Julia DeForest Tuttle (née Sturtevant; January 22, 1849 – September 14, 1898) was an American businesswoman who owned the property upon which Miami, Florida, was built. For her boosterism, she's called the "Mother of Miami." She is the only woman to have founded what would become a major American city.
Early life
Julia Sturtevant was the daughter of Ephraim Sturtevant, a Florida planter and state senator. She married Frederick Leonard Tuttle on January 22, 1867. They had two children: a daughter, Frances Emeline (b. 1868), and a son, Henry Ethelbert (b. 1870). Julia Tuttle first saw the Biscayne Bay region of South Florida in 1875 with her husband, visiting a 40-acre (16 ha) orange grove her father had purchased. She loved the experience, but returned to Cleveland, Ohio, with her family.
Move to South Florida
Tuttle came to Fort Dallas, Florida, from Cleveland to visit her father, who had homesteaded in the Biscayne Bay area. As her husband’s health declined from tuberculosis, she managed his business responsibilities. After his death in 1886, she decided to leave Ohio permanently and make Florida her home.
Tuttle used the money from her parents' estate to purchase the James Egan grant of , where the city of Miami is now located, on the north side of the Miami River, including the old Fort Dallas stone buildings, and the two-story rock house built by Richard Fitzpatrick's enslaved workers some 50 years earlier. This was converted into her home. In 1891, Tuttle brought her family to live there. She repaired and converted the home into one of the show places in the area with a sweeping view of the river and Biscayne Bay. She stated in a letter to her friend “It may seem strange to you, but it is the dream of my life to see this wilderness turned into a prosperous country. Where this tangled mass of vine, brush, trees and rocks now are to see homes with modern improvements surrounded by beautiful grassy lawns, flowers, shrubs and shade trees.”
Just as Tuttle is called the Mother of Miami, Flagler became known as the Father of Miami. Both Tuttle and Brickell had previously lived in Cleveland, where they first met.
In addition to the Julia Tuttle Causeway, the memory of Tuttle has been honored with a sculpture in Bayfront Park, by Daub and Firmin. Additionally, the large downtown Miami food hall, Julia & Henry's, is named for her and Flagler.
Julia Tuttle inspired several projects of the Miami Girls Foundation and the Miami Girls Manifesto written by Rebecca Fishman-Lipsey.
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File:JuliaTutteMiami.jpg|Julia Tuttle statue in Bayfront Park - Miami
File:Julia tuttle tomb 02.jpg|Julia Tuttle memorial marker in the Miami City Cemetery
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References
Sources
- Akin, Edward N.. The Cleveland Connection: Revelations from the John D. Rockefeller - Julia Tuttle Correspondences. In Tequesta: the Journal of the Historical Association of Southern Florida, no. XLII (1982). [http://digitalcollections.fiu.edu/tequesta/files/1982/82_1_03.pdf]
- Frank, Andrew K. Before the Pioneers: Indians, Settlers, Slaves, and the Founding of Miami (University Press of Florida, 2017)
- Peters, Thelma. Biscayne Country, 1870-1926. Miami, Fla.: Banyan Books, c1981.
- Tuttle Family Papers. Finding aid. Tuttle Family Papers - 1889-1954 -
- Wiggins, Larry. The Birth of the City of Miami. In Tequesta: the Journal of the Historical Association of Southern Florida, no. LV (1995). [http://digitalcollections.fiu.edu/tequesta/files/1995/95_1_01.pdf]