Napoleon B. Broward
American politician (1857-1910)
Napoleon Bonaparte Broward (April 19, 1857 – October 1, 1910) was an American river pilot, captain, and politician. He was elected as the 19th governor of the U.S. state of Florida, serving from January 3, 1905, to January 5, 1909. He was most widely known for his major project to drain the Everglades, to recover land for agricultural cultivation. As governor, he built alliances with the federal government to gain funds for this project. In 1915, the newly formed Broward County was named in his honor.
Broward previously served as the sheriff of Duval County, Florida and in the Florida House of Representatives. He was allied with the Straightouts, Populist-leaning elements of the Democratic Party in the state.
According to one study, Napoleon started "'the Broward Era' of liberal, or 'progressive,' government, which continued under his successors Albert W. Gilchrist and Park Trammell."
Early life and education
His childhood was spent on a series of family plantations along the St. Johns River in Jacksonville. During the Civil War, the Broward family plantation was burned by Union troops occupying the town, and the Broward family's slaves were freed.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q732188. VIAF identifies the subject as 55616634. The Library of Congress control number is n85389279. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1857, 1910, 1905 and 1909.
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This entry incorporates text from “Napoleon B. Broward” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.