Audio By Carbonatix
Most people know the names of Miami founders Julia Tuttle and Henry Flagler. But practically nobody has heard of H. Graham Branscomb. But if Tuttle and Flagler gave birth to the Magic City, you can say that Branscomb brought death to it first.
Branscomb was the first person to be officially buried at the Miami City Cemetery–the oldest cemetery in the city. The 24-year old Englishman died of the consumption (now known as Tuberculosis). His name will forever be etched in our history. And his grave is still in plain sight for everybody to see.
Branscomb’s story is just a small part of hefty history at the Miami City Cemetery that you’ll learn if you take Saturday’s Secrets of Miami City Cemetery Tour. Most people who drive or walk by the 10-acre cemetery on Second Avenue have no clue that so much of our history is just a few feet away and underground. For example, Tuttle, known as the “mother” of Miami, is also buried there.
Turns out that William Brickell, yeah the guy Brickell Avenue is named
after, sold the land to the City of Miami expressely to serve as its
first cemetery. The tombstones read like an anthology of the city’s
pioneering days. William Burdines, founder of the erstwhile department
store, and John Sewell, the city’s third mayor also took their eternal
dirt nap at the cemetery.
There’s also a fair amount of Miami’s African American history on
display at the cemetery with Judge Lawson Thomas and Richard Toomey, the
city’s first black judge and lawyer, respectively, resting in peace
there. But it’s not all boring officials and lawyers, either. Among the
celebs that are six feet under at Miami City Cemetery is Bernard Mackey
of the Inkspots Quartet, that uber popular doo-wop band of the 1930s
and 1940s (ok, so there aren’t that many celebrities buried there).
The uniqueness of the cemetery is not confined to its dead either. It
has the only known oolitic limestone gravestone anywhere and strangely
enough it’s the only cemetery around that we know which requires owners
of plots to hold deeds to the land.
The Secrets of Miami City Cemetery (1800 NE 2 Avenue, Miami) tour starts
Saturday at 10 a.m. The tour costs $25 or $20 for HistoryMiami members.
Call 305-375-1621 or visit historymiami.org for more information.
Follow Cultist on Facebook and Twitter @CultistMiami.
