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In the previous iteration of this column, we examined the events leading up to the July 28, 1896 incorporation of the City of Miami.
As noted, the incorporation meeting took place under the direction of Joseph A. McDonald, a top Flagler lieutenant and arguably the community’s leading citizen at that time. State law required that two-thirds of the registered voters must be present for incorporation. There were, at the time, 424 registered voters eligible to vote. Since the Deep South was a society already in the grips of Jim Crow, or rigid racial segregation, the list of registered voters was categorized according to race with 243 whites and 181 Blacks.
At the time of the roll call of voters, just 312 registered voters were in the Lobby Building, where the incorporation took place. But as the meeting progressed, at least thirty-two additional voters appeared, since 344 are recorded as balloting (206 white and 162 Black). Pioneer John Sewell, who, as noted, oversaw the clearance and preparation of Flagler’s Royal Palm Hotel site for construction, indicated in his memoirs that his actions in helping about 100 Black laborers, whom he labeled his “Black Artillery,” vote were instrumental in Miami’s incorporation as a city.
Sewell further noted that after it was determined that the requisite number of voters were present, Walter S. Graham, an attorney, physician, and the editor of the Miami Metropolis, the recently-launched weekly newspaper, moved for a vote by acclamation for the first three items on the ballot. Accordingly, the motion was made and unanimously carried to incorporate and organize a city government under the corporate name of “The City of Miami” (there had been some sentiment for naming the new municipality “Fort Dallas,” a name heretofore used interchangeably with “Miami,” but the latter carried the day) with the earlier proposed boundaries.
The motion also called for a corporate seal for the new municipality “two inches in diameter, with the words ‘The City of Miami,’ arranged in a semicircular form, constituting the border around the base and the design of the Royal Palm tree (which is native to the area) in an upright position in the center of the seal, with the inscription ‘Incorporated 1896’ inserted just below the center of the seal.”
Afterwards, the voters selected the neophyte municipality’s first officials. The “citizens ticket,” which contained a preponderance of Flagler people, carried the day. Twenty-six years old John Reilly, a bookkeeper with the Flagler forces, headed the ticket, and won election as mayor. The new city’s first aldermen included an impressive roster of early entrepreneurs. Among them was Joseph McDonald, businessman, builder and future hotelier and banker, the polymath Walter Graham, William M. Brown, a banker, Frederick S. Morse, a realtor, Frank Budge, who owned the community’s first hardware store, and Edward L. Brady, one of its first grocers. Young F. Gray, a dynamiter with the Flagler organization, was elected city marshal, thereby becoming the municipality’s lone policeman.
After other business was decided, County Solicitor James B. Sanders of West Palm Beach called “for three cheers for Miami and the new officers, which were given with a vim,” followed by speeches from Joseph McDonald and others, including A. C. Lightbourn, an African-American who, in the estimation of pioneer Jewish settler, Isidor Cohen, delivered one of the best talks.
Early on the following morning, attorney E.F. McKinley, who had provided legal advice at the incorporation meeting, wired the results of the voting to Flagler who was in New York City. Later that day, a telegram message, addressed to Joseph A. McDonald, was received in Miami. It read:
Telegram received. I congratulate the citizens of Miami upon the harmony which marked the election yesterday and trust that the auspicious beginning will result in future prosperity which will equal the most sanguine expectations of the people of the new city. – M. Flagler
In the next installment of this column, we will look at the young city and its presumptuous embrace of the enduring moniker, the Magic City.
Paul S. George, Ph.D., serves as Resident Historian, HistoryMiami Museum. He conducts history tours throughout the county and even beyond for HistoryMiami. Additionally, he teaches classes in Miami/S. Florida and Florida history for the Museum. Dr. George has also led, since 2002, tours of Little Havana as part of Viernes Culturales, a monthly celebration, held every third Friday, of the culture and history of that quarter. The tours are open to all and are free!
