He stayed in that region for two years, working on ships along the New England coast and coming home a stout young man, standing six foot two and weighing over two hundred pounds.

After gaining experience in the north as a ship's mate, in 1878 Broward returned to Jacksonville and took a job working tugboats on the St. Johns River.

Broward seemed destined for a life of comfort until his wife died a day after giving birth to his son in late October 1883.

While working on the ship, he met the young daughter of a fellow boat captain, Annie Isabell Douglass, a frequent passenger and the two were married in 1887.

Located on Fort George Island, the proprietors of the boat-building company were John Joseph Daly and Charles Scammell.

Broward continued this military filibustering operation until President William McKinley declared war on Spain.

Aware of Broward's identity, the Spanish ambassador to the United States demanded that the American be stopped and his ship impounded.

However, Broward did take precautions against having his cargo intercepted by the Spanish, such as concealing arms and munitions inside shipments of groceries to the island.

[7][8][better source needed] In 1896, the Straightouts offered to nominate Broward for sheriff, but he was busy with his filibustering operation and declined.

In the House, Broward supported many progressive initiatives, including a state dispensary bill and a law allowing insanity as grounds for divorce (at the request of powerful developer Henry Flagler).

As a Straightout and a supporter of the "common man," Broward naturally opposed Flagler's control of the party nominating system in the state.

Broward was smart enough to sponsor Flagler's requested divorce bill, but still wanted to wrest power from the big man.

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.

Broward's biggest push as governor was for drainage of the Everglades, then considered useless swamp, as white settlers did not understand its ecology or relation to water table and habitat.

Early in his term, Broward was attacked often and by many different people for his drainage program and for the land tax he instituted to pay for it.

John Beard, one of Broward's most effective opponents, was eventually convinced by one of these trips that the land was fertile and that drainage was working.

Broward retaliated against Frank Stoneman, publisher of the predecessor of the Miami Herald who opposed the drainage, by refusing to certify his election as circuit judge.

As his administration progressed, Broward became more involved with legislators and officials in Washington, gaining federal funds for the drainage project.

[citation needed] The Control Board (consisting of Broward and the cabinet) eventually selected Gainesville as the new site for the flagship state university.

The Tampa Tribune wrote, "If Mr. Bryan has given any symptoms of being worthy of this distinction then we are utterly at a loss to know it; it must be a weighty secret hidden in the governor's brain.

"[citation needed] In February 1908, Senator Bryan contracted typhoid fever and died in March, shocking the state.

Milton pledged not to run for the seat in November, but Broward soon announced that he was a candidate, an arrangement that was much-criticized, but took to the stump against his opponents, among them were his old adversary John Beard, along with a former political ally, Jacksonville mayor Duncan U. Fletcher.

Broward's friend John Stockton advanced to the second primary in the governor's race, against General Albert Gilchrist of Fort Myers.

For months, Broward was mentioned in newspapers throughout the South as a potential candidate for the vice presidency, and he was nationally known for his drainage work and for his earlier filibustering.

The race, expected to be an exciting showdown, proved to be such a bore that election news was pushed off the front page by coverage of Halley's Comet.

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.The main aspect of his legacy was the draining of the Everglades, now recognized as perhaps the biggest environmental folly in American history.

Called "An arms smuggler as well as a racist," in 1907 Broward proposed that every black person be physically evicted from the state.

Additional topics include real estate, race relations, education, labor unions, liquor, taxes, transportation, waterways, railways, and Broward's campaigns for governor and the U.S. Senate.

There are a small number of articles, pamphlets, circulars, and other publications pertaining to the drainage of the Everglades, dredging equipment, forestry, sugar, and waterways.

Correspondents include numerous real estate developers, business leaders, representatives of state and federal agencies, and Florida politicians such as William Sherman Jennings.