Editing Fort Lauderdale, Florida (section)

===19th century===
In the 1830s, there were approximately 70 settlers living along the New River. [[William Cooley]], the local [[Justice of the Peace]], was a farmer and [[Wrecking (shipwreck)|wrecker]], who traded with the [[Seminole Indians]]. On January 6, 1836, while Cooley was leading an attempt to salvage a wrecked ship, a band of Seminoles attacked his farm, killing his wife and children, and the children's [[tutor]]. The other farms in the settlement were not attacked, but all the white residents in the area abandoned the settlement, fleeing first to the [[Cape Florida Light]]house on [[Key Biscayne]], and then to [[Key West, Florida|Key West]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.voneresearch.org/HistoryB.htm |title=Coastal History&nbsp;– The Seminole War Period |publisher=Vone Research |access-date=2007-07-21|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070928014231/http://www.voneresearch.org/HistoryB.htm |archive-date = September 28, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The first United States stockade named Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838,<ref name=fort>{{Cite news |url=http://fulltext10.fcla.edu/DLData/SN/SN01480340/0004_001/file29.pdf |title=Records in the Military Archives Division Which Relate to South Florida |last=Butler |first=Stuart |volume=4 |pages=11–20 |year=1981 |periodical=Broward Legacy (Broward County Historical Commission). |access-date=2007-07-15 |issue=1 and 2 }}</ref> and subsequently was a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. The fort was abandoned in 1842, after the end of the war, and the area remained virtually unpopulated until the 1890s. In 1893, a ferry operated Frank Stranahan provided transit across New River. [[Florida East Coast Railroad]] also was completed, providing a route through the area, which sparked the city's development.