Miami During the Civil War - FIU Digital Collections

38 TEQUESTA
next to the river. Fletcher, who moved to Miami from Indian Key in
the 1840s, reported his profession as physician, but he also ran a
trading post on the river's south side, and like many of his neighbors,
also made starch. Originally from Virginia, Fletcher was a southern
sympathizer. 17
Also on the south side of the river was the home of George
Lewis. He was a member of a prominent pioneer family that had
received an early land grant in the vicinity. Lewis returned to Miami
in 1858 from Houston, Texas, where his family had moved in 1837
to escape the Second Seminole War. Accompanying him to Miami
were two nephews, two nieces, and a slave named Ben Tiner. Lewis
brought money to invest. One of his first enterprises in 1858 was a
starch mill on the Arch Creek Natural Bridge, built with the help of
a business partner, Dr. Fletcher. Lewis also did business with George
Ferguson, who was the postmaster and acknowledged leader of the
community. Ferguson's home was on the river at "Ferguson's Landing,"
(today's 800 N.W. 13th Street). He owned a store and the
largest starch mill in the region on a 40-acre tract. It was Ferguson's
second mill, located at the spot where today's N.W. 12th Avenue
reaches the river. 18 His first mill had been located on the north fork
of the river about five and one-half miles east of the bay and at the
very edge of the Everglades where the water ran very fast and was
known by the inhabitants as "the rapids," a highly exaggerated description.19
This mill had earlier employed as many as 25 workers and
exported starch to Key West by the ton.
Lewis purchased Ferguson's property in 1858 and began operating
the businesses in 1860, but made starch on a smaller scale. He
was 40 years old in 1860. Lewis's nephew and Ben Tiner helped him
manage the businesses he purchased from George Ferguson, who
moved to Key West and became a prosperous merchant there. 20 Finding
life too lonely, Lewis' nieces left.
On the south fork of the river about a mile from its source was
the home built by the Adams brothers, John and Nicholas. It had two
stories and a large rock chimney. Aged 37 and 39 respectively in
1860, both men were recent immigrants from Prussia and ardent
southern sympathizers. Nicholas was a skilled carpenter who worked
as caretaker of the Fort Dallas buildings after the troops left. For a
time he also worked as a wrecker and beachcomber while maintaining
his garden and fruit grove. Like most settlers, he made starch occasionally.
During the last Seminole war he served as the barefoot