JULIA TUTTLE
Julia DeForest Tuttle (Born Sturtevant, January 22, 1848 – September 14, 1898) A business woman and land owner known as the mother of Miami first came to southern Florida in 1875 when she visited her father, who had moved there. After Tuttle’s husband died in 1886, she decided to move to South Florida as well. Arriving in 1891, she bought several hundred acres on the bank of the Miami River. She believed that the Miami area (Biscayne Bay), will never prosper unless it was accessible by the railroad.
She first contacted Henry Flagler in 1893, making several correspondences to the magnate during 2 years. Each time she was rebuffed. She eventually convinced him of the area's vast potential and persuaded him to extend his Florida East Coast Railroad to Miami in 1896. In exchange, Flagler received hundreds of acres of land from Tuttle and the other major property holders in the region, the Brickells. That same year the city of Miami was incorporated.
Julia Tuttle died on September 14, 1898 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.
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