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1619-4-7 Dan Hardie`s death recalls his long fight on gangsters. • 8-A MIAMI DAILY NEWS, Sunday,August 3, 1952 Dan Hardie's Death Recalls His Long Fight On Gangsters By JACK W. ROBERTS .�, s remembered with pride yesterdal Mial»j,J;y News Staff Writer '' �' „,,,o,,','.''',...,4,',. that "The Old Man” wouldn't give Dan Hardie' enemies called him 5 an inch. ' nd had him kicked >1' "You can't compromise with out as sheriff of Dade County gangsters," they quoted him as back in 1933—but when the sturdy a' saying. Miami pioneer died Friday at the ,:z,.,.,„;: Even Hardie's enemies had to age of 74 he had seen his name ...N'57.,... ..4; admit that "The Old Man" was cleared and had witnessed the „ , honest,his sons recalled,and when dount�' swing over to his philoso- , -e ,,:::,.,...,1,..,.-,;" Sholtz had him removed from of- phy hat "You can't compromisefice after serving nine months it witl/'gapgsters." „`' g was on such charges as stealing • They ilon't make many like Dan . -` a ham and the way he handled Hardie..iljese.,(lays,but fortunately the entrapment of a dynamiting the great mas s of people have w A.,• $ gang. The general charge was caught that s rk of uncom- ' tea that of incompetency. promising rightou ess that made The t r e m e n d o u s pressure Hardie the foe of riminals and 3 .. brought on Hardie to open Dade the prototype of a tvs.o•fisted West- I' County up for gambling caused his ern sheriff. ' = creditors to foreclose on his To catch Dan Hardie in his prop- • tt • heavily mortgaged properties, al- er setting, it's necessary to flash though graft money was at his back to the late 1880's. Not old fingertips in huge quantities any enough to shave, young Hardie time he wanted to give in;his sons was kicking around the West,get- • said. Ung firsthand glimpses of bad men DAN HARDIE Was Almost Broke , and watching the opening of the No Compromise Oklahoma Teritory. At the age of Hardie had gone into office a 17 hdecided to see Africa and served as sheriff from 1 8 to 1916Ifairly wealthy man. He came out en route there when he were years filled with great chases nine months later practically pen- wasasped off in Miami and narrow escapes for the pio-niless. stneer. Such an experience would have City Was Trading Post There was the Rice gang that broken an ordinary man. But his That was•the year 1894 and Mi- ami robbed the bank at Homesteads sons recalled that their father still was little better than a trod=and the Ashley brothers who ter-kept his fighting spirit—still in- ing post carved out in the Ever-rorized South Florida. Hardie slated that he had taken the only Ever- glades wilderness. It was a tough broke them up honorable course. place where dangerous criminals Alert in mind but no longer a took refuge from the law because' He thought nothing of starting wealthy man, Hardie watched his no one would risk the mosquitoes,out into the Everglades with a,sons grow to maturity and make snakes and 'gators of the Ever-slab of salt po'k and some drink-Itheir own way with a boat yard glades to capture a bad man. ing water and being gone several which they built into a financial Hardie lived a rugged life. Mak-weeks while he tracked a killer success on NW North River Drive. ing.friends with Indians,he organ-down in.the swampy wastelands. But the most important thing ized work gangs that cleared the The fact tliat he was sheriff about the years that followed was palmetto scrub and pines along a presented a personal challenge to the slow swing the public and poli- trail that eventually was to be-outlaws, who continually sent1ticians took to Hardie's way of come Flagler Street.He worked as notes requesting him to meet them,thinking. He saw the Kefauver a seaman on a boat that plied be-and fight it out on the streets committee expose the same men ' tween Miami and Nassau and ran with guns. he had tried to uproot years be- . a ferry boat that was the first Own Wealth Climbed fore and witnessed the reaction at means of regular transportationWhen he.left the sheriff's office the polls to corruption in govern-' between the mainland and Miami his personal wealth T started to'ment caused by gangsters and Beach. When the Spanish-Ameri-climb. A pioneer in the develop- can politicians. can War came along at the turn ment of Miami Beach, he once Sons Are Dry-Eyed . .of the century,Hardie enlisted and invested $50,000 as a starter in There wasn't a trace of a tear served with the Army in Cuba. Beach properties while his Miami as the Hardie boys sat in their of • - When he came back he organ-friends told him the "mangrove fice yesterday and told about their ized the first volunteer fire de-swamp"across the bay would nev-father. partment in Miami and was its er amount to anything. They enjoyed telling the anec- first chief. The downtown fire sta- tion Wealth came his way but the dotes about his days as a civic, he built nearly 50 years ago is,bust in the mid-twenties found himlbusiness and political leader in still standing and in use today as a modern fire house. ;fighting to hold on to the proper-1 Dade County. There wasn't any His friends knew'and respected ties which had once been so val-rancor about his defeats. his integrity and fearlessness and,uable Still, by real estate stand-I And you could see how terribly he had little trouble getting elect-ards he was a wealthy man,even Proud they were of "The Old, ed sheriff of Dade County in 1908. though his properties were heavi•Man." ly mortgaged. • I Dade Countians will pay their After - Election Trick Then Hardie got the yen to be respects to Hardie at 10:30 a.m. Old-timers still get a kick out of tomorrow when a requiem mass' tellingabout the trick his enemies sheriff again.In 1932 he was clear- be held at Sts. Peter and; into office on a platform of clear- played after the election. Casting log organized crime out of Dade Paul Church. Burial will be v a slur on his Irish ancestry, they1County. Other Democrats elect-Woodlawn Cemetery. Rosary sere - painted a bitch dog green and ed that year included Franklin Del- claimed ices will be held at Ahern-Plum- claimed it was a Hardie relative. mer Funeral Home at 8 p.m. to- Hardie retaliated byono Roosevelt, president, andi Dave Sholtz, governor of Florida1aay getting the ' contract to paint the Courthouse, which he did in a beautiful em- Hardie kept his promises and' erald green.It remained that color closed down the big gambling S5 000 y POLIO many years and gave Hardie fans joints he claimed were controlled many a chuckle. Iby gangsters from New York and i The eight years that Hardiel Chicago. But those roaring days slpp �t�r�+CE had given birth to the philosophy 11U IVu ISoNty] that, a resort town couldn't do n DEATHS without wide-open gambling and FAMILIES $6 ©O Hardie made many enemies. ELSEWHEREGoverner Was Foe CALL OR WRITE His chief enemy was Gov. TaintOR Sholtz,who warned Hardie repeat- New York—NYT—The Rev. Dr. edly that a representative cross INS. AGENCY, INC. George Albert Simons, 78, clergy-section of Dade Countians wanted 216 Alhambra Girds man,lecturer and'writer,who had gambling on a big scale. Hardie's 1 Coral Gables Ph. 4.1697 headed various Methodist missions sons William,41, and Richard,33, to Russia before and after the -- first world war. ' ... v,,,4,-NYT—John W.