Julia DeForest Tuttle, the “Mother of Miami” died on this date. Mrs. Tuttle first came to the Biscayne Bay area in the 1870s when she was in her 20s to visit her father. Born in Cleveland Ohio on January 22, 1849, and married to a wealthy ironworks magnate in her mid-20s, she returned to Miami to live permanently after her husband’s death in 1891. She bought a parcel of land on the north side of the Miami River and saw great promise in the development of her land into a town. She successfully convinced Henry Flagler to extend his Florida East Coast Railroad to Miami and lay out the town in 1895. By 1896 the City of Miami was incorporated and the “Magic City,” as it came to be known, hasn’t slowed down since! It was because of the vision and drive of Julia Tuttle and a handful of early pioneers that Miami developed when it did.