book review By Patrick Scott

William and Mary Brickell Founders of Miami and Fort Lauderdale by Beth Brickell

For anyone who has wondered how two great cities, Miami and Fort Lauderdale, fi rst grew from a primeval wilderness, the answer is often given that Henry Flagler extended his railroad here from Saint Augustine.

To the readers of local history who inquire further, “But how did a railroad magnate come to be interested in such an unsettled area in the fi rst place?,” the answer comes, “Julia Tuttle sent him fresh orange blossoms after the Central Florida crop was destroyed in a great winter freeze” in 1895.

But for the real afi cionados of South Florida’s relatively short history, the Tuttle story turns out to be something of a myth. Both Miami and Fort Lauderdale actually owe their existence to a cranky Ohioan and his English wife who shunned publicity, lost all their papers in a storm and had no living descendants.

Author Beth Brickell, pronounced Brick-ELL, is a Hollywood, Calif., producer and former journalist who fi rst encountered the BRICK-ell name while starring in a 1960s television program, Gentle Ben, fi lmed in Miami. Forty years later, she returned to uncover the long-buried story of the “First Family” of Miami. Ms. Brickell somehow got carried away with the depth of her research, contacting sources from Australia (where Charleston, SC: The William Brickell fi rst made his fortune) to California History Press, 2011. Acknowledgements, and Ohio. She ultimately wrote an entire book. introduction, photographs, maps, notes, bibliography, Though she is no relation to the subjects of her book, 126 pp. $19.95 paper, ISBN Beth Brickell spent more than a year re-creating the 978-1.60949.213.7. life of William Brickell (d. 1908) and Mary Brickell (d. 1922), from hundreds of minor references, many of them so obscure that none of the writers of historical books and articles on 19th century Dade County were aware of them. The family had become so obscure that no photograph of Mrs. Brickell was discovered until

Volume 31 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 13 1992! An examination of the end Fort Lauderdale, and most of Perrine, Jr., Henry Flagler, John D. notes and biography attests to the its fi rst neighborhoods: the Rockefeller, Harriett English, Ralph superb detective work in fi nding the west addition (Sailboat Bend), Munroe, Ephraim Sturtevant and sources. Colee Hammock and Rio Vista. Julia Tuttle. And that was before they Although Mary testifi ed that it came to Florida. If the book were Historians have largely ignored the was not her intention, the manner fi ctionalized, one wouldn’t believe Brickells while Tuttle’s stature as in which her surveyor drew the that even fi ctional characters could the so-called “Mother of Miami” plat granted the riverfront to the all be so connected to one another. grew steadily after her 1898 death. public in perpetuity. But the author has proven that they All that remains of the Brickell were. name is the bridge and avenue • In Dade County, Mary joined with that run through their former land Tuttle to negotiate with Flagler The author follows William and holdings in Miami. But just a few for a town to be built on her land Mary Brickell’s trail around the facts demonstrate how the Brickells and Tuttle’s, to be connected by world in the 1850s and 1860s have been given undeserved short a bridge over the Miami River. through contemporary diaries, shrift: Her elderly husband felt cheated manuscripts, letters, town by Flagler when he built the town directories, newspapers, ship • In 1874, the Brickells were only on the Tuttle side of the records, business records, lawsuits the only private landowners in river where, in concert with his and many other piecemeal accounts. present-day Broward County. own interests, Flagler planned With a deft writing style, she has Mary later testifi ed that she a major railroad terminal and a woven them seamlessly into a maintained a grove there, grand resort hotel. He refused biography, the story of pioneering reachable only by sailing up the to cross the bridge until after adventurers who eventually sought New River from the ocean, or by Tuttle’s death. refuge in remote South Florida, and canoe through the back route of stayed for 50 years. the Everglades. Adding to their • After the Brickell trading post original holdings, they bargained closed, the family built an Beth Brickell’s life of the Brickells directly with Flagler in 1895 apartment building on the site. is also a history of the South to establish the Town of Fort A few years ago, in razing the Florida wilds at a time when the Lauderdale when the population building, it was discovered that few hundred remaining Seminole of the entire area of what is now a prehistoric ceremonial circular Indians vastly outnumbered the Broward County was no more structure had been located there. white settlers. There was no regular than 20 people. (Today known as the Miami mail service and there was not Circle, this site is now a historic even a dirt road. She paints a vivid • The Brickells came to the Miami landmark preserved by Miami- picture of life, early industry, Indian River in 1872 and opened the Dade County.) relations and the bitter feuds over fi rst store, an Indian trading post land and political power on the that was the center of the slow- The Brickells’ personalities come Florida frontier. growing community for many alive with many anecdotes from years prior to the arrival of the contemporary records. William was Brickell’s book is a highly readable railroad. They acquired, in Mary’s a colorful storyteller, but his real life account, profusely illustrated. name, three square miles of bay needed no exaggeration. He really This volume would be appreciated front land running from present did join the California Gold Rush by by anyone interested in the early downtown Miami to Coconut covered wagon, and the Australian development of southeast Florida, Grove, and later acquired much Gold Rush afterwards, where he especially in the centennial of the more land. They were the largest met Mary. She volunteered as a incorporation of the City of Fort active landowners in the county. nurse during the Civil War. Just the Lauderdale.  list of chance encounters he made • After William’s death, Mary on his very irregular path to Florida Patrick Scott, attorney/historian, subdivided and platted the reads like a Who’s Who of South Fort Lauderdale original square mile Town of Florida history: including Henry 14 • Broward Legacy