The county’s namesake, Barron Gift Collier, was an advertising entrepreneur who became the largest private landowner and developer in Florida, as well as the owner of a chain of hotels, bus lines, several banks, newspapers, a telephone company and a steamship line.
Barron Collier Companies remains alive and well in 2026. And much of the information in today’s installment comes from that company.
Collier was born on March 23, 1873, in Memphis, Tennessee and died 10 days shy of his 66th birthday on March 13, 1939…