Pre-History: The Jeaga Native American tribes established a ceremonial center with mounds near what is now the area around U.S. Highway 441. Coastal tribes also left behind burial mounds on the barrier islands near the Boynton Inlet.
1840s: The first settlers arrive under the Armed Occupation Act but leave before land deeds can be issued.
1870s: Squatters begin using the area for fishing and farming.
1871: Marcellus A. Williams and his survey team pass through the area, creating the first detailed maps for the government land office, allowing settlers to make land claims.
1877: Dexter Hubel and his family, originally from Michigan, claim land along the beach.
1881: Hubel abandons his claim and relocates to the Florida Keys.
1882: Stephen Andrews, the keeper of the house of refuge in what would become Delray Beach, claims beachfront land for just 90 cents an acre.
1890: The State of Florida grants most of the land along the coastal ridge, west of the barrier islands, to the Florida Coast Line Canal and Transportation Company.
1891: George H.K. Charter purchases land in what is now Boynton Beach from the Florida Coast Line Canal and Transportation Company, located west of the Florida East Coast Canal (Intracoastal Waterway).
1892: Byrd Spilman Dewey buys 160 acres from George H.K. Charter for $700. This area becomes known as the “Hypoluxo Garden Lands.”
1895: William S. Linton and Major Nathan S. Boynton visit the area, arriving by boat with Fred Voss, captain of the Victor.
1895: Linton and Boynton begin purchasing land: Boynton acquires oceanfront property from Stephen Andrews, while Linton contracts to purchase land from the Deweys. However, Linton fails to make payments, and the Deweys regain ownership.
1896: Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway is extended through Boynton, and the first post office opens in the town.
1897: Major Nathan S. Boynton begins construction of his oceanfront hotel, bringing in workers from Michigan.
1897: William S. Linton defaults on his payments to the Deweys, and they file a foreclosure suit. By October, the matter is settled, and the Deweys regain their land on the west side of the Intracoastal Waterway.
1898: On September 26, the Deweys file the town plat for Boynton in the Dade County courthouse at Juno, along with a subdivision plat for their lands.
1898: The Norwegian barque The Lofthus sinks just north of where the Boynton Inlet is located today.
1899: The Deweys begin selling 5-acre farming plots along the canal in Dewey’s Subdivision, primarily for tomato farming. Pineapples are planted along the coastal ridge further inland.