these Branford families, the representative Plant family in the town, several children were born in the earlier decades of the present century; one of them, H. B. PLANT, gladdening their hearts in October, 1819. He must have been a boy of considerable promise, for after the usual course of study in the District Schools, not at that time of a very high grade, he spent several terms in the Branford Academy, then under the oversight of the Branford pastor, Rev. Timothy P. Gillett, a man of high scholarship and great aptitude for teaching. Whether he had any aspirations for a collegiate course, we do not know; but he did not rest content, till he had completed his course of study with John E. Lovell, of New Haven, the founder of the Lancasterian system of instruction in America, and, at that time, the most celebrated teacher in the country. “His school days over, Mr. Plant soon found employment on the steamboat line plying between New Haven and New York. Very soon, one of the first express lines ever established in this country, known as Beecher’s New York and New Haven Express, was started, and young Plant became interested in it, and from that time to the present has always been largely engaged in the express business. His first important interest in it was with Adams Express. In 1853, he went to the South, and established expresses upon the southern railroads, as a branch enterprise of Adams Express. In 1861, he organized the Southern Express Co., and became its president, and has continued so to the present time. He is also president of the Texas Express Co. In 1853, he visited Florida for the first time, for the benefit of the health of an invalid wife. There was no means of communication with Jacksonville, except by steamers up the St. John’s. The place was small and the accommodations meagre, but the fine climate and mild and balmy air were the means of prolonging her life many years, and from that time he made yearly visits thither. During these visits the place grew, and he saw the necessity for railway communication with that and many other points in Florida; but he devoted most of his attention to his extensive express business, until 1879, though owning large blocks of railroad stocks, particularly in the Georgia and Florida Railways. In 1879, with some friends, he purchased the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad of Georgia, and subsequently organized the Savannah, Florida, and Western Railroad, of which he became president. Soon afterwards he extended this railroad to the Chattahoochee River, and he also constructed a new line from Way Cross to Jacksonville. “The Savannah and Charleston Railroad (now the Charleston and Savannah), had been in the courts for many years, but, in 1880, Mr. Plant purchased and thoroughly rebuilt it; his purpose being to perfect the connections between Florida, Charleston, and the North.