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Source
State Library of Florida, WPA - Historical Records Survey, County Histories
Description
Brief history of the government of Dade County, Florida, now Miami-Dade County, collected by the Works Progress Administration's Historical Records Survey.
Date
November 17, 1937
Contributors
Format
Coverage
Personal Subjects
Corporate Subjects
Subjects
Geographic Term
Note to Researchers:
Though the WPA field workers included extensive citations for the factual information contained in these county histories, it should be noted that these historical narratives were produced in the 1930s by federal government employees, and might reflect the inherent social biases of the era.
Historical Records and State Archives
Surveys
April 30, 1937
Preamble
HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY GOVERNMENT
By Natalie Newell, substantiated by field notes taken from actual records, Dade and Monroe county courthouses, by Dr. Robert B. English.
A flash-back of Dade County and its government from 1836 to 1937 shows a century of moving pictures from fronteer days, most primitive and unusual, to a modern civilization which in custom and appearance equals any in the world.
Back in 1836, when by Act of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida, Dade county was given a name and a boundary, there were some 400 people scattered along the east and southeast coast line. The affect of Indian warfare reduced this population to 85 people by 1870, but we find the original 400 either unwilling or incapable of governing their own county, except as individualists. Early Florida was ever an independent territory. South Florida, until about 1880, typified this independancy by being satisfied of its political rights as long as personal property and its people were left unmolested by outsiders. Settlers were laws unto themselves, remnants of which are still existant throughout the native population of the Florida Keys. The sea and inland waters were their protectors and providers; the sea, to the extent of supplying staples and money by piling up, conveniently, vessels on the reefs. Ships not totally wrecked had to be unloaded to lighten ship enough to lift it off the reef. The arms of the awaiting Floridans were ever awaiting such cargo as well as all that washed ashore. Water
NOV 17 1937
Title
History of Dade County Government
Subject
Cities and towns--History
Florida--Miami-Dade County
Dade Massacre (Florida : 1835)
Works Progress Administration, Historical Records Survey
Description
Brief history of the government of Dade County, Florida, now Miami-Dade County, collected by the Works Progress Administration's Historical Records Survey.
Creator
Works Progress Administration, Historical Records Survey
Source
State Library of Florida, WPA - Historical Records Survey, County Histories
Date
1937-11-17
Contributor
Newell, Natalie
English, Robert B.
Format
local histories
Language
eng-US
Type
Text
Identifier
wpa_county_history_dade_02
Coverage
Depression Era Florida (1926-1939)
Thumbnail
/fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/wpa_county_histories.jpg
Geographic Term
Dade County (Fla.)
Cape Florida (Fla.)
Miami (Fla.)
Juno (Fla.)
ImageID
wpa_county_history_dade_02_01
wpa_county_history_dade_02_02
wpa_county_history_dade_02_03
wpa_county_history_dade_02_04
wpa_county_history_dade_02_05
wpa_county_history_dade_02_06
wpa_county_history_dade_02_07
wpa_county_history_dade_02_08
wpa_county_history_dade_02_09
wpa_county_history_dade_02_10
Subject - Corporate
Florida East Coast Railway
Subject - Person
Dade, Francis L.
Heyser, A. E.
Transcript
Historical Records and State Archives
Surveys
April 30, 1937
Preamble
HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY GOVERNMENT
By Natalie Newell, substantiated by field notes taken from actual records, Dade and Monroe county courthouses, by Dr. Robert B. English.
A flash-back of Dade County and its government from 1836 to 1937 shows a century of moving pictures from fronteer days, most primitive and unusual, to a modern civilization which in custom and appearance equals any in the world.
Back in 1836, when by Act of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida, Dade county was given a name and a boundary, there were some 400 people scattered along the east and southeast coast line. The affect of Indian warfare reduced this population to 85 people by 1870, but we find the original 400 either unwilling or incapable of governing their own county, except as individualists. Early Florida was ever an independent territory. South Florida, until about 1880, typified this independancy by being satisfied of its political rights as long as personal property and its people were left unmolested by outsiders. Settlers were laws unto themselves, remnants of which are still existant throughout the native population of the Florida Keys. The sea and inland waters were their protectors and providers; the sea, to the extent of supplying staples and money by piling up, conveniently, vessels on the reefs. Ships not totally wrecked had to be unloaded to lighten ship enough to lift it off the reef. The arms of the awaiting Floridans were ever awaiting such cargo as well as all that washed ashore. Water
NOV 17 1937
Preamble -2-
also provided the only means of communication (there was no appropriation made for roads in Dade county until 1900) and unlimited food. The beach provided a foot path for those without boats. Walking the beach from Palm Beach to Miami (about 75 miles) was common practice up to 1895. Less than 50 years ago!
Just why Dade county was created by bisecting, horizontally, Monroe county, in 1836, is a matter of surmise. Certainly Monroe county did not ask the Legislature to decrease their territory, nor would the citizens of Dade ask to be created and then pay no attention to county government for the next fifty years. Probably there was no other territory to name for Major Francis L. Dade who with all but two of his command were massacred by the Seminole Indians near Bushnell, Sumter county, when on march to the relief of Fort King. But evidently the operation of creating Dade was painless to Monroe and left few after affects as Monroe took Dade immediately under her wing, as though she had never lost Dade, and obtained, by Act of Legislative Council, the right to hold Dade county court and business in Key West, Monroe county.
However, not to leave Dade county entirely an orphan, it was enacted by the Territorial Legislature that Dade county meetings and courts might be held at Indian Key and Cape Florida, respectively, until the county seat of Dade was established; but there are no available records either in Monroe county or Dade county court houses of meetings held at any place other than Key West up to the establishment of Miami (then called "Biscayne" on many records) as county seat
NOV 17 1937
Preamble -3-
in 1869. Even the early Monroe records do not segregate Dade county records. They are interspersed with Monroe records and what few there are have to [sic] picked out of handwritten books, now yellowed with age, unless, as in some instances, the old books have been transcribed to typewritten volumes for general use.
And so, with its head in the lap of Key West and is feet in the limpid waters of Lake Okeechobee (then called Macco), Dade county dozed blissfully under a tropic sun until awakened in September, 1869 by a County Commissioner's meeting held at the residence of Wm. H. Hunt at "a place called Biscayne, said to be on the Miami River" Dade county Florida.
The first recorded meeting in Dade county was presided over by Andrew Price, Francis Infinger and John A. Addison (commissioners). Mention is made of an Assessor, but his name is not recorded.
The first act was typical, politically speaking. An authorization was made for a Bond Tax of 30¢; a tax of 25¢ was levied on each $100. of taxable property (we wonder who, among the 85 inhabitants, would be affected?); 25¢ on each $100. of all salaries (no record of collections on this in early tax books); and a tax of $100. on all sales of spiritous liquors (a really lucrative idea).
But Dade county had to have taxes and money therefrom for they contemplated among other expenditures, a Circuit Court, a County Judge, and the payment of jurors at the rate of $1. per day while on duty, and 10¢ per mile for traveling expenses (which was ample for sailing boats or traveling by foot). The County
NOV 17 1937
Preamble -4-
Commissioners were to receive $2. per day (think of that!) and the County Clerk, W. H. Gleason, was ordered to edit all accounts including an order for $28. for county seals to legalize the acts of the newly born Dade county government.
From 1869 to 1889 private residences served as county court houses in Miami, Dade county, as follows:
1869-1874 House of Wm. H. Hunt. (No address shown)
1874-1876 House of Michael Sears (also spelled Siars) - Address recorded as, "Township 53, Range 42 east, on Biscayne Bay."
1876-1879 "Brickell Cottage" (No address shown, but the Brickell homesite stands on the same site today, viz., at Brickell point, south side of the mouth of the Miami river. The old building, known as "Brickell cottage" has given way for a more pretentious residence.)
1879-1888 House of J. W. Ewan (No address given, nor can it be located by legend)
Jan. 3, 1888 - June 6, 1888 Chas. Peacock (No address given, but as Chas. Peacock was [known] to live in Coconut Grove it may be assumed that the Peacock Inn, a frame hotel, the only one in the district at that time, was used)
June 6, 1888 - Feb. 26, 1889 House of J. W. Ewan (No address given. Because Mr. Ewan's house was used again in so short a time substantiates further the assumption that the Peacock place in Coconut Grove was not as accessable as Mr. Ewan's house in Miami, especially as there was but an old sandy Indian Trail over the six miles from Miami to Coconut Grove, or come by boat.
The meetings of 1889 end first period of Miami as the county seat. It also ends the pictures of Dade county officials gathered on front porches or sitting around improvised desks, teetering on all the available chairs the houses afforded, being peered at by curious offspring as the good wife served cool drinks or perhaps a dish of native compte pudding.
By now, 1890, county business was growing with the population which had increased to 861 (whites) according to the census. It was at the last meetings of 1889 that the
NOV 17 1937
Preamble -5-
question of moving the county seat from Miami to Juno was decided in favor of Juno.
Juno was on Lake Worth about 75 miles north of Miami. It was near to W. Palm Beach, a populace center, and most important of all, Juno, at that time, was the point of contact between commerce from the north and the transfer to commercial boats on Lake Worth for points south. Miami was but a small terminus, a dot on the map, to which the mail was being carried, on foot via beach, from W. Palm Beach, at least once a month.
In those days, Miamians really turned out to greet their horny footed postman to whom shoes on the beach would have been a great nuisance, to say nothing of unnecessary expense. We mention these primitive conditions to substantiate the fact that the method of keeping, or not keeping, records was equally as primitive. These people bothered only with essentials. They were wise in simple truths. One Deed Book, one Transfer Book, and one set of Tax Books were all that were essential, except perhaps odd personal records, kept by officials themselves, which research in privately owned historical records may uncover.
The period between February 26, 1889 (last recorded meeting in Miami) and Jan. 6, 1890 (first recorded meeting held at Juno) is unrecorded except for the assumption that Miami acted as county seat until the actual move was made and retained some of the current records for business purposes, as the records were moved in two loads; one by canoe (the first load) and one by foot up the beach (the last load carried to Juno). The business of this period was taken up at the 1st meeting in Juno.
NOV 17 1937
Preamble -6-
Records do not show the exact location of the meeting place at Juno prior to the building of their court house, or what was used as a meeting place. Evidently the erection of a new court house had been discussed at meeting in Miami, for, at a meeting in Juno, held May 23, 1890, Judge A. E. Heyser presented his bill (which was approved) for drawing up a contract for the erection of the courthouse at Juno. Also bills were approved for the payment of the transporting of records and funds, as follows:
$125. for transportation of records by canoe;
$25. For transportation of records and funds by foot.
(It may be assumed that the books were the heaviest part of this pack)
The court house in Juno, a frame structure, was dedicated April 18, 1890 and occupied until 1899 at which time the county seat was moved back to Miami. Judge Heyser has recorded, in his own hand, a record of the dedication ceremonies and the dramatic background of a forest fire which raged and roared throughout the ceremony.
Sometime after 1899 the court house at Juno burned, but despite rumors to the contrary, there is no substance to the legend that Dade county records were destroyed in this fire. In fact it is recorded that Dade county records were transported to and from Juno "without incident".
On August 1, 1899 the Dade co. commissioners began to meet again in Miami. Records do not show what was used as a court house, but legend tells that an old warehouse, said to have been located along the north bank of the Miami river, east of what is now known as Miami Avenue, served as court house until 1902. It is known also that the practice of meeting at private homes was abandoned which
NOV 17 1937
Preamble -7-
ended controversy as to who should receive the $1.50 per month which was paid by the county as rent. Legend also tells us that the barracks building of old Ft. Dallas was used as a Circuit Court and that county records were kept there also, but the minutes of the county commissioners do not show this, neither do they show the exact location of the warehouse or that the records were kept in a warehouse. But whatever, or wherever this building may have been, meetings were held in it on March 6, 1900, the question of a real honest-to goodness Dade county court house took root.
On July 3, 1900, it was resolved whether or not steps should be taken to advertise and call an election to determine whether or not the County of Dade should issue bonds in the sum of $150,000. for the purpose of building roads, county courthouse and jail. Usable section-line roads had been made by levelling native coral rock, dug from quarries, but many more were needed, and all needed to be tarred and black-surfaced. Miami derived a name of "Magic City" not so much from its rapid growth as the effect, in the moonlight, of its streams of white roads, white roof tops, and silvered [foliage] and waters.
The election was held and the returns resulted in a majority vote for the issuance of $150,000. worth of bonds to be sold in the demoniations of $100., $500., and $1,000, respectively, to aggregate the voted bond issue.
All this and much besides is [duly] recorded in the minutes of the County Commissioners, but throughout the records still reigns a profound [silence] as to the particular building or place in which these important issues were being
NOV 17 1937
Preamble -8-
made and sanctioned. It is recorded that a committee was appointed to inspect the courthouse of Osceola, Orange and Volusia counties to obtain pointers on the last word in construction and equipment, but upon receiving this report, the Commissioners decided to build an armory and jail; use the armory for a courthouse until the kind of a building which they had in mind might be promoted.
This was done. The jail and armory were completed, [inspected] and ordered paid for at the meeting of the Board, held October 13, 1902; where bills to the Diebold Safe Company were approved in an agregate of nearly $5,000 to make Dade county records safe from fire and storm. The armory-courthouse was then occupied officially and the records placed in their new and shiny quarters.
Very soon, however, the Commissioners found it was not the original cost of a courthouse, but the cost of upkeep and expansion for which taxes were needed. Not only had the business of the board grown by leaps and bounds, with the building of new roads and the coming of the FEC railway the population of Dade county had jumped to nearly 5000 people, and Miami was beginning to be known as the "winter play ground of the nation". The extension of the railway in 1895-96 was no doubt the misfortune of Juno and the fortune of Miami as well as a governing factor in switching the county seat back to Miami. With the railway, Miami became the point of contact with all the South Americas and intervening islands. Miami emerged from its adolescence like a boy coming of age in twenty one years.
From now on comes a period of necessary
NOV 17 1937
Preamble -9-
expansion of both building and equipment. The armory was soon too small. Cells were removed from the jail to make way for county activities and the two buildings were connected by a bridge to facilitate going from one to the other. But still there was not near room enough. The dream of a real court house was about to become a reality.
In 1904 there were three buildings on the square (present site of Dade county court house) where there had been but the armory and the jail. The third building was of imitation stone, three stories high (counting the attic) and [resplendent] with its time-honored Confederate monument gracing its lawn. For the first time (1904), Dade county had a building on which was carved in stone and plated in bronze, "Dade County Court House".
But even this [magnificence] was not to endure. On September 12, 1922, just 18 years from what was thought would last Dade county as a court house for time immortal, an election was held which resulted in a vote for a four million dollar court house to be erected on the same [site]. There was an election to decide whether the site should be changed to that of the Central School building, but the present site won out. The building was to be 28 stories high, (not counting a couple of story heights of dome) and the top four floors were to be the jail. (The armory idea was now obsolete) Bonds were to be issued in the sum of $690,000 as a cash starter; the City of Miami was to occupy 25% of the space and pay 25% of the cost; and various county properties were to be sold to help make up the rest of the four million. Ground was broken in 1923.
There was no actual date of total occupancy
NOV 17 1937
Preamble -10-
or any formal dedication of the new court house (the present one) because the old buildings were pressed into service, and as torn down, new parts of the new building would be ready to house the officials and their records. The new building occupied the entire block and could in many instances be built around the old buildings. Practically, by the time the new building was declared finished (by the architects, Ten Eyck Brown, of Atlanta and August Geiger, of Miami, September 12, 1928) the court house was in full swing of occupancy and many of the departments had been functioning in parts of the new building for quite some time.
There is a legend that in the process of building and moving records that some were stored in the old Post Office attic; that when the hurricane of 1926 struck and took off part of the roof of the old Post Office that many Dade county records were destroyed and lost. If this legend is true there appears to be nothing on record showing an inventory of what records were stored in the Post Office, or that any were so stored. Hence, there is no proof that missing Dade county records were destroyed or lost in the manner just mentioned.
The finishing of the present Dade County Court House, 1929, stops the exterior picture of county history but in no way slows up the activity of the interior history which is in the making within the court house, every day and every hour each day. It is safe to say that Dade county Courthouse is one of the busiest courthouses, all the year round, of any in the State. Records are piling up and piling up; population and building are gaining and gaining ground; tourists are coming from further and further, oftener and oftener, even staying longer; agriculture and industries are growing. Who knows? We might have to build another court house, even yet!
NOV 17 1937
Chicago Manual of Style
Works Progress Administration, Historical Records Survey. History of Dade County Government. November 17, 1937. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. <https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/321092>, accessed 4 December 2024.
MLA
Works Progress Administration, Historical Records Survey. History of Dade County Government. November 17, 1937. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.<https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/321092>
AP Style Photo Citation
(State Archives of Florida/Works Progress Administration)