In the Sunshine State on this day in 1843 The town of Port Leon, near St. Marks, was destroyed by a hurricane and a 10 foot storm surge.

In 1862 Richard Keith Call, third (1836) and fifth (1841) Territorial governor of Florida, died on this date at his Leon County plantation, “The Grove.”

In 1898 Julia De Forest Tuttle, the “Mother of Miami,” died on this day. Mrs. Tuttle was credited with luring Henry Flagler and his railroad to Miami with a winter bouquet of citrus blossoms and a promise to share her land holdings with him.

Mrs. Tuttle came from Cleveland to the Miami area in 1872 with her husband, Frederick. The Tuttles came to reside with her father, Ephraim T. Sturdevant. Mrs. Tuttle was delighted with the area. When her husband died in 1891, she returned to the Miami area and purchased 640 acres on the north bank of the Miami River. This area would later become the very heart of the City of Miami.