The town council quickly addressed the building codes and the tents and shanties were replaced by brick, brick veneer, and stone buildings. This made West Palm Beach the first incorporated municipality in Dade County and in South Florida. and Poinsettia, now Dixie Hwy.) and passed the motion to incorporate the Town of West Palm Beach in what was then Dade County (now Miami-Dade County). On November 5, 1894, 78 people met at the "Calaboose" (the first jail and police station located at Clematis St. Flagler paid two area settlers, Captain Porter and Louie Hillhouse, a combined sum of $45,000 for the original town's site, stretching from Clear Lake to Lake Worth. The city was platted by Henry Flagler as a community to house the servants working in the two grand hotels on the neighboring island of Palm Beach, across Lake Worth in 1893, coinciding with the arrival of the Florida East Coast railroad. The area at this time also boasted a hotel, the "Cocoanut House", a church, and a post office. Census counted over 200 people settled along Lake Worth in the vicinity of what would become West Palm Beach. Most settlers engaged in the growing of tropical fruits and vegetables for shipment to the north via Lake Worth and the Indian River. The first white settlers in Palm Beach County lived around Lake Worth, which at the time was an enclosed freshwater lake, named after Colonel William Jenkins Worth, who had fought in the Second Seminole War in Florida in 1842. They included founding families such as the Potters and the Lainharts, who would go on to become leading members of the business community in the fledgling city. The area that was to become West Palm Beach was settled in the late 1870s and 1880s by a few hundred settlers who called the vicinity "Lake Worth Country." These settlers were a diverse community from different parts of the United States and the world. By 1858, there were very few Seminoles remaining in Florida. Between 18, three wars were fought between Seminoles and the United States government. They resisted the government's efforts to move them to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. ![]() The Seminoles clashed with American settlers over land and over escaped slaves who found refuge among them. They were of varied ancestry, but Europeans called them all "Creeks." In Florida, they were known as the Seminole and Miccosukee Indians. Other native peoples from Alabama and Georgia moved into Florida in the early 18th century. ![]() ![]() By 1763, when the English gained control of Florida, the native peoples had all but been wiped out through war, enslavement, or European diseases. When the Spanish arrived, there were perhaps about 20,000 Native Americans in south Florida. Europeans found a thriving native population, which they categorized into separate tribes: the Mayaimi in the Lake Okeechobee Basin and the Jaega and Ais people in the East Okeechobee area and on the east coast north of the Tequesta. The beginning of the historic period in south Florida is marked by Juan Ponce de León's first contact with native people in 1513.
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