This second edition of Beth Brickell's book corrects and adds text to the first edition. The fascinating story begins with William Brickell leaving his home in Steubenville, Ohio to seek his fortune in the California gold rush, finding his fortune in the Australian gold rush and marrying Mary Bulmer. They return to the United States during the Civil War. Mary serves as a nurse in a tent hospital on the White House lawn caring for wounded soldiers. After the War, the Brickells move to Cleveland, Ohio where William lends money to a young John D. Rockefeller and his partner Henry Flagler during the robber baron days of the oil boom. Mary wants a warmer climate, and Willliam buys three Spanish Land Grants at the base of the Florida Peninsula. When William and Mary and their six children move to the mouth of the Miami River in 1871, only 12 settlers live in the wilderness between what is now Palm Beach and Miami. Julia Tuttle and Henry Flagler follow the Brickells from Cleveland to Miami, and the rest is Florida history. |
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"Beth Brickell has gone where no one else has been before. She has written a compelling account of the Brickells, early Miami’s most important family."-DR. PAUL S. GEORGE, Professor of history, Miami-Dade College, Historian to the Historical Assn. of Southern Florida
"Beth Brickell has written a fascinating chronology of the life of two south Florida pioneers too often overlooked, Mary and William Brickell."-DR. JOE KNETSCH, state historian, Tallahassee
"Thanks to Beth Brickell’s diligent work, the whole story of the ‘founding parents’ of Miami and Fort Lauderdale can finally be told."-PATRICK SCOTT, Attorney/Historian, Fort Lauderdale
"Beth Brickell’s new book on the Brickell family in Miami is both breathtaking and explosive, for in this book Ms. Brickell puts to rest a number of 'Miami Myths'. Her superb book is the work of one who was obsessed not only with facts but with truth." -SETH BRAMSON, Adjunct Professor of history, Florida International University, Miami
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