The Woman’s Club of Stuart asked me to be the Honorary Chairman of their 16^th Annual Holiday Home Tour that took place on December 7, 2025. This caused me to turn my attention to something I have in my files that few people have viewed. It is a scrapbook compiled by Aura Fike Jones who was responsible for acquiring the statue “Abundance” during her 1948-1950 term as President of the Woman’s Club.

Aura Jones was the widow of a Washington D. C. lawyer, Franklin Jones, who had homes in Washington D.C. as well as a lovely old home in Port Sewall. (The home was passed to her daughter and son-in-law, Dorothy and Clyde Coutant, then to her granddaughter Norie and her husband, Glenn Neff.)

It was during Aura Jones’ term as president that through of a series of unlikely coincidences the statue Abundance was acquired for the City of Stuart.

Aura Jones’ son, Larry, knew of the statue with a fountain languishing in a warehouse in New York. He also knew it could be acquired by paying its storage bill.

In the late 1940s, the Woman’s Club of Stuart was at a low point and the City of Stuart was too. Everyone seemed depress and angry and people were suing each other for this and that. Aura thought acquiring the statue would be uplifting and would bring people together. A beautiful work of art would be a source of pride and bring attention to Martin County.  

Although the statue was available at a bargain price, the City and County coffers were low and the Woman’s Club had very limited funds. In addition to paying the $2,000 storage bill, there was the cost of transporting and installing the statue that weighed several tons. Few thought Aura would be successful but, perhaps to humor her, the club agreed to pay the last $500 if the rest of the money could be raised.

The enthusiasm of Woman’s Club led the Martin County Commission to agree to pay for the cost of transporting the statue to Stuart. Money for the fountain trickled in from all segments of the community and the last $500 came from the club’s treasury.

The original plan was to put the fountain in Haney Circle, a tiny park given to the City of Stuart to honor Cynthia Burnett Haney, an admired newspaperwoman, suffragist, and leader in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. This caused an uproar. People did not think a voluptuous goddess of wine was an appropriate way to honor Cynthia Haney.

The women changed their plans and got permission to put the fountain on the east side of the Martin County Courthouse.

At the dedication of Abundance on July 10 1949, Mary Hartman, Vice-President of the Woman’s Club, read a message from Aura Fike Jones who was at her home in Washington D.C. : “May this fountain become the symbol of the abundance of wisdom, talent and generosity which we claim in the building of our better community is my heartfelt wish.”

We have the photographs contained in the scrapbook compiled by Aura Fike Jones because Alice and Greg Luckhardt scanned them when there was an opportunity. The photographs were taken by Aura’s son-in-law, Clyde Coutant who was a commercial photographer at the time.

TWO MORE BLOGS RELATED TO THE STATUE ABUNDANCE WILL FOLLOW.