The town of Hastings was named for Thomas Horace Hastings, a cousin of Henry Flagler. Hastings and other settlers came to the area for its agricultural potential and because it was near the St. Johns River and Deep Creek. In the 1800s, Flagler bought parts of existing railways, upgraded them, and incorporated the new railway into the Florida East Coast Railway. That railway enabled fresh produce from Hastings to be delivered to Flagler’s Ponce de Leon and Alcazar Hotels in St. Augustine.