Julia Tuttle

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Julia DeForest (née Sturtevant) Tuttle, (c. 1848-September 14, 1898) was a businesswoman and citrus farmer who was largely responsible for, and the original owner of, the land upon which the city of Miami, Florida, was built. For this reason, she is called the Mother of Miami.

[edit] History

Julia DeForest Sturtevant married Frederick Leonard Tuttle on January 22, 1867. They had two children: a daughter, Frances Emeline (b. 1868), and a son, Henry Athelbert (b. 1870).

She first visited the Biscayne Bay region of southern Florida in 1875 with her husband, visiting a 40-acre (0.16 km²) orange grove her father had purchased. She loved the experience, but returned to Cleveland, Ohio with her family.

[edit] Moving to southern Florida

Her husband died in 1886, leaving her the iron foundry he owned, which she was able to keep going. In 1891, when her father died and left her his land in Florida, she sold the iron business in Ohio and returned to Biscayne Bay. She used the money from the sale of the business to purchase another 640 acres (2.6 km²) of orange groves along the Miami River, including the old Fort Dallas, which she would convert into a home for entertaining guests. She immediately decided to take a leading role in the movement to start a new city on the river, but knew that decent transportation (in that time, a railroad) was necessary.

She first contacted Henry Plant, a developer of railroads along Florida's west coast. He responded to the potential opportunity, but Plant's engineers determined that a connecting route from his existing railroad lines near Tampa through the Everglades to Tuttle's property was not feasible.

She next contacted the Florida East Coast Railroad of Henry Flagler in 1893, making several correspondences to the magnate over the next two years. Each time she was rebuffed, with Flagler seeing no need to extend the railroad beyond West Palm Beach. However, the freeze of February 1895 would finally help to sway Flagler's opinion when Tuttle alerted him that the freeze had spared the Miami River. Legend has it that she sent an orange blossom to him by mail. More accurate accounts contend that Flagler sent Tuttle an associate, who then had vast amounts of citrus shipped back to Flagler as proof of its agricultural survival. In either case, Flagler himself arrived in March of that year and was won over rapidly, drawing up plans to extend the railroad there immediately. Under their agreement, Tuttle supplied Flagler land for a hotel and a railroad station for free, and they split the remainder of her 640 acres (2.6 km²) in alternating strips.

On April 22, 1896, train service of the Florida East Coast Railway came to the area. On July 28, the new City of Miami was chartered. The original Royal Palm Hotel was opened in 1897. This hotel was demolished following the hurricanes of 1926 and 1928.

[edit] Heritage

Julia Tuttle died on September 14, 1898. She woke up with a bad headache and collapsed a few hours later. She was one of the first people interred in the City of Miami Cemetery, given a place of honor there. She died leaving a large amount of debt, partly the result of her altruistic land grants to Flagler. Her children sold her remaining land to pay it off when they went home.

Just as Tuttle is called the Mother of Miami, Henry Flagler became known as the Father of Miami. Perhaps ironically, both Tuttle and Flagler were originally from Cleveland, Ohio.

Although she is considered the mother of Miami, Miami's toponomy does not do her justice. It was not until Miami built causeway I-195 over Biscayne Bay in 1960 that her name was given to a local landmark. At the same time, William Brickell's name describes the whole area south of the Miami River as well as Miami's main avenue in the financial district. Julia Tuttle's possessions north of the River did not leave any trace in the toponomy.