Business View Magazine | September 2020

199 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2020 KISSIMME FLORIDA T he City of Kissimmee, founded in 1883, is the largest city and the county seat of Osceola County, Florida. A place where history and progress collide, Kissimmee was originally a small trading post on the northern bank of Lake Tohopekaliga known as the community of Allendale. After the Civil War, this area was included in a purchase of four million acres of marshland and plains by Hamilton Disston, the owner of Disston Saw Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A pro-business mindset In January 1881, Disston contracted to drain the area and deepen the Kissimmee River, so products such as cypress lumber and sugar cane could be shipped into the Gulf of Mexico and points beyond. Many steamboat captains navigated the chain of lakes leading from Kissimmee to the Gulf. Disston also opened real estate offices across America and several European countries to advertise and sell off portions of his land, and the population in the area began to expand. Around 150,000 tourists came to Florida during the winter of 1884. The South Florida Railroad was growing and extended the end of its line from Sanford down to Kissimmee, making the