Migration
YearMonthDayEvent Related
Resource
1819February22Spain ceded Florida to the United States. Although the two countries signed a treaty in this year, it was not ratified in the U.S. until two years later. 
1821  Temple Pent, a Bahamian immigrant, arrived in the area that would later come to be known as Coconut Grove. He failed in his attempt to officially homestead in the area, but his family settled there anyway and became its first permanent residents. He was nonetheless significant in early Dade County history, serving as Justice of the Peace and the keeper of the Cape Florida lighthouse. 
1823July03Monroe County was created. It not only included all of what would later be Dade County, but all of the land in Florida south of Lake Okeechobee as well. The county seat was in Key West.display
1825December17The Cape Florida Lighthouse was completed. The site was the southern tip of Key Biscayne.display
1835December The Second Seminole War began. One of the incidents that contributed most heavily to its start was the killing of 108 United States soldiers near Bushnell, Florida. The war lasted until 1842 and was the most significant of all the Seminole Wars. Some of the fighting occurred in southeastern Florida, some in the areas that would later be part of the City of Miami. During the war, Fort Dallas was established on the Miami River.display
1836January06Dade County was created. At the time, it included present-day Martin, Palm Beach, and Broward Counties, though Monroe County retained the western Keys. Indian Key was the county seat of the newly created Dade County. Despite these early beginnings, by 1870 the county still had fewer than one hundred residents.display
July23The Seminole Indians attacked the Cape Florida Lighthouse in the midst of the Second Seminole War. They set fire to the structure, but did not manage to completely destroy it. 
1838  Fort Dallas was established. Situated at the mouth of the Miami River, it served as a base for the United States Navy before Florida became a state. It was from this base that the U.S. launched attacks against Florida's Indian population in the Second Seminole War.display
1840  Simeon Frow arrived in Key West from Majorca. Later, he would become keeper of the Cape Florida Lighthouse, and his family would play a significant role in the history of early Coconut Grove. 
1842  The military abandoned Fort Dallas following the Second Seminole War. 
  William English acquired the Fort Dallas land formerly held by the military. 
1844March09Dade's county seat was moved from Indian Key to Miami. It would only be in Miami until 1889, when it was moved to Juno. 
1845March03Florida was admitted to the Union. It was admitted as a slave state, and at the time, almost one half of its 54,447 people were African American.display
1855  The United States reoccupied Fort Dallas. They did so for use in the brief fighting of the Third Seminole War (1855-1858). William English had already abandoned the property in the early 1850s as he headed west for California. This continued fighting discouraged settlement in the Miami area. 
1858June10The United States Army abandoned Fort Dallas. While they had already been forced to reestablish their presence there once before, the end of major fighting against the Seminole tribes marked the end of the fort's usefullness. 
1859  Simeon Frow became keeper of the Cape Florida Lighthouse. Having come recently from Key West and originally from Majorca, he held the post until the light went out during the Civil War. Later, one of his sons would hold the position. 
1868  Edmund D. Besly became the first person to apply for a homestead in the area that is today called Coconut Grove. It was comprised of 160 acres and stretched between today's Twenty-seventh Avenue and the Moorings. After his death, his widow Anna and the newly immigrated Dr. Horace Philo Porter disputed the validity of the claim. Ulimately though, Anna Besley won out and was awarded the homestead in 1875. 
1873January06A post office was established in the area that is today called Coconut Grove. It was the first time that the larger area where the Pent's, Besley's, and Dr. Porter had settled was referred to by name. Some of the settlements had individual names, but the creation of this post office established the area's name as Cocoanut Grove (as it was spelled then). Dr. Porter was its first postmaster. 
1874February08The Cocoanut Grove post office closed when Dr. Porter left Miami to follow his wife to Boston. 
1875May20Anna Besley won control of her deceased husband Edmund's homestead in Cocoanut Grove. 
1882  Hamilton Disston, a wealthy Philadelphian, purchased four million acres of swamplands in the Everglades. His engineers worked with the goal of draining the Everglades to serve man. Few at this time understood the crucial significance of this sprawing ecosystem. It would not be long before salt began to seep into Miami's drinking water due to sinking water levels in the Everglades.display
  J. William Ewan officially became the second homesteader in Cocoanut Grove. He had been in the area since 1874, arriving from Charleston, South Carolina. 
1883January06Henry Lum purchases two lots of land from the United States government along the ocean north of 11th Street. He paid between $0.75 and $1.25 an acre. 
1884  John Frow became Cocoanut Grove's first land subdivider. He sold parts of his land to his brother Joseph Frow, James A. Waddell, three of his sisters, and several others. He kept forty-three acres for himself. 
1886June27The first recorded board meeting of Dade County Schools was held. Charles Lum was appointed the first superintendent one year earlier. 
1889February19The Dade County seat moved from Miami to Juno. It would moved back to Miami ten years later. 
1890  The settlement of Lemon City began to take shape. It was two miles north of the Miami River on the shore of Biscayne Bay. The area - set roughly where today's Biscayne Boulevard and Sixty-first streets intersect - was then called Billy Mettair's Bight. The area had homes, hotels, saloons, and several other businesses.display
1891  Julia Tuttle and her children arrived in Miami. They did so after purchasing 640 acres on the north bank of the Miami River. It was the old Fort Dallas land. Like the family of William Brickell, hers was from Cleveland. It was there that the two had met.display
February John Collins, along with two other investors, purchases land in southeastern Florida. Shortly thereafter, Collins invests $5,000 in a soon-to-fail coconut venture on Miami Beach.display
1892  A road linking Lemon City with Lantana in Palm Beach County was completed. Lemon City thus became the first section of Miami to be linked to the cities and towns to the north. 
1893  The Florida legislature enacted a bill protecting manatees. Those who captured or killed the species were subject to fines of $500 and three months in prison. 
April16John Pent, Temple Pent's son, applied for a homestead in Cocoanut Grove. He was unable to prove his claim just northeast of today's Grand Avenue, however, his son Edward succeeded in doing so roughly a decade later. Even though this failed attempt at a homestead followed others that had been successful, the Pents were still the area's first permanent residents. 
1894  Crops are destroyed as far south as Palm Beach when a severe freeze hits the east coast. Henry Flagler becomes convinced that the future of America's winter crops lay further south. He soon makes the decision to extend his railway to Biscayne Bay. 
February11Henry Flagler's Royal Poinciana Hotel opened in Palm Beach.display
April02Henry Flagler's railroad reached Palm Beach. 
April07The Lemon City Library opened.display
1895  In the winter of 1895, a severe blizzard hit New England. Solomon Merrick, the father of young George Edgar Merrick, lost his daughter Ruth during the accompanying flu epidemic. This loss was, according to George, crucial in his father's decision to purchase one hundred sixty acres of land in what would eventually become Coral Gables. 
  John N. Lummus arrived in Miami. He saw immediate promise for the area's development, and returned a year later to work as a train dispatcher for the Florida East Coast Railway. 
1896  Henry Flagler and Julia Tuttle created a district for Miami's black residents. It was between N.W. Sixth and Twelfth streets, and later became known as Overtown. By 1915, most of the city's 5,000 blacks lived in the general vicinity of this community. 
  The first known Cubans move to Miami. It is Eduardo Luis Gonzalez and his family who move to the young city at this time. 
February James E. Lummus arrived in Miami and opened a general merchandise store. He maintained the store until 1908.display
April15The Florida East Coast Railway, owned by Henry Flagler, reached Miami and the first train arrived on this day. Prior to this date, most of the people in the area were homesteaders and the only "towns" were Coconut Grove and Lemon City.display
July28The City of Miami was incorporated. 344 registered voters met for the vote, and elected John B. Reilly as the first Mayor. While only 344 votes were tallied, 368 voters were present at the meeting. Of those men (women were not allowed to vote), 206 were white and 162 were black. 
1897  Captain William H. Fulford acquired a 160-acre land patent from President Grover Cleveland through utilization of the Homestead Act. The land surrounded a railroad depot just north of Miami that had been established by the Florida East Coast Railroad a year earlier. Though only a mile from Ojus, the two communities remained separated due to the poor roads and difficult travel conditions. Later, however, all of these lands would be incorporated into North Miami Beach. 
  In the 1890s, settlers established farms along the east side of the Oleta River. In this year, the area was named Ojus by Albert Fitch, a farmer who wanted to grow pineapples in the rich soil. The word Ojus is a Seminole word for "plenty" or "lots of", and at that time, farmers in Ojus grew peas, beans, sugar cane, and tomatoes. 
January Wilson Alexander Larkins settled in the area of today's South Miami. He came with his family and livestock, building for them a home and a barn. 
1898  Wilson Larkins opened a dry goods store, and outpost, and established a post office near his home and farm. It was not long after this that people began to settle in the area in greater numbers. 
June24The first of 7,000 U.S. troops began to arrive in Miami. Some came to build fortifications on William Brickell's bluff, and some were on their way to fight against the Spanish in Cuba. A wide large area of the northern sector of today’s downtown became their home. Camp Miami, as it came to be known, was near the city's black area. The soldiers provoked several violent incidents there.display
August12The last units of Camp Miami dispersed. With the war in Cuba ending so quickly, the soldiers' stay in Miami had only lasted for six weeks and ended before they were ever needed in Cuba. 
October William Burdine and his family moved to Miami. "Burdine and Son" had been operating in Bartow, a central-west Florida town, but when William's son John found quick success selling wares to soldiers stationed in Miami, the father made the choice to move the store to the growing city. The store's first home was on South Miami Avenue close to Flagler Street. 
1901  Dade County passed a wildlife protection act, prohibiting the killing, capturing, or shooting of deer, crocodile, and any wild bird. 
1904  Napoleon Bonaparte Broward was elected Governor of Florida. His campaign promise was to drain much of south Florida, creating an "Empire of the Everglades." 
1905  Henry Flagler decided to extend his Florida East Coast Railway further south, from Biscayne Bay in Miami to Key West. 
1909October01The Everglades Land Sales Company opened its office in Miami. Much of the land it sold was purchased sight unseen. 
1911November A color line was drawn along certain streets throughout Miami. The city's white residents wished to restrict the expansion of areas inhabited by blacks. A year earlier, the 1910 census reported that 42% of the city's residents were black, and at the time, racial conflicts were becoming more common. 
1912  Lafe Allen and an associate purchased Captain Fulford's original grant plus additional property with the idea of developing and selling lots. Eventually, they purchased 557 acres of land. 
May Before the start of construction linking Miami Beach by bridge to the mainland, the Lummus Brothers acquired 500 acres to the south of Collins, from 14th Street to Government Cut. The land was bought from Charles Lum and Edmund Wilson for $80,000. The two brothers established the Ocean Beach Reality Company with a vision of a modest city composed of single-family residences fronting the ocean. The brothers became pioneers of beach-front property sales. 
May The U.S. War Department gives developers permission to construct a bridge spanning Biscayne Bay. Realty firms prepared for what they believed would be a surge in population upon the bridge's completion. The bridge would be named the Collins Bridge. 
July01Thomas Pancoast arrived in Miami. He was secretary and treasurer of the Miami Beach Improvement Company. John Collins was the company's president. Together, both men pursued loans from the Lummus brothers, both of whom were involved in banking.display
July09The Ocean Beach Realty Company filed the first plots of land on the beach. The Lummus brothers' plots preceded those filed by John Collins and Carl Fisher five and six months later respectively.display
July22Construction of the Collins Bridge began. It was slated to cost $75,000, though the final cost was nearly twice that. 
1914  The W.J. Brown Hotel opened on Miami Beach. It was the first hotel to open on the island. 
1915April30Broward County was created. It had previously been part of Dade County. 
1917  The status of Miami Beach was changed from town to city. 
  Lafe Allen made plans for a "perfect city" calling for 80-foot wide residential streets and 100 and 125-foot wide business thoroughfares. Today, the area's street layout is as the pioneer pictured it then with wide avenues named Fulford Boulevard (now known as NE 172nd Street) and Flagler Boulevard (now known as NE 19th Avenue). Then referred to as Fulford-by-the-Sea, today the area is North Miami Beach. 
  The Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Drainage District was created. The project's goal was to drain and reclaim a half million acres in Broward and northern Dade Counties.display
July15A group of whites bombed the Odd Fellows Hall, which was at the time the largest structure found in the city's black community. The guilty parties were never arrested. 
1918  The Tamiami Trail began to extend further west. In this year, forty-three miles were completed.display
1919  The lower southeast coast of Florida opens to automobile traffic for the first time when Dixie Highway was completed through Broward County. 
1967  Several Florida species were put on the federal endangered list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service placed Florida panther, the snail kite, and the Cape Sable seaside sparrow on the list.display
1976  Florida's state legislature created the South Florida Water Management District.display
1979  Anastasio Somoza Debayle, Nicaragua's ousted dictator, fled to Miami. Along with other members of his fallen government, roughly 15,000 wealthy Nicaraguans moved into or purchased residences in Miami during the late 1970s. The primary areas of concentration for these moves and purchases were Key Biscayne, Brickell Avenue, and the western suburb of Sweetwater. 
1980April21The Mariel boatlift from Cuba to the U.S. began as the first boats began to reach Key West. By the end, nearly 140,000 Cubans would be brought to South Florida. 
May20The INS detention center on Krome Avenue opened. It had previously been used as a missile base. 
September26The Mariel boatlift ended. 
November04An "English Only" referendum passed in Dade County. 
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