Julia Tuttle

Julia Tuttle
Portrait of Julia DeForest Tuttle
Born	(1849-01-22)January 22, 1849 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Died	September 14, 1898(1898-09-14) (aged 49) Miami, Florida U.S.
Spouse(s)	Frederick Leonard Tuttle
Children	Frances Emeline Henry Athelbert

Julia DeForest Tuttle (born Julia DeForest Sturtevant; January 22, 1849 – September 14, 1898) was an American businesswoman who was largely responsible for, and the original owner of, the land upon which Miami, Florida, was built. For this reason, she is called the "Mother of Miami." She is the only woman to found a major American city.

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 Athelbert (b. 1870). Julia Tuttle first visited the Biscayne Bay region of southern 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.

Tuttle came to Fort Dallas, Florida, from Cleveland, Ohio, via steamship after her father and mother had moved to South Florida. A little over ten years later, in 1886, her husband died; the foundry had already been sold. Upon his death, she found that her husband had not been good at managing money. This placed Julia in dire financial straits. To supplement her small income, she had to turn their four-story home into a boarding house and tearoom for young ladies. In 1890, when her father died and left her his land in Florida, she sold her home in Ohio and relocated to Biscayne Bay.

Tuttle used the money from her parents' estate to purchase the James Egan grant of 640 acres (2.6 km²), where the city of Miami is now located, on the north side of the river, including the old Fort Dallas stone buildings, and the two-story rock house build by Walter English 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.

Tuttle immediately decided to take a leading role in the movement to start a new city on the Miami River, but knew that a decent transportation (in that time, a railroad) was necessary to attract development. Tuttle tried to induce Henry Flagler to extend his railroad to Fort Dallas (Miami), and offered to divide her large real estate holdings if he would do this. She wrote numerous letters to Flagler in this connection and finally made the trip to St. Augustine and in person repeated her offer. Her efforts were of no avail at that time; however, providence favored Tuttle. The great freeze on 1894-1895 devastated the old orange belt of central and northern Florida, destroying valuable groves and wiping out fortunes overnight.