Dade County FlArchives Biographies.....Heap, Robert F. 1858 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Rayburn http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006128 November 11, 2015, 1:04 pm Source: Vol. II pg.151-152 The Lewis Publishing Co. 1923 Author: History of Florida, Past and Present ROBERT FISK HEAP. In the brief period since he came to Miami in 1915 ROBERT F. HEAP has achieved a remarkable success in building up in developing the Miami Roofing Company, of which he is president, one of the largest concerns of its kind in Southern Florida. Mr. Heap has had a most unusual variety of personal and business experience in the course of his long career. He was born at Olney in Richland County, Illinois, in 1858, son of GEORGE W. and ELIZABETH (FISK) HEAP. The grandparents of each of his parents were represented by military service in the Revolutionary war. The Fisk and the Heap families came from England, and the genealogy of the Heaps is traced back for eight or nine hundred years. The maternal grandfather of the Miami business man was ROBERT FISK and the paternal grandfather, GEORGE W. HEAP, Sr. The father of GEORGE W. HEAP, Jr., migrated from Wheeling, in what is now West Virginia, in 1832 to Illinois, where he exercised his trade as a millwright in becoming a pioneer builder of grist mills. He located in Richmond County, and though his main business in later years was farming, he lived for a time and conducted a grist mill at Olney, the county seat. He was a great believer in education, and donated the land and building for one of the first schools in Richmond County. Owing to the early death of his parents, ROBERT FISK HEAP left home and school when only thirteen years of age, and from that time his earnest efforts and determined will were the principal factors in achieving a successful destiny. From Northern Illinois he went out to Kansas and located at Arkansas City, then a noted frontier town on the border of old Indian Territory, a town that was the rendezvous for many expeditions over into the Indian country. He became a merchant at Arkansas City, and for some time he sold goods by wagon and freight teams in no man’s land and other sections of the present State of Oklahoma. He knew many of the prominent frontier characters, and his own experiences brought him in close touch with the border conditions of the Southwest. After his experience as a merchant Mr. Heap became associated with the Santa Fe Railway in acquiring right-of-way for the building of that system through Southwestern Kansas and through Oklahoma. He remained with the Santa Fe as right-of-way man for about five years, and held a similar position with the Rock Island for about one year. His skill in procuring rights of way and working out other details preliminary to actual railroad construction led to his being selected by the promoters of the projected electric line of railway from Chicago to New York, known as the Chicago-New York Air Line. He handled many of the right of way matters for this proposition, securing the right of way from Chicago through La Porte and Gary to South Bend, Indiana. This a ambitious project fell through after the road was constructed only to La Porte. Following that Mr. Heap engaged in other lines of business, and in September, 1915, he came to Miami. It was in May, 1918, that he took over the business of the Miami Roofing Company. Without personal capital, he borrowed the capital required to get control of this business, to the amount of $6,500. His subsequent success has been a proof of his great industry and remarkable skill in a business way. By the first of January, 1920, his business had increased and prospered to such an extent that the annual volume of its business had reached approximately $40,000. The Miami Roofing Company, of which he is president and treasurer, is engaged in the roofing and roof construction business and handles only the highest grade standard roofing materials, such as Barrett’s Barber’s and H. F. Watson’s. The business has been built strictly on honor, and the company has an enviable record of carrying out every contract in detail. Mr. Heap is president of the Consolidated Building Corporation, general contractors. At La Porte, Indiana, in 1886, he married LUCY REIGHARD, member of prominent family of Northern Indiana, particularly in educational circles. Her parents were Dr. JOHN D. and MARY (HULBERT) REIGHARD. Her father settled at La Porte in 1832, and was an early teacher in that section of Indiana. Mrs. Heap is a sister of Dr. JACOB REIGHARD, who since 1895 has been professor of zoology and director of the Zoological Laboratory in the University of Michigan. He is one of America’s prominent scientists, belongs to a number of scientific and scholarly societies, and is author of many public articles in his particular field. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/dade/bios/heap138gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/flfiles/ File size: 5.3 Kb