By Jeff Blakley

The Town of Homestead was incorporated on January 27, 1913 and Russell “Russ” Fleming Tatum was elected as its first mayor. The published histories of this area offer little or no information about who he was, though. Tatum came to Miami in 1911 and was distantly related¹ to the Tatum Brothers of Miami.²

George Tatum (1721-1801)

James P. Tatum (1755-1829)

Buckner (1802 -1895)

Aaron S. (1834-1915)

Judson H., Bethel B., Johnson Reed and Smiley Mosteller

Haley Tatum (1751-1819)

Hardy Coates Tatum (1793-1863)

Robert Haley (1818-1877)

Gaines Webster Marquis (1852-1930)

Russell Fleming (1878- 1958)

Russell’s father, Gaines W. M., and his mother, Louise Gray, were from Dade County, Georgia. They were married in Franklin County, Tennessee on September 4, 1873 and their first son, Robert H., was born on August 12, 1874 in Estill Springs. Russell’s birth followed on January 1, 1878. Shortly afterwards, the family moved back to Dade County, where they were enumerated in the 1880 census.

Russell F. Tatum
Courtesy of Sharon Davies

The Tatums and the Grays were both prominent families in Dade County. Gaines’ father, Robert Haley, and Louise’s father, William, both served as representatives in the Georgia Assembly.³ Gaines, whose full name was Gaines Webster Marquis Tatum, served as a representative and senator in the Georgia Assembly for 16 years and also served as mayor of Trenton, the county seat of Dade County.⁴ Their children were also accomplished. Robert H., born in 1874, was a doctor; Russell was a lawyer and real estate agent, Thomas D., born in 1879, managed an ice plant in Gulfport, Mississippi;⁵ Webster N., born in 1884, represented Dade County in the Georgia legislature⁶ and Dana F. , born in 1891, was the head of the Inter-American Studies department at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.⁷

Russell Tatum grew up in Dade County and attended the public schools there. Little is known of his boyhood years but in May of 1898, at the age of 20, he enlisted in the 3rd Regiment of the Tennessee Volunteers. The regiment may have been sent to Tampa, Florida, the main staging ground for American troops fighting in the Spanish-American War.⁸ The war was short-lived: it began on April 21, 1898 and ended on August 13. It is not known if Russell participated in the war but if he did, his experiences there introduced him to Florida. If he left Georgia, it was only for a short time, because less than a year later, in May of 1899, he accepted a position at Thomas & Weatherford, a grocery store on Whiteside Street in South Chattanooga.⁹

In 1900, Tatum was enumerated in Dade County, Georgia, as being a law student.¹⁰ Dade County did not have any institutions of higher education, so it is not known where Russell studied law. However, it is likely that he attended school in Chattanooga, where Chattanooga University was founded in 1886.¹¹ On May 20, 1900, the Chattanooga Daily Times noted that “Russ Tatum was home from Jasper this week.”¹² Jasper is a suburb of Chattanooga and in July of that year, Russell became a charter member of a new Knights of Pythias lodge established there.¹³ The Knights of Pythias is a fraternal organization that was founded in Washington, D. C. in 1864. After graduating from law school, Russell decided to follow Horace Greeley’s famous advice to go west and went to Phoenix, Arizona, where he registered to vote in Ward 2 on June 11, 1904.¹⁴ Russ did not stay there long, as he returned to Dade County before November of 1907, when he and the Rev. Jesse G. Hunt, a well-known Baptist preacher from Summerville, in neighboring Chattooga County, purchased the Dade County Sentinel. Tatum became the editor of the newspaper,¹⁵ which had published its first issue on November 1, 1901.¹⁶

On July 16, 1908, Russell F. Tatum married Jessie Reed Cole, the daughter of Thomas Hart Benton Cole, a son of another prominent and old Dade County family.¹⁷ Jessie’s grandfather, William Isham Cole, married her grandmother, Lovina Clark, on December 3, 1835 in Warren County, Tennessee. They moved to Dade County, Georgia shortly after they were married and their descendants still live in the area.

In 1910, J.L. Foust and W. H. Payne, Jr., of Chattanooga, and R. F. Tatum were appointed general counsel for the Georgia division of the Alabama Great Southern Railway.¹⁸ The last mention of Russell Tatum in the Chattanooga Daily Times before he moved to Miami was on July 19, 1911, when he sold several hundred acres of land near Lookout Mountain at a court-ordered sale in Trenton.¹⁹

The Tatum family was well-known throughout northwest Georgia and Tatum’s business partner at the Dade County Sentinel, the Rev. Jesse S. Hunt, was no doubt a friend of Rev. Aaron S. Tatum, a fellow Baptist preacher. Rev. Tatum was the father of the Tatum Brothers of Miami, so it is very likely that Russell knew of their activities in Miami. On November 6, 1911, the Miami Metropolis reported that “Mr. and Mrs. R. F. Tatum and two children, of Trenton, N. J. (sic), are pleasant guests of the Biscayne and will be here during the winter season. Mr. Tatum is a distant relative of Tatum Brothers.”²⁰ Russell had no doubt come to Miami at the invitation of his cousins, because he moved to Homestead in early March of 1912 and proceeded to sell lots in a tract of land there which the Tatum Brothers had purchased.²¹ This tract of land was Tatum’s Addition to Homestead, recorded in the records of Miami-Dade County on May 6, 1912 in book 1 on page 128.

Tatum’s Addition to Homestead

This plat explains how the names of the streets came to be: Jessie was Russell’s wife, while Lucy and Margaret were his daughters. Krome Avenue in that part of Homestead was known in 1912 as the “County Rock Road.” Margaret Street is now S.W. 6th Street and Jessie Street is now S.W. 1st Avenue. But Lucy Street is still named as it was in 1912, which must be a record for this area. In the first issue of Rev. J. A. Kahl’s South Florida Banner, on March 15, 1912, Tatum placed a large advertisement on page 6 advertising lots for sale in this new subdivision.

Late in 1912, Tatum and his wife platted the Ridgedale Addition to Homestead,²² located just north of Campbell Drive and east of Krome Avenue. On the original plat, N. E. 9th St. was named Campbell St. and Campbell St. was named McMinn St. The subdivision did not originally have the parkway in the middle of N.E. 9th Ct. – that was added in a re-plat (recorded in book 4, page 95) done in 1917. The name of the subdivision came from Ridgedale, Tennessee, a suburb of Chattanooga, where Jessie Cole Tatum’s sister, Mrs. J. B. Williams, lived.²³

An advertisement that Tatum placed in the Miami Metropolis on March 19, 1912 offering land for sale in Homestead was the first of over 200 that he placed over the following year. On April 12, he offered 70 acres for sale in a “town soon to be incorporated.”²⁴ Tatum’s office was on Railroad Avenue (now Flagler),²⁵ adjacent to and on the north side of the Homestead Garage, which was located on parts of lots 2 and 3 of block 3 of the Town of Homestead.^{26 27} The location was ideal, as it was just south of the F. E. C. depot and across the street. Passengers getting off the train would see his office as soon as they left the depot. This photograph was taken in about 1916, after Russ and his brother Braddock S. had established the R. F. Tatum Realty Co. in August of 1914. Brad was a “well-known and successful real estate dealer of Chattanooga, Tenn. and was until recently connected with the Chattanooga Land and Development Co.” He arrived in Homestead in early October to work with his brother.²⁸

Russell F. Tatum’s Real Estate OfficeCourtesy of the Florida Pioneer Museum

After incorporation, Homestead used the Sistrunk Hall, which was located on the south side of Mowry, just west of the Bank of Homestead, as a meeting place. The building was used by churches to hold their services, the Chamber of Commerce, fraternal groups like the Masons and the Eastern Star and the local dramatic club, which staged plays there. Homestead’s first movie theater was also located in the building. Completed by Edward Sistrunk in early 1913, it burned to the ground on September 7, 1916.²⁹

R. F. Tatum in his real estate office – 1916
Courtesy of the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum

Before the hall burned, Tatum, as Mayor, moved the city clerk’s office to his building on Railroad Avenue.³⁰ In this photograph, which was first published in Jean Taylor’s book, The Villages of South Dade, the identities of the men given in her caption are incorrect. The man in front is Russ Tatum, the man in the back is W. B. “Bunny” Caves and the woman is Mrs. Sarah E. Norton. The photograph belonged to W. B. Caves and the inscription on the back of the photo identified her as “Mrs. _______ Norton, an early Homestead subdivider, paying her taxes.” Mrs. Sarah E. Norton was another of the female land speculators in early Homestead who have not been investigated by historians. She was the wife of John F. Norton, the F.E.C. engineer who drove locomotive No. 201 into Key West on a test run the day before Henry Flagler arrived on January 22, 1912.³¹

Russell F. Tatum was elected as Homestead’s first mayor on January 27, 1913.³² In January of 1914, Dr. John B. Tower ran against him but was defeated. Tatum elected not to run for mayor again in January of 1915, instead spending his time on his growing real estate business. Frank Bartmes and J. U. Free ran for the vacancy and Bartmes won.³³ Bartmes had purchased Sistrunk Hall in late December, 1914 and ran the movie theater there in a partnership with Edward Sistrunk. Shortly after being elected, Bartmes was involved in a motorcycle accident that resulted in the fracture of his C-4 and C-5 vertebrae, nearly crippling him.³⁴ He had to step down as Mayor as a result. James D. Redd was appointed acting Mayor and in a special election held on November 2, he was opposed for the position by Fred Loomis, who won by a “bare plurality of 3.”³⁵ In December, Tatum was persuaded to run for office again and he won, beating Fred Loomis 58-41 on January 11, 1916.³⁶

During his first two terms, Tatum’s most notable actions were to push through Ordinance No. 15, which specified the requirements for privies³⁷ and the veto of a franchise for the Homestead Light, Power and Ice Co., whose president was Edward C. Loveland. Tatum was in favor of municipal ownership of an electric plant,³⁸ a stance that was unpopular with the business community. The franchise passed all three readings, beginning on December 7, 1914, was vetoed by Tatum on December 24, 1914 and unanimously approved by the Town Council on January 4, 1915. Those present and voting in favor were: J. U. Free, J. E. Cochrane, J. D. Redd and G. M. Budd.³⁹ The franchise of the company, a lengthy document, was published on January 7, 1915 in the Homestead Enterprise on page 8. The approval of the franchise was unpopular with the residents of the town, however. A special election, held on August 25, 1915, resulted in the rejection of the franchise and the approval of municipal ownership of the proposed light plant. Municipal ownership became possible after the Florida Legislature amended the charter of the Town of Homestead in 1915 to allow for a larger bonding capacity.⁴⁰ The vote was 34 in favor of municipal ownership and 5 opposed.⁴¹ Tatum was no longer Mayor but he no doubt campaigned for his position, which was upheld by the voters.

Tatum was elected to a two-year term in January of 1916, the term of office having been changed under the new charter for the Town of Homestead issued during the previous year.⁴² He started off his third term in office very aggressively, pushing for sidewalks, cleaning up rubbish in the town and asking for enforcement of the sanitary regulations that he had pushed through in his first term.⁴³ In March, he got into a fight with the Council over property taxes, saying that the millage rate was too high and in May the sanitation ordinance he supported was rejected by the Town Council.⁴⁴ Apparently tired of feuding with the Town Council, he ran for County Tax Assessor in the June primary but was defeated.⁴⁵ If Tatum was not faring well in the political world, he was doing very well with his real estate business. Later in June, he purchased the M. L. Williams apartment building in Florida City and it was noted that he had owned 6 automobiles in 5 years.⁴⁶ In August, he was one of the incorporators of the White Rock Quarry Co. (later the Naranja Rock & Sand Co.), owning 45 shares. The other share owners were Edward A. Graham, president, 70; William R. Burton, 45; Sidney E. Livingston, 45; and Henry R. Pridgen, 45.⁴⁷ In November, Jessie, his wife, was among the group of women from the Homestead Women’s Club who assisted at the dedication of the new Royal Palm State Park, now part of Everglades National Park.⁴⁸

In early April of 1917, Tatum helped E. H. Ballard and E. H. Holtman (sic), who were with the Curtiss Aviation school in Miami, select a site for a landing field in the East Glade.⁴⁹ The site was cleared and the field built in time for E. H. Holterman to complete a 30 mile flight from Miami to Homestead on April 10, where he landed and then took off again for Miami. He was the first graduate of the Curtiss Aviation school in Miami and his successful flight entitled him to be a lieutenant in the aerial reserve of the army.⁵⁰

In early July, 1917, Tatum moved to Miami,⁵¹ where he lived at 1728 Brickell Avenue and worked for his cousins, the Tatum Brothers.⁵² James D. Redd was once again appointed to be acting mayor, until Samuel A. King, the father of Neva King Cooper, was elected to fill the vacant position in October.⁵³ The 1920 City of Miami Polk’s Directory lists the Tatums as living at 121 Bay Street, which no longer exists. It was close to where N.E. 13th Street and the I-395 exit ramp to Biscayne Boulevard now is. The data for the 1920 directory was gathered in 1919, so it is likely that this family photograph was taken at 121 Bay Street:

Russell F. Tatum and his family in Miami
Courtesy of Sharon Davies

Pictured, left to right, are Lucy L., Tatum’s wife Jessie R., Margaret G., Jane, Russ with Mary Sue in his lap and Reed.

The Tatum family left Miami for Phoenix, Arizona, probably some time late in 1920. A notice of an undelivered telegram to R. F. Tatum appeared in the Arizona Republican on July 27, 1921 and in the fall of 1921, he was a member of the Parent-Teacher Association there. By 1927, he was the vice-president of the Ingleside Investment Co., a real estate brokerage and land development company.⁵⁴ Tatum was active and well-known in the Phoenix area for the rest of his life. He was so well-known that a road, N. Tatum Boulevard, is named after him. It runs north from E. McDonald Drive near downtown Scottsdale up to N. Cave Creek Road, just north of the Caves Butte Recreation Area. However, Russ’ life in Phoenix is beyond the scope of this article. That story, if it is to be told, must be written by his grandchildren.
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1. He was a third cousin, once removed. James O. Tatum Manuscript
2. The Miami Herald, November 6, 1911, p. 5
3. Obituary of Louise G. Tatum in the Chattanooga Daily Times, May 24, 1936, p. 7
4. Obituary for Gaines W. M. Tatum, Chattanooga Daily Times, May 15, 1930, p. 3
5. MISSISSIPPI Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form, Dunbar Rowland, Southern Historical Publishing Co., 1907, pp. 797-98
6. Obituary for Louise G. Tatum in the Chattanooga Daily Times, Chattanooga, TN, Sunday, May 24, 1936, p. 7
7. Obituary for Dana T. Davis, The Orlando Sentinel, June 5, 1968, p. 27
8. Chattanooga Daily Times, May 20, 1898, p. 2
9. Chattanooga Daily Times, May 14, 1899, p. 5
10. 1900 U. S. census of Trenton, Dade County, Georgia, page 247, line 29
11. Chattanooga University history
12. Chattanooga Daily Times, May 20, 1900, p. 23
13. Chattanooga Daily Times, July 1, 1900, p. 19
14. Search result for “Russell F. Tatum” in the LDS genealogy database on Family Search
15. Chattanooga Daily Times, November 24, 1907, p. 19
16. Dade County Sentinel
17. Cole Plantation and Bethlehem Cemetery
18. Chattanooga Daily Times, March 10, 1910, p. 5
19. Chattanooga Daily Times, July 19, 1911, p. 11
20. The Miami Metropolis, November 6, 1911, p. 5
21. The Miami Metropolis, March 9, 1912, p. 3
22. South Florida Banner, January 10, 1913, p. 6
23. Chattanooga Daily Times, June 28, 1914, p. 21
24. The Miami Herald, April 2, 1912, p. 3
25. It was located on lot 3, block 3 of the Town of Homestead
26. Miami Metropolis, July 13, 1915, p. 5
27. Miami Metropolis, June 12, 1916, p. 6
28. Miami Metropolis, August 21, 1914, p. 8
29. South Florida Banner, September 7, 1916, p. 1
30. Homestead Enterprise, August 10, 1916, p. 2
31. The Orlando Sentinel, January 22, 1912, p. 1, datelined Key West, January 21
32. South Florida Banner, February 7, 1913, p. 1
33. Miami Metropolis, January 14, 1915, p. 1
34. Homestead Enterprise, March 16, 1916, p. 4
35. Homestead Enterprise, November 2, 1915, p. 4
36. Homestead Enterprise, January 13, 1916. p. 3
37. South Florida Banner, February 28, 1913, p. 1
38. South Florida Banner, October 31, 1913, p. 1
39. Homestead Enterprise, January 7, 1915, p. 1
40. Miami Metropolis, October 28, 1914, p. 1
41. Homestead Enterprise, August 26, 1915, p. 1
42. Letter from Joe Burton, Homestead Enterprise, May 11, 1916, p. 6
43. Homestead Enterprise, February 3, 1916, p. 1
44. Homestead Enterprise, March 9, 1916, p. 4 and May 4, 1915, p. 1
45. Homestead Enterprise, June 8, 1916,p. 2
46. Homestead Enterprise, June 22, 1916, p. 3
47. Homestead Enterprise, August 24, 1916, p. 7
48. Homestead Enterprise, November 30, 1916, p. 2
49. Homestead Enterprise, April 5, 1917, p. 2
50. Miami Herald, April 11, 1917, p. 2
51. Homestead Enterprise, July 19, 1917, p. 1
52. WW I draft registration card, available through Family Search
53. Homestead Enterprise, October 18, 1917, p. 1
54. Arizona Republican, April 10, 1927, p. 20