History - Miami and the Keys - page 393

FIVE WHO SHAPED SOUTH FLORIDA
Henry Morrison Flagler The developer whose Florida East Coast Railroad brought
scores of visitors to sunny paradise.
Julia Tuttle The woman behind Flagler, who (supposedly) lured the skeptical developer
to Miami with a handful of orange blossoms.
Fidel Castro He may be reviled by local Cubans, but then again, said Cubans wouldn't be
here if it wasn't for the bushy-bearded Caribbean communist leader.
Morris Lapidus The Fontainebleau, Eden Roc, Lincoln Rd Mall…is there anything this
MiMo (Miami Modern) god didn't design?
Pardon C Greene One of the founding fathers of Key West; also a member of the city
council and (briefly) mayor of the town.
A Freeze Brings Flagler - & the Railway
For decades, Florida was farming country: sugar, citrus and drained swamps. In 1875,
Julia Tuttle and her tubercular husband arrived in this agricultural empire from Cleveland,
Ohio. After his death she moved to South Florida to take over the land she had inherited as
a widow. Proving her worth as a true Floridian, over the next 20 years she proceeded to
buy more and more property.
In the meantime, Henry Morrison Flagler, a business partner of John D Rockefeller,
realized Florida's tourism potential. Flagler had been busy developing the northern Florida
coast in St Augustine and Palm Beach, and he also built the Florida East Coast Railroad,
which extended down as far as Palm Beach. Tuttle saw a business opportunity and contac-
ted Flagler with a proposition: if he would extend his railroad to Miami, Tuttle would split
her property with him. Miami? Way down at the end of nowhere? Flagler wasn't interes-
ted.
Then, in 1895, a record freeze enveloped most of Florida (but not Miami), wiping out
citrus crops and sending vacationers scurrying. Legend has it that Tuttle - who is said to
have been rather quick both on the uptake and with an 'I told you so' - went into her
garden at Fort Dallas on the Miami River, snipped off some orange blossoms and sent
them to Flagler, who hightailed it down to Miami to see for himself.
Flagler was hooked. He and Tuttle came to terms, and all those Floridians whose liveli-
hoods had been wiped out by the freeze followed Flagler south. Passenger-train services to
Miami began on April 22, 1896, the year the city of Miami became incorporated. Incident-