Early History of Miami

No one really knows exactly how Miami Florida got its name, some legends believe it received its name from the Miami Indians, but in fact this area of Florida was populated with Tequesta and Seminole Indians; others believe that the name Miami is derived from the Native American word for “sweet water”. But, no matter the origin of the name, Miami has had a quite colorful history and is still known today for its diverse mixture of nationalities and art deco.

The Tequesta Indians were the first to live in this region and defended southern Florida from many invaders including Ponce De Leon in the early 1500’s. Because of this encounter not too many explorers ventured toward southern Florida.

The first recorded residence of Miami was John Eagan in 1808. At this time, the Spaniards were in control of southern Florida and the keys. But, they still had Native American Indians to contend with and fight on a regular basis. But, John Eagan, was granted a tract of land that was 100 acres on the north side of the Miami River.

In 1819, Florida became property of the United States, after that Congress passed an act in which they would donate 640 acres of land to any person who wished to settle the area and improve the land in Southern Florida and also defend their land from the Indians for what they called a reasonable time. Now, John Eagan has neighbors move in and before long all the settlers that received land on the bay front sold their land to Richard Fitzpatrick, of Key West, in 1827.

Richard Fitzpatrick, had the desire to build a great plantation on this land and his dream was to build not only a money making plantation with slaves to do the work, but a fine colonial mansion from native stone. He did not occupy his mansion long. A Seminole uprising began in 1835 and he fled with his slaves to the keys. This is when the American troops took over his plantation and home. His land became known as Fort Dallas. All of his hard work was destroyed by the troops with the cutting of trees and building of extra structures for the soldiers to occupy.

There was another Indian uprising later, and again Fort Dallas was used for soldiers. But, the land was soon protected and Miami began to grow into a large metropolitan city.

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