Duke of Dade Arrives in 1874
Colonel James Ewan, known as the Duke of Dade, arrived on the north bank of the Miami River on November 2, 1874. This early pioneer facilitated the sale of Fort Dallas to Julia Tuttle in 1891.
On November 2, 1874, James W. Ewan arrived at Fort Dallas on the north bank of the mouth of the Miami River, an area we refer to as downtown Miami today. Ewan, who was born on January 13, 1850, in Charleston, South Carolina, where he received his early education and spent his formative years before relocating to Newark, New Jersey, with his family. After completing his schooling, he went to work for the United States custom house in New York City, where he remained a public servant until he came to Florida.
When he arrived at the north bank of the Miami River on Tuesday evening, November 2, he found what was left of an old fort used during the second and third Seminole Wars. The property was owned by the Biscayne Bay Company of Augusta, Georgia, at the time, and included a structure that once served as the Fort Dallas barracks, also referred to as the slave plantation house, and a residence that formerly was the officer’s quarters.
In an article published for the Miami Daily Metropolis, on Friday, July 27, 1906, Ewan wrote that the purpose of his visit was to spend “about six months looking over various parts of Dade and Monroe counties, testing the climate and looking into the possibilities as to futures.” In December of 1874, he visited the Hunting Grounds, which is part of Cutler today, as well as Cocoanut Grove, over the course of his six-month visit. By the end of his trip, Ewan made up his mind to make Fort Dallas his home. He went back north to gather his belongings and returned in November of 1875.
Upon his return, Ewan continued to pursue life as a public servant in his adopted new home. For a time, he was postmaster at the old Fort Dallas, conducting business out of the barracks / slave plantation building. Then he ran for office and won a seat to represent the region in the lower house of the Florida State legislature, later served as a United States commissioner, and then finally as the deputy clerk of the United States district court.
He lived on the site of the old Fort Dallas for his first thirteen years, but then moved to Coconut Grove where he resided for twenty-four years before moving back to the north side of the Miami River. He lived his remaining years at 139 Tenth Street in downtown Miami, which was located on NE Second Street, between NE Third Avenue and NE Second Avenue, given today’s address schema.
Although James W. Ewan never served in the military, he was often referred to as Colonel Ewan by many of his contemporaries. He was given the nickname the “Duke of Dade” by Colonel Bisbee, a charismatic politician in the Florida legislature, upon their first meeting in Tallahassee. It was a slight variation of the nickname that Ewan’s predecessor in the office, the infamous William G. Gleason, gave himself upon arriving in the capitol city years earlier. Gleason’s self-appointed moniker was the “King of Dade.”
Ewan also became the onsite representative and caretaker of Fort Dallas as the superintendent of the Biscayne Bay Company. When Julia Tuttle visited the area for the first time in 1886, she fell in love with the place. She spent time with Ewan as he showed her around what was a sparsely populated outpost at the time. The few people who lived in the area began speculating about a romantic connection between the two. However, nothing was ever confirmed, and Ewan remained a bachelor his entire life.
Tuttle returned a few years later and presented Ewan an offer to purchase the 640-acres of Fort Dallas property owned by the Biscayne Bay Company. By 1891, negotiations were finalized, and the property was purchased by Tuttle which represented a major milestone leading up to the founding of the City of Miami just a few years later. It was shortly after the Tuttle family took possession of the Fort Dallas property that Ewan moved to Cocoanut Grove. The spelling of the Cocoanut in Coconut Grove changed when the municipality was incorporated as a town in 1919. It would later be annexed by the City of Miami on September 2, 1925.
The Duke of Dade died in his home on February 22, 1917, at the age of 67. While he was battling illness in his later years, he took time to write articles about Fort Dallas and early Miami based on his experiences following his arrival in 1874.
In his obituary published in the Miami Daily Metropolis on February 23, 1917, it was written:
“Throughout his public career, Colonel Ewan was noted for his scrupulous honesty and integrity. He had high ideas of public service and private business honesty. His long association with this section in a public capacity made him one of the best-informed men in the community on questions pertaining to local history and from time to time he contributed articles to the local and state papers on reminiscences of early days in southern Florida.”
James W. Ewan has provided local historians with a lot of great stories and memories for what South Florida was like during the years leading up to the creation of the Magic City. He was remembered by his contemporaries as a charismatic gentleman that brought honesty and integrity to public service.
Resources:
Miami Daily Metropolis: “Colonel Ewan, Dade Pioneer Died Today at Age of 67 Years”, February 22, 1917.
Miami Daily Metropolis: “Funeral Services Over Body of Dade Pioneer Be Held Today at 4”, February 23, 1917.
Miami News: “James Ewan: Duke of Dade”, by Howard Kleinberg, September 10, 1983.
Great article. Thank you for sharing.