Sadly, regretfully and unhappily, we in South Florida have been burdened with no few inane, ridiculous and utterly nonsensical (not to mention “shameful,” which I am doing) Miami history myths, and, even worse, those myths have, in some cases, been propagated for so long and so incessantly that they seem to have become, in many people’s minds, factual, when, in truth and fact, they are nothing other than fables, fairy tales, fol-de-rol, or, to use the Yiddishism, bubbemissehs, having absolute no basis in truth or fact but making the teller (or writer) of the tall tales (which they are nothing but) appear to be legitimate historians when, again in truth and fact, they are anything but. (If they were actual and factual the story tellers wouldn’t be making up such supercilious and totally inane nonsense, would they? And, for the third time in truth and fact, that is all those made-up stories are, and you will read and learn what the actual factuality is regarding what you will enjoy reading as you proceed with a quick P. S.: If you tell me you didn’t enjoy learning the truth then let’s get together and I will laden you with as many bunches of hooey and ridiculosity as you can handle at one sitting, such as telling you that “Herr Trumpler is really a classy guy and a gentleman,” a statement which any even half-wit would puke in revulsion from.
And so we “begin at the beginning,” with the sadly most -repeated and most virulently and totally false comment and commentary about our history ever made, but one which, unhappily except for those who propagated and spewed it out over the decades has taken on a life of it’s own, and that, of course, is the “after the great and terrible freezes of December of 1894 and January and February of 1895, Julia Tuttle sent Mr. Flagler (we all know who he is, don’t we?!!) some orange blossoms, so he extended the railroad to Biscayne Bay.” Really? How did she send them? By FedEx? By Postal Service Overnight Mail? NO! The whole story is a made-up bunch of nonsense and never happened, or, simply put, she never sent them.
“But Seth, how can you be so sure that it never happened?” And the answer is/answers are quite simple, so y’all pay attention, now, y’hear?
First, before I get into who I am in the historic community here in the Sunshine State a couple of questions/comments: She sent orange blossoms? How did she send them? And several people have said to me “in dry ice” and my reply was simple and logical” “Do you know what dry ice would have done to orange blossoms over a trip which, since there was no railroad yet between West Palm Beach and Myamuh, had to be made by boat and by buckboard (essentially a horse drawn wagon with a bench at the front for the driver and maybe two or at the most three passengers and then an open area behind the driver’s bench in which freight or luggage could carried) and said trip, in those days, generally took at least two and a half days so we can rule dry ice out immediately.
“But Seth,” you query, “wasn’t that how Mrs. Tuttle came to be known as “the mother of Miami,” and the answer to that totally and sadly false statement is intertwined with the orange blossom silliness.
So let’s look at the actual and real and true facts: Mary and William Brickell arrived in the wilderness which would, on July 28, 1896, become the City of Miami, in 1870 and, it appears, late in that decade they began writing to Henry B. Plant, one of the three great Henrys who built Florida, asking him to extend his railroad to what was beginning to be called “Miami.” Mr. Plant, the builder of railroads, steamships and hotels in central and on the west coast of Florida, replied graciously to their first seven entreaties but with their eighth letter his reply was short, curt and to the point and in that letter he wrote the following to Mrs. Brickell (one of his six secretaries wrote his words): “My dear Madam: I have no intention of extending my railroad 160 miles across trackless wilderness to satisfy your ego. Please do not contact me again. Very truly yours, Henry Bradley Plant.”
However, she was not dissuaded because she knew that her and Mr. Brickell’s salvation was 66 miles north, which was where the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Indian River (J St A & I R) Railway (to become the Florida East Coast (F E C) Railway in September, 1895) terminated, that point being West Palm Beach, and it was then that the Brickells were joined in their quest by the aforementioned Julia Tuttle, a widow who had moved to the Biscayne Bay region from Cleveland (where she had actually made the acquaintance of one Henry M. Flagler, who, with Messrs. Andrews and Rockefeller, were the proprietors of Standard Oil) in 1888, 18 years after the arrival of the Brickells.
“So,” you ask, “how was it in truth and fact that the railroad was actually extended to Miami?” And while the answer is a bit lengthy, it is the real and true story, not some bunch of made-up hooey.
Shortly after Mr. Plant made certain that the Brickells understood that he was not going to extend his railroad across Florida both they and Mrs. Tuttle began writing to Mr. Flagler asking him to extend the railroad down the coast to the settlement on the shores of Biscayne Bay, entreaties which he was disinterested in and with each letter, as Mr. Plant had done, courteously declined to do as they had asked. However, everything changed with the great and terrible freezes noted above which, yes, actually destroyed the citrus and other crops all the way down to the temperate zone, an approximately four mile stretch which will be discussed later, because, and again contrary to the nonsense, there was no “freeze line.”
After learning that there was an increase in temperatures south of a given point (there was NO “freeze line”) Mr. Flagler sent his land commissioner, James Ingraham, along with several porters south from West Palm Beach to determine what the conditions actually were. When they crossed into the temperate zone (after years of study and research I have been able to determine that said zone was approximately four miles in length, the geographic center appearing to be at approximately the location of Broward Boulevard, which did not exist at that time, in Fort Lauderdale. Once they got to what would become Miami on July 28, 1896 they were met by the Brickells, Mrs. Tuttle and other local denizens including Ida and Jacob Schneidman and Mr. Ingraham had his porters gather boxes of truck (produce) and four small citrus tree limes (we do not know today if they were orange, grapefruit, lemon, lime or tangerine limbs), boxing and packaging all to be taken back to show Mr. Flagler in West Palm Beach.
When they returned and showed the items to Mr. Flagler the great man said (yes, this was recorded by one of Mr. Flagler’s secretaries) “are you sure? Are you certain?” to which Mr. Ingraham replied, “Sir, you sent us down there to investigate and we have not just seen it with our own eyes and can verify that both parties have written the truth to you, but this is what we have found in perfect condition.”
Following the freezes (and, yes, this is factual) both the Brickells and Mrs. Tuttle wrote to Mr. Flagler telling him that, if he would extend his railroad they would give him land and in Julia’s case more, as we shall learn: Mr. and Mrs. Brickell offered Mr. Flagler half of their holdings south of the (Miami) River while Julia advised Mr. Flagler that in addition to offering him half of her holdings north of the same river, she would give him “fifty acres for shops and yards” if he would build one of his great hotels, following which, with those offers, Mr. Flagler’s attorneys entered the picture, drew up the necessary legal documents and saw to it that “all was in order” for the extension to be built, after which both parties concurred with the legalities and construction of the extension began in the summer of 1895.
“But wait! There’s more!” because the hooey and the misstatements of FACT continue.
With the acceptance of the 50 acres for shops and yards (that acreage was the property north of the passenger station which opened in late 1911 on Avenue E and 10th Street, later 200 Northwest First Avenue) In 1921 the Chaille Plan changed the streets and avenues designations from letters and numbers to the quadrant system of Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest with today’s Northeast First Avenue having been Avenue A and today’s Miami Avenue having been Avenue D while today’s Northeast/Northwest 12th Street was, pre-Chaille Plan, First Street and today’s Miami Avenue was 12th St.
Just north of today’s Northwest Fifth Street was the FEC’s “wye” which led to the site of the original FEC Railway Miami yard, the track extending east to the passenger station (on the site of today’s MIAMI NEWS/Freedom Tower Building and it is well past high time that that historic building be given it’s proper name, as shown here) and across “the Boulevard” (today’s Biscayne Boulevard to the docks on the east side of the boulevard. In late 1911, in concert with the opening of the Key West Extension of the railway (truly, the greatest railroad story ever told) the old station was closed and the new station, site noted above, opened.
Now, what else is important for us to know regarding the Miami extension? How about the correct dates?
In an issue of “Tequesta,” the publication of the Hysterical Association of Southern Florida, my friend, Larry Wiggins, wrote an article quoting sources which stated that the railroad reached Miami on May 11th or May 13th, 1896, and that was incorrect. (He quoted, if I remember correctly, from newspaper articles of the time which had incorrect information). According to the F E C Railway Company’s official documents, the first train, a construction engineer’s train, arrived in Miami on April 15, 1896 with the first passenger train arriving on April 22, 1896 and the first excursion from “the north” (Jacksonville) leaving that city on May 11, 1896. The first issue of the first newspaper, The Miami Metropolis, was published on May 15, 1896 (we hold, here in The Bramson Archive, one of only three copies of that first issue of the first newspaper which are known to be in existence) with the city coming into existence on July 28, 1896. And as “a side note,” the first permanent Jewish settler, Isidor Cohen, arrived in March, 1896, having been held in Jupiter (along with many others) due to the virulent epidemic which had caused Miami to be quarantined for almost six weeks. (See L’CHAIM! THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF GREATER MIAMI, published by Arcadia and The History Press and available on-line from them or her in Miami from The Bramson Archive for the complete story)
And, no you don’t have to wait, because there is more!
Once all contracts were signed Mr. Flagler began construction on the Royal Palm Hotel on the north bank of the Miami River, and, again, we have several completely incorrect (false) statements regarding the hotel’s opening, those showing several different dates in early 1897. The problem? They are all wrong.
The Royal Palm Hotel, the construction of which was supervised by Mr. Flagler’s “man in Miami,” John (J. N.) Sewell (he and his brother, J. E. Sewell claimed to have opened “Miami’s first store,” but that, also, is in question, as the aforementioned Isidor Cohen made the same claim) who would become Miami’s third mayor while brother James E. would be elected the first mayor of Miami Beach in 1915, completed the hotel to the point at which it opened not in 1897 but on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 1896 with a grand and gala ball, it’s first guests checking in and enjoying the comforts of the brand new F. E. C. Hotel Company hotel that night, the official opening of the hotel actually being the last day of 1896.
As the railroad began it’s construction south from West Palm Beach the company took advantage of an offer which a number of other states, in addition to Florida, made to their railroad builders: we (the state) will give you alternate sections on either side of the railroad for every mile of railway that you complete and with a section containing 640 acres if was “an offer that couldn’t be refused,” but there was one small “bump in the road” which had to be overcome, as there were a number of places along the right of way which were already in private hands, and, of course with those land-owners knowing that they held property along the right-of-way they might want to make extravagant demands which was the point at which Mr. Flagler’s Land Commissioner, James Ingraham, for whom the Ingraham Building in downtown Miami was named and in which, on the ground floor was, for many years, the railway’s Miami city ticket office, stepped in.
Mr. Ingraham was authorized to negotiate with said property owners to get the best price possible for the railroad but he said to Mr. Flagler, “Sir, what if they are willing to turn the property over to us but also demand that we build them a station at said location?” To which Mr. Flagler replied, “tell them yes, we will be happy to build them a station,” and then added, as an aside to Mr. Ingraham, “ we will build them a station but we won’t stop any trains there!”
“And in conclusion,” for today (no few more myths to be debunked in coming issues) let us once and for all end that utter nonsense that Julia Tuttle was “the mother of Miami.” Like hell she was, because, at best, she was one of at least four real and true “mothers of Miami,” and the Miami Woman’s Club, having published a book titled Julia’s daughters, should never have propagated the myth, but they did and now it is long past due that we “set the record straight” with FACTS.
Mary Brickell arrived in 1870, Julia Tuttle in 1888, Mrs. J. N. Sewell in 1895 and Ida Cohen, wife of Isidor, who was the first permanent Jewish settler to arrive actually came with her late husband, Jacob Schneidman, in 1894. After Jacob’s death from cancer in 1896, Ida returned to New York. Several months later, ostensibly on a buying trip, Isidor want to New York, returning about a month later with the new Mrs. Cohen, formerly Ida Schneidman and her two children, who Isidor adopted and whose names became Cohen. So, dear readers, we have, in truth, fact and actuality, FOUR “mothers of Miami” not one: Mary Brickell, Julia, Mrs. Sewell and Ida S. Cohen, all equally responsible for “mothering” what would eventually become one of the world’s greatest cities, but to have given that credit to just one person (and I won’t go into several of the reasons, including the fact that Ida was Jewish and was he mother of Miami’s Jewish community) was certainly wrong, bordering on shameful
So, my friends, there you have until next time when we will continue the debunkification of the fables, fairy tales, sillynesses and myths which have plagued us for decades beginning with the “that was Al Capone’s hideaway” nonsense foisted on tour members during a certain individual’s walking tours, today’s actual and factual lesson regarding, about and related to Greater Miami history.
