A Miami Chronology

John Egan, after successfully petitioning the Spanish government, was, on February 27, granted 100 acres bordering the Sweetwater River.

Following the Revolutionary War, Spain had regained control of Florida from Britain as part of the Treaty of Paris of 1783. When the British left the area, Spanish colonists as well as settlers from the newly formed United States flocked Florida, many of the new residents lured by favorable Spanish land grants which paved the way for land ownership. The Seminoles were encouraged to set up farms, providing a buffer between Spanish Florida and the US. Even slaves desperate to escape their owners’ reach found refuge in Florida, though that agitated the US government. Steered by General Andrew Jackson, US military forces invaded the area, scattering the villagers, burning their towns and seizing Spanish-held Pensacola and St. Marks, resulting in the First Seminole War that would end in 1818.

The Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, also known as the Transcontinental Treaty or the Purchase of Florida Treaty, has been said to represent “perhaps the greatest victory ever won by a single man in the diplomatic history of the United States.” Though negotiations over Florida had begun with the 1815 mission of Spain’s Don Luis de Onís to Washington, resolution would materialize when President James Monroe appointed John Quincy Adams Secretary of State. In response to Adams’ demand for control over the inhabitants of East Florida or its cessation to the United States, Onis agreed that Spain would not only surrender the colony but would also renounce all claims to West Florida. The Treaty also defined the western limits of the Louisiana Purchase with Spain surrendering its claims to the Pacific Northwest. The US, in return, recognized Spanish sovereignty over Texas. Spain received no compensation though the US agreed to assume liability for $5 million in damage done by American citizens who had rebelled against Spain. Although ratified in 1821, the US could not immediately open the territory to newcomers as private land claims remained unsettled, and the government had to confirm all Spanish land grants issued before January 24, 1818, as in order to secure its remote region in the territory, Spain had offered land donations to anyone loyal to the Spanish Crown.

Pirate Black Cesar and his partner Gasparilla were killed in an ambush by the US Navy. The Cocolobo Bay Cay Club still presides over the fallen pirate’s empire. The site of Black Cesar’s original landfall known as Cesar Creek (Elliott Key), is one of the finest fishing grounds in the world today.

Richard Fitzpatrick bought James Egan’s entire acreage as well as the original 100 acres belonging to Egan's son.

James Egan filed a residence claim and was granted 640 acres adjacent to the original Egan tract which comprised what would become the heart of Miami 100 years later.

Named after Commodore Alexander James Dallas who was in charge of the US Naval Forces in the West Indies, Fort Dallas was built on the present site of Miami.

With the discovery of gold on Cherokee in the 1820s, Native Americans, especially those in the southeast United States, found themselves fighting to retain possession of their land. Desperate, some sought a sympathetic ear of the newly-elected President Andrew Jackson. But instead, the president, a Tennessean and veteran of the First Seminole War, in 1830, signed the Indian Removal Act, authorizing the resettlement of all Native Americans to lands west of the Mississippi River, dissidence met with force as necessary. While some tribes moved, without reluctance, as they saw the usurping of their land as inevitable, some sought legal remedy. Others, including the Seminoles who broke rank with the so-called "Five Civilized Tribes," and with Osceola emerging as a young leader among the tribe, opted for war. On a resupply mission on December 28, 1835, as Major Francis Dade, for whom Dade County would later be named, was leading 110 troops from Fort Brooke (near Tampa) to Fort King (today’s Ocala), nearly twice as many Seminoles and allies ambushed the men, killing Dade and just about all his battalion. Though three soldiers were initially spared, only one ultimately survived, returning to Fort Brook with tales of what became known as the Dade Massacre, signaling the start of “the most expensive war the white man ever waged against Native Americans—the Second Seminole War. The war ended in 1842, as early as 1837, some 46,000 Native Americans were relocated.

“Long John” Sturvenant was commissioned to carry the mail and military dispatches between Miami and St. Augustine on foot.

Named after Major Francis L. Dade whose 1837 killing had spawned the Second Seminole War, and with Indian Key as the county seat, Dade County was created by an act of the Territorial Legislative Council.

A post office was opened on Key Biscayne.

Harriet English, John Egan’s sister, bought 644 acres from Richard Fitzpatrick. She transferred the property to her son William F. English.

Dr. Henry Perrine was killed during the August 7 Massacre at Indian Key.

A prelude to the official declaration of the end of the Second Seminole War ten days later, Congress passed the Armed Occupation Act on August 4, bequeathing 160 acres to settlers, provided they built a home and cultivate at least five acres for five years in southern and eastern Florida. Extended in 1848, the act’s intent was to fill the frontier with homesteaders, with the expectation that should it become necessary, they provide militia service in quelling the warring Seminoles.

Though no peace treaty was officially signed, with the Armed Occupation Act in place, the Second Seminole War was declared over on August 14, just ten days after Congress passed the act that promoted white settlement. By the end of the war, some 4,000 Seminoles had been relocated to Indian Territory, today’s Oklahoman, leaving only a few hundred in Florida.

With about 66,000 people, Florida finally became a state on March 3, after eons being bounced about between Spain and Britain, and after almost 20 years as a US territory. The road to statehood began with the 1838 referendum in favor of joining the union, and a state constitution approved a year later. Congress rolled out the welcome mat, making Florida the 27th in the United States of America. By May, the new state held its first election and William D. Moseley emerged as the inaugural governor, while David Levy Yulee, a leader in the fight for statehood, became a U.S. Senator. Seventeen state senators and 41 state representatives were also elected to serve a population that, by 1850, would blossom to 87,445, including about 40,000 African-Americans: 39,000 enslaved and “1,000 free blacks.”

William English sailed to the goldfields of California where he would die in 1855, bequeathing his estate to his mother Harriet and his uncle John.

Land disputes led to the Third Seminole War, also known as the Billy Bowlegs War. Though no large battles were fought, as the final war between the Seminoles and the US consisted mainly of “raids and reprisals,” the United States’ attempt to destroy the Seminoles’ food supply was a turning point for the majority of Seminoles who still called Florida home. War-fatigued and facing starvation, many relented, agreeing to be shipped to Oklahoma. By the time the war ended in 1858, Florida’s Seminole population had dwindled to around 200 who had simply refused to relinquish their land, though they would retreat to lands unwanted by whites.

William P. Wagner arrived at Fort Dallas, homesteading 40 acres on the tract where the Allapattah schoolhouse would eventually be built.

George W. Ferguson was made postmaster of the Fort Dallas Post Office which had opened in December 1856.

Enacted during the Civil War, the Homestead Act, signed on May 20, was the latest attempt to encourage settlement of ‘unchartered’ frontier lands. The act made provisions for any adult citizen, intended or actual, to receive 160 acres with stipulations that included 1) the recipient had never borne arms against the US government; 2) claimants improve the parcel by building a house and cultivating the land for five years; and 3) after the prescribed five-year period, pay a nominal registration fee in return for a free and clear title. Claimants who preferred not to invest five years, could purchase the land at $1.25 per acre while Civil War veterans would credit for time served as part of the five-year requirement.

William F. Gleason arrived at Fort Dallas in July, becoming lieutenant-governor in 1868 and in that same year, having tried to impeach Governor Harrison Reed, named himself governor. For one month, Florida had two governors. He was then impeached because he did not live in Florida three years prior to holding office.

William Brickell and his wife Mary moved to southern Florida from Cleveland, Ohio. After acquiring land from Harriet English who was selling four Spanish land grants she acquired from her late son, the Brickells opened a trading post as well as a post office on the south bank of the Miami River, near Fort Dallas. But prior to Miami, William had had a rich life, despite losing both parents by the time he was 18. With the 1851 discovery of gold in Australia, the enterprising William, along with Adam Kidd, set out for the land down under. Together the pair would found Kidd & Brickell, peddling wares to hopefuls. William and his partner met resounding success, eventually building the town’s first hotel, as well as operating a barge, even and a coach service. William and Mary were, however, fated to return to the US, eventually making way to Cleveland, Ohio, as well as the acquaintances of the up-and-coming Henry Flagler and John D. Rockefeller. Still enjoying his wealth gained in Australia, William was Flagler and Rockefeller’s benefactor, loaning the pair money to pay taxes on 375 acres of oil land.

Dr. Porter opened a store in Coconut Grove.

The bakery and two of the officer’s quarters of Fort Dallas were burned to the ground. The fire spared the stone barracks as well as a third officer’s house, which would eventually become Julia Tuttle’s home.

Twenty-six-year-old Julia Tuttle, future “Mother of Miami,” visited her father, Ephraim Sturtevant, at his homestead in Dade County.

Originally from Ohio, Adam C. Richards arrived in Dade County on January 26, and would become the first in South Florida to produce vegetables for the northern midwinter market. He grew tomatoes, beans and eggplants on land that would eventually host Flagler’s Royal Palm Hotel.

In the employ of Merritt Wrecking Company of New York, Ralph Monroe was sent to the area to supervise coastal salvage work (from the Town of Alligator (today Lake City) to Town of Jupiter). The multi-talented Monroe also reported on local plant life to the Department of Agriculture and kept the Bureau of Fisheries informed on local fish. His knowledge of medicine made him invaluable in a community which then had no regular doctor. A registered naval architect, Monroe would eventually go on to design a number of boats in a young city of Miami. Upon completion of assignment, Monroe returned to his Staten Island, New York home where he married and started an oyster business.

Shortly into their marriage, Ralph Monroe’s wife contracted the dreaded tuberculosis, prompting a move to Miami in hope the warmer weather would be encourage healing. That wasn’t to be as Mrs. Monroe died in April 1882, after which the newly-minted widower returned to New York only to find his infant daughter had died. He then decided to return to Miami where he convinced Charles and Isabella Peacock to build a hotel as there was no public lodging in the area.

The marriage of Anti-Semitism and poverty in Eastern Europe spawned the great wave of Jewish immigration.

Having acquired 31 acres from John Frow and at the urging of Ralph Monroe, London-born Charles Peacock built the Bayview Hotel (later renamed the Peacock Inn) in Coconut Grove. Peacock had lured black Bahamians back from Key West to work at the hotel. Only a short distance from Peacock’s hotel, the workers in turn built Kebo, a small settlement named for the majestic peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Henry M. Flagler who was born poor in 1830 in New York State but who would go on reap to millions as a Standard Oil magnate, paid his first visit to Florida at the age of 53.

Charles Peacock, who had established a boat business as well as a general store in Coconut Grove, was made postmaster.

To close out the year, Henry Flagler, on December 31, bought the holdings of the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Hallifax River Railway.

Kirk Monroe, writer of boys’ stories, migrated to Coconut Grove with his wife, daughter of Amelia Barr

Kirk Monroe, along with his distant relative Ralph, organized the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club of which Ralph was the commodore for 22 years.

Henry Flagler’s Ponce de Leon Hotel opened in St Augustine.

Henry Flagler bought the St. Augustine & Palatka Railway, extending it to Daytona.

Originally from the Bahamas, John Saunders homesteaded the land on which he had been living and started selling lots, including to an enterprising newcomer, Eugene C. Harrington, who bought a half-mile strip, subdividing it into Lemon City.

Following the death of her father, 41-year-old Julia Tuttle acquired title to 640 acres, including the site of the original Fort Dallas where she transformed one of the old officer’s quarters into her home.

Ralph Monroe donated some of his land to a new church known as the Union Chapel.

On July 23, John W.B. Thompson, keeper of the Cape Florida Lighthouse at the south end of Key Biscayne, survived a 24-hour Seminole on the facility. Built in 1825, the lighthouse is still operational.

Though Fort Dallas, located on the north bank of the Miami River, would close and reopen as conflicts necessitated, the US government permanently abandoned the fort on June 10, its last reactivation the Third Seminole War in 1855. Incidentally, during the final occupation, soldiers rebuilt the rock houses and added a hospital, stables, new officer’s quarters and other structures, lending an air of an actual fort.

Ralph Monroe built his house, the Barnacle, at 3485 Main Highway, though it would be razed in 1908 to make room for a two-story structure he designed. It remains the area’s the oldest building.

Henry Flagler’s railway reached Palm Beach in March.

The Great Freeze of 1894/5 struck most of Florida but spared Miami. Julia Tuttle, whose plans for a thriving metropolis were being thwarted by a lack of decent transportation, was eager to attract Flagler’s railway if her dreams for a city were to be realized. With produce still thriving in Miami, unlike the case in central or northern parts of the state, a determinedly enterprising Tuttle sent Flagler a bouquet of citrus flowers to prove the economics of extending the railway to Miami.

Lemon City had three short business streets, with its thoroughfare, Lemon Avenue (today’s 62nd Street) home to fifteen buildings including several substantial houses, two small hotels, two or three small saloons, one restaurant, a blacksmith shop, a real estate office and a sawmill.

Coconut Grove and Lemon City were thriving as Cutler (today’s Palmetto Bay), another settlement in south Dade County, began to flourish.

Later renamed the Breakers, Henry Flagler built the Palm Beach Inn.

Having been enticed by Julia Tuttle’s gesture and convinced by economic prospects, Henry Flagler went to Miami in February, heralding news of the extension of his railroad from Palm Beach. He had made a deal with Tuttle and the Brickells, accepting 525 acres on the north bank of the river and 400 acres on the south. Though Tuttle had added 100 acres along the bay and river for Flagler’s Royal Palm Hotel that he had commissioned McGuire and McDonald to construct, she reserved Fort Dallas and 13 acres for her own home. As was her custom, Tuttle inserted a clause prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages into the land deed but acquiesced to Flagler’s demand that for three months of the year, guests at his hotel would be free to have their little nips. News of the impending railroad had the same effect on Miami as the Gold Rush had on Sutter’s Creek, California.

Miami’s first school opened at today’s NE 1st Street and Miami Avenue.

During the construction of the Royal Palm Hotel, workmen leveled the large Native American mound, which stood like a small mountain near the mouth of the river, to make way for the hotel’s verandah. They discovered several graves near the top of the mound, as well as around 60 skeletons in the center.

Dr. James A. Jackson arrived in Miami and became the city’s first physician, setting up a temporary office in the Townley Brothers shoe store that also doubled as a drugstore.

February 15 witnessed the groundbreaking for Henry Flagler’s Royal Palm Hotel.

What started with Julia Tuttle’s invitation months earlier, ended at 9pm on April 22, with the arrival first passenger rail service, the station located at today’s NE 6th Street ad NE 2nd Avenue, with Herbert S. Rogers as the first official engineer and Ed Steinhauser as the first official conductor. (The first non-passenger train had arrived on April 15, transporting lumber and building supplies.)

Established by Walter S. Graham and Wesley M. Featherly, Miami’s first newspaper, Miami Metropolis, was published on May 15, and would be bought by B.B. Tatum in 1899. In 1905, S. Bobo Dean bought a half interest and Tatum would later sell his interest to A.J Bendel, who, along with Dean ran the newspaper until 1915 when Dean became the sole owner.

Much to the delight of Julia Tuttle and with the vote of 344 men—the majority (183) of them black—Fort Dallas was incorporated as the City of Miami in the Lobby Pool room on July 28. John B. Reilly was elected as the new city’s inaugural mayor. Though Tuttle had been a catalyst in bringing affecting the conditions for Fort Dallas to become a city, she was not allowed to vote as women were not yet granted that right.

Henry Flagler’s Royal Palm Hotel opened on January 16.

The City of Miami welcomed its first saloons, as unlike his mother Julia, Harry Tuttle sold a few lots of land, neglecting to include the ‘no alcohol’ clause.

An explosion destroyed the USS Maine in the Havana Harbor at 9:40pm on February 15, killing 268 men, of them, only 200 bodies recovered and of those, 76 identified. Suspicions engendered by a distrust of the Spanish and perhaps bolstered by a March 28 United States Naval Court of Inquiry that concluded “the Maine was destroyed by a submerged mine,” was enough to spark the short-lived Spanish-American War. Henry Flagler, concerned about safeguarding his interests in Miami, convinced the US government to build a fortification on South 15th Street (today’s Point View), for a war that lasted only two months.

The City of Miami created its fire department on July 17, with Charles H. Garthside as its first chief.

Julia Tuttle "The Mother of Miami" died on September 14, heralding the outbreak of Yellow Fever and subsequent three-month quarantine just two years after the founding of her beloved Miami. To keep people busy and Miami afloat until the epidemic subsided, Henry Flagler poured money in the construction of new streets, sidewalks and other municipal improvements.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1886, George Edgar Merrick and parents Solomon and Althea left Massachusetts for South Florida.