This worker is using not only a mosquito switch, but also a smudge and protective clothing. Courtesy Florida Memory
An Ernest F. Lyons Column published in the Last Cracker Barrel entitled “The ‘Good Old Days’ in our Small Town” tells us:
“The salt marsh mosquitos and sandflies were a plague all summer long. Inhabitants kept mosquito switches handy (made from shredded palm fronds) to slap at ankles, wrists and face as they walked abroad.
“When the townfolk went down to meet the mail train in the evening, the passengers were amazed to see them doing a sort of St. Vitas Dance in the street alongside the tracks. It was the famous East Coast of Florida Mosquito Dance, accompanied by slaps of the palm switches.
(“St. Vitus’ dance” is an old fashion name for rheumatic chorea a disorder characterized by rapid, uncoordinated jerking movements.)
Ernest Lyons, beloved longtime editor of The Stuart News wrote weekly columns using prose that bordered on the poetic. Two books of selected columns were published in the 1970s.
The late Val Martin of Florida Classics Libraries, obtained rights to the Lyons books and republished them.
This edition of The Last Cracker Barrel is still available.
When 90 year old Eden pioneer Reginald Waters was interviewed by Debi Witaschek in 1977, he related: “The settlers employed many different methods to ward off the pests, including buring a ‘mosquito power’ in their homes which had a fairly strong odor. It was better than the mosquitos
“The main vehicle used to thwart the bugs was a switch made from the heart of a palmetto tree frond. Waters said it was almost impossible to describe how they were made. Part of the technique involved shredding the frond until it was about the same texture as hair. The switch, one of which everyone owned, was carried everywhere and in constant use swinging back and forth to keep the mosquitos off the owner.”
Of course, I wanted to learn how to make a mosquito switch. I did learn, about thirty years ago. I made several and used them to talk about what it was like in pioneer times before mosquito control.
Recently, I realized I was not sure I remembered how I had made mosquito switches. I tried to recall and was successful.
Anna Darrow and her husband , Roy, graduated from the Kirksville School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri in 1905.
Anna Darrow, the second female physician to be licensed in Florida and who incidentally received the highest score ever theretofore recorded, once lived in Stuart. Her story is amazing. Anna and her husband, also a doctor, left a background of big cities to move to Okeechobee City in the summer of 1912. Just getting there from Ft. Pierce was an ordeal.
This photograph was used by Greg and Alice Luckhardt who inserted the text.
She treated pioneer settlers, Seminole Indians, and outlaws, setting broken bones and delivering babies including four sets of twins, in the crudest of circumstances. She traveled by horse and wagon, Model T Ford, by boat and ox cart as well as on foot along primitive trails . She often had to wade.
The Darrows had two children, Richard, born in 1897 and Dorothy, born in 1903. Richard, after developing tuberculosis, practiced law in Arizona. Dorothy was a teacher and librarian at Horace Mann High School in Miami for many years. Both children attended Rollins College.
This photograph was used by Greg and Alice Luckhardt who inserted the text.
The Darrow building adjoined the Raulerson Department Store overlooking the broad park, that is a predominant feature of Okeechobee City to this day.
I recently reread Lawrence Will’s Cracker History of Okeechobee. It includes a long chapter on” “Doc Anner.” Lawrence Will was the historian of the Glades who published six books. His text is in “cracker dialect” and is a far from being politically correct. However, his books contain an amazing record of a pioneer era that is long gone. His books impart an understanding of the transformation of Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades during its so called reclamation.
Below please find the chapter of Doctor Anna Darrow.
Although it was Lawrence Will’s information packed chapter of Dr. Anna Darrow that made me want to share her story in a blog, I found that since I had learned about her years ago, she has gained acclaim.
In 2011 she was featured an article n the National Endowment for the Humanities, magazine entitled “Swamp Doctor. ” Actress, Carrie Sue Ayvar, portrayed Anna Darrow as a Florida Humanities Council presenter throughout the state.https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/mayjune/statement/the-swamp-doctor
It makes me proud that this amazing woman came to Stuart for a time, as can be proved from the page of the Stuart directory when the town was still within Palm Beach County.
Anna Darrow was an artist whenever she had a time for art. When she retired, she took up painting again. She even won a prize for a painting of herself doctoring in Okeechobee. Her painting is humorous. It shows Florida Wood Storks delivering one of the four sets of twins she delivered while she was in the Glades.
The name of the much admired Bahamian, Caesar Dean, came up as I researched George W. Perkins.
Years go by and gradually things begin to fit together. I discovered that pioneer, Ike Craig, was the caretaker of the Perkins estate. One of the precious few photographs of an identified black man is one of Caesar Dean near a pineapple cart with Ike Craig. It has been published many times.
Caesar Dean stands at far right. This photograph was probably taken at Ike Craig’s “Old Dominion Pinery.” It was located where Leisure Village is today. The “Ike Craig’s Pond” where StuartNews editor, Ernie Lyons, was allowed to fish as a boy can still be seen on the south side of Monterey Road .
When Chessy Rica was curator at the Elliott Museum, she put together an exhibit on pineapple culture. After all, our region was the “Pineapple Capital of the World.” Chessy used the photograph of Caesar Dean and Ike Craig and went a step further, designing a storyboard with dated newspaper articles about Caesar Dean. She follow up with a blog and published an article ”Who was Caesar Dean?” in Martin County’s Hometown News.
Very few obituaries of black people were published in Florida newspapers but Caesar Dean was so outstanding, his was published in the Stuart News. Ernest F. Lyons, Editor of the Stuart News who comprehensive historical editions, knew the importance of Caesar Dean and probably wrote this obituary.
Caesar Dean’s chiseled features makes it possible to recognize him standing at left on this rare postcard.
I came across a detailed article about Caesar Dean saving the Perkinses on their yacht “Emily Swan” published in the Stuart Times on March 12, 1915. It augments Chessy Ricca’s research.
George W. Perkins was aboard his motor yacht, “Emily Swan” with his daughter, Dorothy, and her friends. The young man who was piloting the yacht said they should be able to go outside the St. Lucie Inlet even though seas were rough.
Going outside was ill advised. A wave broke the cabin’s windows and flooded the boat which began to broach. As the boat was beginning to capsize, Caesar Dean who was the boat as a deckhand, sprang to action and gripped the wheel. With his great strength and knowledge of the sea, he brought the yacht safely around and back into calm waters.
This photograph of George Perkins’ daughter, who was saved by Caesar Dean, appeared in the Boston Globe on September 18, 1916.
It is amazing what can be found on http://newspapers,com. Although this trivia may not be of great interest, I want to take this opportunity to record it. The yacht Caesar Dean saved was named the “Emily Swan.” The father of the George W. Perkins connected to Stuart and his wife, Sarah, named their only daughter, “Emily Swan” after a much admired friend. Two years after Sarah died in childbirth, George Sr. married Emily Swan. That made two Emily Swam Perkins, one the stepmother of the other.
This photograph of Emily Swan, the sister of George W. Perkins, Jr., who owned the estate on Frazier Creek, can be found on the Internet.
Emily Swan Perkins was a composer of hymn tunes and founder of what is now The Hymn Society of the United States. She was born in Chicago in 1866 and died in Riverdale, N. Y. in 1941. https://hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk/e/emily-swan-perkins
You can find videos of Emily Swan Perkins Pienary Addresses on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-kIJXNmcgU. Who would believe such things can be found when researching the name of a boat?
When the 1933 Hurricane destroyed Caesar Dean’s home in Stuart, members of the still grateful Perkins family paid to have ta new house built. An article telling of this was on Chessy Ricca’s storyboard. It was an article published in the Stuart Daily News on September 7, 1933. Ceasar Dean’s house was located at 545 Pinewood Street. Pinewood Street, later to be 7th Street, is today’s Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard.
George Perkins would not have been able to participate in the Port Sewall Regatta held on March 11, 1917, if the Emily Swan had capsized in the St. Lucie Inlet.( Note number 10.)Although this postcard was taken after the Shepards purchased the former Perkins Estate it shows the boathouse that once housed the Emily Swan. The Shepards’ boat the Gadabout is at right.
This is a scene is from Robinson Crusoe filmed locally in 1916 by Henry Savage in which Caesar Dean played “Friday.”
Before the Shepards owned the house in what is now Shepard Park it was owned by George W. Perkins and his wife, Dorothy. Perkins was an associate of J. P. Morgan and was a powerful insurance executive and industrialist.
This photo of Dorothy and George Perkins, from Wikipedia, was taken shortly before his death on June 18, 1920. The Internet lists him as a victim the flu pandemic.
It is so much fun to research subjects that have been on my radar for years but now I can go back and use the Internet to find photographs, newspaper articles, and fascinating details.
This early postcard shows houses along the St. Lucie River around 1910. (Today they are on Atlantic Avenue.) The house on the left, the residence of Emma and Walter Kitching, still stands as does the Judge and Mamie Hancock house in the center. The George W. Perkins house can be seen at the extreme right.
The Perkins house was built by Hubert Bessey, considered to be Stuart’s founding pioneer. After the house with four acres bordering Frazier Creek and the South Fork of the St. Lucie River was sold to Perkins, Fred Schultz, a German landscaper with a long history on Jupiter Island, supervised constructing seawalls and filling low places by bringing in muck obtained from the other side of the river in lighters. Trees of many varieties were then planted. According to newspaper articles the Perkins Estate was the most beautiful on Florida’s East Coast. Pioneer, Ike Craig was the caretaker.
Unfortunately, the best photograph of the Perkins/Shepard house was taken when it burned on March 4, 1947. (Photograph taken by Clyde Coutant , courtesy of Norie Neff.)
It was the photographs I acquired from photographer, Clyde Coutant’s daughter, Norie Neff, that made me want to create blogs about Shepard Park in the first place.
According to newspaper articles the fire fighters did their best but could not save the building. However, they removed the furniture so it was salvaged. (Coutant photograph) William H. Shepard was said to have planted coconuts whenever he could, both on his estate and along the railway tracks through Stuart. (Coutant photograph)The fire occurred on March 4, 1947.
One of the earliest aerials taken by Arthur Ruhnke shows the Perkin/Shepard residence. Since it is dated August 1948, and articles found using http://newspapers.com, reveal the fire occurred on March 4, 1947, we know the house was already damaged. When the photograph is enlarged it looks like the southwest wing has no roof.
The elder Shepards had died by the time of the fire but their daughters had opened the house for the season. Mrs. Shepard’s sister and her grandson were fishing in the Gulf Stream with Capt. Walter Johns when the fire broke out.
The family offered to sell the estate to the City of Stuart for a park. Thank heaven officials took them up on the offer.
This sunset image of the moth of Frazier Creek with Shepard Park at right was downloaded from the Internet. HDR photography image processed in Photomatix Pro.
I recently visited Shepard Park. When I looked at the steps that are the remains of the Shepard estate and the plaque that commemorates the Shepards I started composing a blog in my head.
“In Memory of William H. and Lucy Doane Shepard For their Contribution to the City of Stuart and its citizens REST – ENJOY – BE CONCERNED”Anne Young Shepard, the daughter-in-law of William and Lucy Shepard, stands on the steps that now lead to the plaque commemorating the family’s gift. The photograph is in the History of Martin County.
Willian H. Shepard’s portrait is in the History of Martin County.
Lucy Anne Doane Shepard’s portrait is in the History of Martin County.
When you read the article about William H. Shepard in the History of Martin County, you learn that he was a founder of the Citizens Bank that grew into today’s Seacoast Bank, and was behind many important institutions locally. In Cleveland, Ohio, where the Shepards made their fortune, they were largely responsible for the Cleveland Art Museum.
It seems the many transplants from Cleveland through employment at Cleveland Clinic should know of this connection.
This book with many aerial photographs was published in 1939 in conjunction with the Florida Exhibit at the World’s Fair held in New York City. Stuart was featured in Florida Via Camera. On page 26, the Shepard Estate on Frazier Creek is featured. Notice the break-water on which a boardwalk has been built that provides today’s visitors to Shepard Park much pleasureThis photograph, taken on February 23, 2025, shows the break-water with its boardwalk. Stuart’s mooring field and the Roosevelt Bridge are in the background.
Shepard Park has been improved through the years. The boat ramp boardwalk, playground for children, restrooms and covered stage provide local citizens and visitors with much pleasure.
I have too much to share in one blog, so this blog will be continued.
Today, I was working in my yard. It is something that I love to do. Our property on Sewall’s Point, very close to the bridges to Hutchinson Island, happens to have once been divided by the county line between first, Dade and Brevard, then Palm Beach and St. Lucie County.
I placed the little statue at the corner of our property where the section lines crosses.
For years I have had a sign on a palm tree at the corner of our property declaring this.
The little concrete statue once belonged to Michelle Coutant.
Eleven years ago, I stopped at a yard sale on Indian Street near Old St. Lucie Boulevard. Norie Neff, the daughter of Dorothy and Clyde Coutant was selling the property that had been her family’s for many years.
I can see this statue from my window over the kitchen sink.
It was Norie’s grandmother, Aura Fike Jones, who secured the statue “Abundance” that now stands in Haney Circle.
This image was in a Stuart Woman’s Club scrapbook that belongs to Norie Neff. Perhaps it was a photo Aura Fike Jones’s son , Larry, who knew about the statue sent to her suggesting it would “add a bit of glamor to Stuart.” The statue “Abundance” did not find its way to Haney Circle where it was originally to be placed in 1950 until Stuart was revitalized in 1991.
A small concrete statue, similar to Abundance, was in the yard sale. It had belonged to Norie’s late sister, Michelle. I bought the statue because of my many connections to the Coutant family in my “world of regional history,” as well of its symbolic connection to the beautiful statue that stands in downtown Stuart. I placed the statue near the former county line and it has remained there.
As is often the case, I was looking for something different and came across wonderful photographs in my computer that need to be shared. The photographs are the work of Clyde Coutant a member of a pioneer family that includes a keeper of a House of Refuge.
Clyde Coutant stands in front of Tropical Photo Shop. The reflection of the Lyric Theatre can be seen in the window.
Following World War II, Clyde Coutant and his brother, Elwin, purchased the Tropical Photo Shop from Virginius Black and Charles Baker. It was located in the Krueger Building across the railway tracks from the Lyric Theatre. Clyde moved on to other work in the early 1950s.
This youth was photographed on Dixie Highway in front of the Tropical Photo Shop.
Over a decade ago, Clyde Coutant’s daughter, Norie Neff, sold her family’s property on Indian Street. Norie was holding “Garage Sales” and one day I stopped. I was able to make copies of many of Clyde Coutant’s photographs. The ones I am sharing today were among them.
This is the wonderful photograph that first caught my eye. I was searching for “flags.” The building in the background is the Kitching and Eckess Department Store. Today it is the City Hall parking lot.This was Scout Troop 36 ca 1947. It would be wonderful to know more about these boys and their Scout activities.I wish someone could identify these Stuart Training School cheerleaders and share their stories.Young people in this photo are enjoying themselves in the Guy Davis Bar. Today, Guy Davis Park on 10th Street is being expanded.If this celebration is in Guy Davis Bar the linoleum is not the same.These young people are dressed up and having a good time.STS Majorettes , Cheerleaders and some members of the faculty ca 1952Barbeque at Log Cabin ca. 1947
That concludes the Black Heritage photographs I happened upon today. I hope someone will add more to their story.
I must be forgiven for worrying about Martin County’s 100th Birthday being properly celebrated. Initially, I thought my blog would be the best way for me to share our county’s history.
Then, Gregory Enns said his Indian River Magazine would publish a special Martin Centennial edition and asked me to join Donna and Rick Crary as a writer. My ability to access historical photos was more than helpful.
Michelle Moore-Burney, Indian River Magazine’s design editor, created a charming collage of historic photographs for the centennial cover. The magazine is available at no cost at the Stuart Heritage Museum while they last.
Shortly after the Indian River Magazine came out in January, Stuart Heritage had a change in plans and asked me to present a program on February 11th. It provides a perfect opportunity to share a PowerPoint presentation “Celebrating Martin County’s Centennial.”
The program will take place in the Flagler Building, 201 SW Flagler Ave. at 7:00 pm, February 11, 2025.
Yesterday, David Yankwitt, of Indian River State College, asked me to give a centennial presentation at the Chastain Campus for his history students and the public at large. It is tentatively scheduled of March 7th at 11 o’clock in the Susan Johnson room in Clare and Gladys Wolf Center.
Additionally, Martin Digital History is going strong. Georgen Charnes is doing a wonderful job. She has “Martin County is turning 100 years old!” on her publicizing bookmarks.
Georgen Charnes selects photos of interest for bookmarks. I shared this one long ago when Robert Crowder ran for Congress. http://Martin Digital History
Robert Crowder, an officer in the Stuart Junior Conservation Club, and Robert Routa, also an officer, release Green Turtles nurtured at Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge in Ross Witham’s sea turtle “Head Start” program in October of 1961.
I looked in my “Sheriffs File” and thought his image illustrates the historical importance of Robert Crowder.
With all the activity launching and selling my daughter, Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch’s and my Pictorial History of Palm City, and preparing for presentations, I have let my blogging lapse.
Now I must be forgiven for promoting the ways I am helping to celebrate Martin County’s 100 years!
In my last blog I said Dr. H. H. Hipson was Martin County’s first dentist. Thank heaven I said “Martin County’s.”
After he read my blog, Boo Lowery said, “I thought Uncle Charlie was the first dentist.” I hemmed and hawed, trying to make allowances for myself. When I reread my blog I was thankful that I had said that Dr. Hipson was “Martin’s County’s first.”
Stuart’s early dentist, Dr. Charles E. Roberts, Isabel and Mattie Belle Roberts in front of their home in Stuart now owned by Boo Lowery. Photo courtesy of Isabel’s daughter Dorothy Clark
Boo Lowery said “I thought Uncle Charlie was the first dentist.”
Martin County had not been created when Boo’s great uncle was a dentist. Dr. Charles Roberts was said to be the first dentist in Stuart. At the time Stuart was in Palm Beach County.
I found an account of early dentists I had written for my Stuart book but did not use because of space:
Stuart’s first resident dentist was Charles E. Roberts who came to town with his in-laws the Neil P. McQuaries in 1908 and practiced dentistry here until .1917 when he moved with his family to Atlanta.[i]
[i] “Dr. C. E. Roberts Dies in Atlanta,” Stuart Daily News, October 14, 1926
There were many ads for Dr. C. E. Roberts in the Stuart Times and the Stuart News.
The McQuarie and Roberts families lived in house formerly owned by Capt. Thomas and Desimona Hogarth . It is now owned by Boo Lowery.
Young Charles Neil Roberts married Boo’s aunt, Louise Lowery. They lived in Atlanta where Charles was a sports writer for The Atlanta Constitution for 42 years. They visited Stuart as often as possible.
Books could be compiled using the historic photographs and oral histories Harris R. “Boo” Lowery III has shared with me. The whole idea of blog-writing is a way to share with others what friends like Boo have shared with me. Even Boo’s questioning helps me along my way.
William H. Shepard was said to have planted coconuts whenever he could, both on his estate and along the railway tracks through Stuart. (Coutant photograph)
