History of Miami
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the treacherous Great Florida reef. Some accepted Spanish land offers along the Miami River. At about the same time, the Seminole Indians arrived along with a group of runaway slaves. In 1825, the Cape Florida Lighthouse was built on nearby Key Biscayne to warn passing ships of the dangerous reefs. In the 1830s, Richard Fitzpatrick bought land on the Miami River from the Bahamians, becoming one of the first and most successful of the permanent white settlers. He operated a successful plantation with slave labor where he cultivated sugarcane, bananas, maize, and tropical fruit. Fort Dallas was located on Fitzpatrick’s plantation on the north bank of the river. The area was affected by the Second Seminole War, where Major William S. Harney led several raids against the Indians. Most non-Indian residents were soldiers stationed at Fort Dallas. It was the most devastating Indian war in American history, causing almost a total loss of population in the Miami area. The Cape Florida lighthouse was burned by
Seminoles in 1836 and was not repaired until 1846. After the Second Seminole War ended in 1842, Fitzpatrick’s nephew, William English, re-established the plantation in Miami. He charted the "Village of Miami" on the south bank of the Miami River and sold several plots of land. In 1844, Miami became the county seat, and six years later a census reported that there were ninety-six residents living in the area. The Third Seminole War (1855–1858) was not as destructive as the second one. Even so, it slowed down the settlement of southeast Florida. At the end of the war, a few of the soldiers stayed. Some of the Seminoles remained in the Everglades. However, as late as the 1890s, only a handful of families made their homes in Miami. Many of the settlers were homesteaders, attracted to the area by offers of 160 acres (0.6 km) of free land by the US federal government. Among the homesteaders was William Brickell, known as the Father of Miami, who came from Cleveland, Ohio in 1871. He held a trading post and post office at the mouth of the Miami River and bought some land there. In 1891, a wealthy Cleveland woman named Julia Tuttle purchased an enormous citrus plantation in the Miami area. Tuttle's husband, Frederick Tuttle, had died in 1886, and she decided to move to South Florida due to the "delicate health" of her children. She and William Brickell tried to get railroad magnate Henry Flagler to expand his rail line, the
1890s: Fast growth and formation