[5] In 1821, after Florida was annexed, Dade was involved in the arrest of Spanish official José Callava, who had refused to hand over documents to the United States.

[2] In January 1827, Dade and his soldiers displaced a number of Seminole Indians from their villages, using the pretext of the murder of a White settler family by the Aucilla River.

Because of these tensions, General Duncan Clinch ordered Dade to leave 1 NCO and 3 Privates in Key West before taking the rest of his men to Fort Brooke to prepare for the impending conflict with the Seminole Indians.

Led by Chief Micanopy and Chief Chipco, the Seminoles destroyed bridges over the Hillsborough River and Withlacoochee River in order to delay the progress of the column, and the Seminole warriors then ambushed the column on December 28, 1835, killing Dade and nearly all of his soldiers, leaving only two survivors.

These events were followed in 1836 by widespread Seminole attacks on white settlers in Florida, and then by a U.S. military offensive led by General Winfield Scott.

[6] When hostilities ceased, the Army proposed to transfer the remains of all who died in the territory, including those who fell with Dade, to a single burial ground.

These men are memorialized by the Dade Monument, which is composed of three distinct pyramids, constructed of native coquina stone, and an obelisk.

In the resolution changing the courthouse's name, the Board noted that it found "that Major Francis Langhorne Dade is a person who made a significant contribution to Miami-Dade County".